ZIP code 21209

ZIP 21209 is a small city in Baltimore County, Maryland, with 30,766 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #82 of 477 ranked by population — larger than 82% of them. The median age here is 35.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger 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 21209 earn a median of $87,669 a year, 11.6% above 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 7.2% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 21209 is valued at $418,800, 38% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,640 a month, 16.6% above the national figure, or roughly $19,680 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 22.4% 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 4.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 57.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. 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.

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 21209 is tabulated inside Baltimore County, Maryland, one of 44 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 477 across Maryland. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. 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 21209 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 21209 reports a median household income of $87,669, 19% below the $107,714 county median, and 16% below the $104,338 typical MD ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $418,800, 4% below the county figure and 4% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,640 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

A taxable purchase made inside 21209 carries 6% at the register, assembled from the Baltimore jurisdiction stack: the Maryland state rate plus every county, municipal and special district levy that reaches this address. Because those district boundaries were drawn for schools, transit and hospital funding rather than for mail delivery, two addresses inside 21209 can legitimately fall under different totals — the rate shown here is the one that applies to the dominant jurisdiction.

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 21209 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.