ZIP code 03878

ZIP 03878 is a mid-size town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, with 12,145 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #30 of 246 ranked by population — larger than 88% of them. The median age here is 38.3 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger 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 03878 earn a median of $79,691 a year, 1.5% above 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 11.5% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 03878 is valued at $295,200, 2.7% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,410 a month, essentially level with the national figure, or roughly $16,920 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.2% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 62.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

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 03878 is tabulated inside Strafford County, New Hampshire, one of 16 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 246 across New Hampshire. 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 03878 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 03878 reports a median household income of $79,691, 19% below the $98,750 county median, and 14% below the $92,797 typical NH ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $295,200, 8% below the county figure and 13% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,410 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

New Hampshire charges 0% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 03878.

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 03878 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.