ZIP code 50438

ZIP 50438 is a small town in Hancock County, Iowa, with 4,006 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #162 of 970 ranked by population — larger than 83% of them. The median age here is 49.3 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in ZIP 50438 earn a median of $69,637 a year, 11.3% below the national figure of $78,538. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 13.2% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 50438 is valued at $176,500, 41.8% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $795 a month, 43.5% below the national figure, or roughly $9,540 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 13.7% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 77.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. 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 50438 is tabulated inside Hancock County, Iowa, one of 9 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 970 across Iowa. 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 50438 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 50438 reports a median household income of $69,637, close to the $69,250 county median, and close to the $71,182 typical IA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $176,500, 87% above the county figure and 16% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $795 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Iowa charges 6% statewide, and local governments overlapping 50438 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

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 50438 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.