ZIP code 21821

ZIP 21821 is a very small community in Somerset County, Maryland, with 736 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #370 of 477 ranked by population — larger than 22% of them. The median age here is 56.5 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 21821 earn a median of $51,500 a year, 34.4% 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 21821 is valued at $151,700, 50% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,356 a month, 3.6% below the national figure, or roughly $16,272 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 31.6% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is a stretch on median earnings. 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. 89.8% 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. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

ZIP 21821 is the unusual combination of expensive to rent and cheap to buy: rent takes 31.6% of median income while homes cost only 2.9× it. Where that pattern shows up, the gap is normally down to down-payment and credit barriers rather than price. A median age of 56.5 puts ZIP 21821 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.

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 21821 is tabulated inside Somerset County, Maryland, one of 9 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 21821 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 21821 reports a median household income of $51,500, 3% below the $53,139 county median, and 51% below the $104,338 typical MD ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $151,700, 5% below the county figure and 62% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,356 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 21821.

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 21821 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.