ZIP code 56681

ZIP 56681 is a very small community in Itasca County, Minnesota, with 294 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #781 of 880 ranked by population — larger than 11% of them. The median age here is 56 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 56681 earn a median of $54,375 a year, 30.8% 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 17% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 56681 is valued at $177,100, 41.6% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $498 a month, 64.6% below the national figure, or roughly $5,976 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 11% 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 3.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 73.1% 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 56 puts ZIP 56681 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. With 294 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare ZIP 56681 against its county rather than against national figures.

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 56681 is tabulated inside Itasca County, Minnesota, one of 23 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 880 across Minnesota. This is one of the smallest tabulated ZIP areas in the state, the kind of rural route where a single subdivision or farm cluster accounts for most addresses. 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 56681 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 56681 reports a median household income of $54,375, 13% below the $62,681 county median, and 28% below the $75,417 typical MN ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $177,100, 9% below the county figure and 20% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $498 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Minnesota charges 6.875% statewide, and local governments overlapping 56681 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

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 56681 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.