ZIP code 21817

ZIP 21817 is a small town in Somerset County, Maryland, with 4,102 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #252 of 477 ranked by population — larger than 47% of them. The median age here is 45.5 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 21817 earn a median of $53,139 a year, 32.3% 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 15.7% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 21817 is valued at $159,600, 47.4% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $729 a month, 48.2% below the national figure, or roughly $8,748 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 16.5% 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 3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 69.4% 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 21817 is tabulated inside Somerset County, Maryland, one of 9 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 477 across Maryland. 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 21817 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 21817 reports a median household income of $53,139, close to the $53,139 county median, and 49% below the $104,338 typical MD ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $159,600, close to the county figure and 60% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $729 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 21817.

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 21817 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.