ZIP code 51235

ZIP 51235 is a small town in Lyon County, Iowa, with 1,152 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #425 of 970 ranked by population — larger than 56% of them. The median age here is 29.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 51235 earn a median of $63,194 a year, 19.5% 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 15.4% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 51235 is valued at $250,600, 17.4% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $481 a month, 65.8% below the national figure, or roughly $5,772 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 9.1% 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 4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 83.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

A median age of 29.2 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

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 51235 is tabulated inside Lyon County, Iowa, one of 8 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 970 across Iowa. Fewer than 2,500 people are counted here, so the ZIP behaves like a village delivery route rather than a neighbourhood. 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 51235 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 51235 reports a median household income of $63,194, 18% below the $76,750 county median, and 11% below the $71,182 typical IA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $250,600, 31% above the county figure and 65% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $481 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 51235 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 51235 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.