ZIP code 70438

ZIP 70438 is a mid-size town in Washington Parish, Louisiana, with 19,935 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #89 of 539 ranked by population — larger than 83% of them. The median age here is 41.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. 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 70438 earn a median of $50,667 a year, 35.5% 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 19.4% 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 70438 is valued at $157,000, 48.3% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $921 a month, 34.5% below the national figure, or roughly $11,052 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 76.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. 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 70438 is tabulated inside Washington Parish, Louisiana, one of 4 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 539 across Louisiana. This is a mid-sized ZIP that covers a large share of its county's addresses. 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 70438 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 70438 reports a median household income of $50,667, 24% above the $40,986 county median, and 7% below the $54,720 typical LA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $157,000, 26% above the county figure and close to the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $921 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Louisiana charges 5% statewide, and local governments overlapping 70438 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 70438 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.