ZIP code 46406

ZIP 46406 is a mid-size town in Lake County, Indiana, with 8,513 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #236 of 807 ranked by population — larger than 70% of them. The median age here is 32.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in ZIP 46406 earn a median of $35,631 a year, 54.6% below the national figure of $78,538. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 34.8% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 46406 is valued at $86,300, 71.6% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $972 a month, 30.9% below the national figure, or roughly $11,664 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 32.7% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is a stretch on median earnings. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 46.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

ZIP 46406 is the unusual combination of expensive to rent and cheap to buy: rent takes 32.7% of median income while homes cost only 2.4× it. Where that pattern shows up, the gap is normally down to down-payment and credit barriers rather than price.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.

ZIP 46406 is tabulated inside Lake County, Indiana, one of 27 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 807 across Indiana. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 46406 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 46406 reports a median household income of $35,631, 42% below the $61,427 county median, and 48% below the $68,990 typical IN ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $86,300, 46% below the county figure and 49% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $972 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Indiana charges 7% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 46406.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 46406 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.