ZIP code 12481

ZIP 12481 is a small town in Ulster County, New York, with 1,359 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #1197 of 1,824 ranked by population — larger than 34% of them. The median age here is 51.2 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 12481 earn a median of $93,578 a year, 19.1% above 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 12.7% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 12481 is valued at $236,200, 22.1% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $2,292 a month, 63% above the national figure, or roughly $27,504 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 29.4% 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 2.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 92.4% 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. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

A median age of 51.2 puts ZIP 12481 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. Median income runs above the national figure while poverty also runs above it — a split distribution, not a uniformly comfortable place. Averages hide that; the two numbers together do not.

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 12481 is tabulated inside Ulster County, New York, one of 55 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 1,826 across New York. Fewer than 2,500 people are counted here, so the ZIP behaves like a village delivery route rather than a neighbourhood. 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 12481 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 12481 reports a median household income of $93,578, 9% above the $86,103 county median, and 18% above the $79,429 typical NY ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $236,200, 27% below the county figure and close to the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $2,292 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

New York charges 4% statewide, and local governments overlapping 12481 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 12481 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.