ZIP code 49870

ZIP 49870 is a small town in Dickinson County, Michigan, with 3,479 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #560 of 992 ranked by population — larger than 43% of them. The median age here is 45.1 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 49870 earn a median of $55,795 a year, 29% below the national figure of $78,538. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 12.8% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 49870 is valued at $100,600, 66.8% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $789 a month, 43.9% below the national figure, or roughly $9,468 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17% 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 1.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 75% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

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 49870 is tabulated inside Dickinson County, Michigan, one of 11 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 992 across Michigan. 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 49870 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 49870 reports a median household income of $55,795, 24% below the $73,500 county median, and 16% below the $66,726 typical MI ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $100,600, 20% below the county figure and 44% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $789 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 49870.

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 49870 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.