ZIP code 21849

ZIP 21849 is a small town in Wicomico County, Maryland, with 3,845 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #254 of 477 ranked by population — larger than 46% of them. The median age here is 40.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. 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 21849 earn a median of $74,966 a year, 4.5% below the national figure of $78,538. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 12.6% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 21849 is valued at $233,600, 23% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,168 a month, 16.9% below the national figure, or roughly $14,016 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 18.7% 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 3.1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 73.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. 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.

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 21849 is tabulated inside Wicomico County, Maryland, one of 16 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 21849 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 21849 reports a median household income of $74,966, close to the $76,007 county median, and 28% below the $104,338 typical MD ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $233,600, 4% above the county figure and 42% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,168 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 21849.

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 21849 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.