ZIP code 48638

ZIP 48638 is a mid-size town in Saginaw County, Michigan, with 12,668 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #287 of 992 ranked by population — larger than 71% of them. The median age here is 42.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. 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 48638 earn a median of $63,444 a year, 19.2% below the national figure of $78,538. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 11.2% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 48638 is valued at $161,200, 46.9% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $948 a month, 32.6% below the national figure, or roughly $11,376 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17.9% 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 2.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 64.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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 48638 is tabulated inside Saginaw County, Michigan, one of 19 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 992 across Michigan. This is a mid-sized suburban ZIP inside a county that is split across many delivery areas. 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 48638 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 48638 reports a median household income of $63,444, 3% below the $65,690 county median, and 5% below the $66,726 typical MI ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $161,200, 5% above the county figure and 10% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $948 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Michigan charges 6% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 48638.

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 48638 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.