ZIP code 02638

ZIP 02638 is a small town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, with 3,256 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #385 of 539 ranked by population — larger than 28% of them. The median age here is 59.9 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 02638 earn a median of $117,619 a year, 49.8% 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 2.4% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 02638 is valued at $714,000, 135.3% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,689 a month, 20.1% above the national figure, or roughly $20,268 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17.2% 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 6.1×, 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. 86% 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.

Home values sit at 6.1× 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. A median age of 59.9 puts ZIP 02638 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 02638 is tabulated inside Barnstable County, Massachusetts, one of 47 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 02638 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 02638 reports a median household income of $117,619, 19% above the $98,798 county median, and 10% above the $107,198 typical MA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $714,000, 12% above the county figure and 48% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,689 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 02638.

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 02638 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.