ZIP code 21659

ZIP 21659 is a small town in Dorchester County, Maryland, with 1,480 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #330 of 477 ranked by population — larger than 30% of them. The median age here is 50.2 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 21659 earn a median of $68,889 a year, 12.3% below the national figure of $78,538. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 12.4% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 21659 is valued at $202,100, 33.4% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $876 a month, 37.7% below the national figure, or roughly $10,512 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 15.3% 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 2.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 78.9% 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.

A median age of 50.2 puts ZIP 21659 well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

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 21659 is tabulated inside Dorchester County, Maryland, one of 16 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 477 across Maryland. 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 21659 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 21659 reports a median household income of $68,889, close to the $68,611 county median, and 34% below the $104,338 typical MD ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $202,100, 18% below the county figure and 50% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $876 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Maryland charges 6% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 21659.

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 21659 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.