ZIP code 02135

ZIP 02135 is a small city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, with 43,683 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #19 of 539 ranked by population — larger than 96% of them. The median age here is 30.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 02135 earn a median of $88,208 a year, 12.3% above the national figure of $78,538. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 18.7% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 02135 is valued at $684,000, 125.4% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $2,179 a month, 55% above the national figure, or roughly $26,148 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 29.6% 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 7.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 21.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Home values sit at 7.8× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere. Median income runs above the national figure while poverty also runs above it — a split distribution, not a uniformly comfortable place. Averages hide that; the two numbers together do not.

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 02135 is tabulated inside Suffolk County, Massachusetts, one of 35 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 539 across Massachusetts. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. 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 02135 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 02135 reports a median household income of $88,208, 3% below the $91,111 county median, and 18% below the $107,198 typical MA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $684,000, close to the county figure and 42% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $2,179 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

A taxable purchase made inside 02135 carries 6.25% at the register, assembled from the Boston jurisdiction stack: the Massachusetts state rate plus every county, municipal and special district levy that reaches this address. Because those district boundaries were drawn for schools, transit and hospital funding rather than for mail delivery, two addresses inside 02135 can legitimately fall under different totals — the rate shown here is the one that applies to the dominant jurisdiction.

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 02135 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.