ZIP code 08831

ZIP 08831 is a small city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, with 54,608 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #20 of 598 ranked by population — larger than 96% of them. The median age here is 54.9 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. 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 08831 earn a median of $108,741 a year, 38.5% 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 4% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 08831 is valued at $489,700, 61.4% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,872 a month, 33.1% above the national figure, or roughly $22,464 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20.7% 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 4.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 89.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

A median age of 54.9 puts ZIP 08831 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.

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 08831 is tabulated inside Middlesex County, New Jersey, one of 36 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 598 across New Jersey. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. 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 08831 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 08831 reports a median household income of $108,741, close to the $109,238 county median, and close to the $109,182 typical NJ ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $489,700, 18% above the county figure and 16% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,872 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

New Jersey charges 6.625% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 08831.

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 08831 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.