ZIP code 59865

ZIP 59865 is a small town in Lake County, Montana, with 3,741 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #58 of 369 ranked by population — larger than 84% of them. The median age here is 37.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. 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 59865 earn a median of $55,213 a year, 29.7% 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 17.1% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 59865 is valued at $310,400, 2.3% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $520 a month, 63% below the national figure, or roughly $6,240 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 11.3% 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 5.6×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 74.1% 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.

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 59865 is tabulated inside Lake County, Montana, one of 12 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 369 across Montana. 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 59865 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 59865 reports a median household income of $55,213, 12% below the $62,500 county median, and 14% below the $64,375 typical MT ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $310,400, 13% below the county figure and 16% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $520 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Montana charges 0% statewide, and local governments overlapping 59865 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 59865 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.