ZIP code 01238

ZIP 01238 is a mid-size town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with 5,893 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #325 of 539 ranked by population — larger than 39% of them. The median age here is 53.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. 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 01238 earn a median of $74,469 a year, 5.2% 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 6.6% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 01238 is valued at $332,100, 9.5% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,255 a month, 10.7% below the national figure, or roughly $15,060 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20.2% 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 4.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 78.6% 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.

A median age of 53.1 puts ZIP 01238 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 01238 is tabulated inside Berkshire County, Massachusetts, one of 33 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 539 across Massachusetts. 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 01238 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 01238 reports a median household income of $74,469, 12% below the $84,583 county median, and 31% below the $107,198 typical MA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $332,100, 6% below the county figure and 31% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,255 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Massachusetts charges 6.25% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 01238.

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 01238 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.