ZIP code 12561

ZIP 12561 is a mid-size town in Ulster County, New York, with 18,531 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #352 of 1,824 ranked by population — larger than 80% of them. The median age here is 30.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 12561 earn a median of $89,694 a year, 14.2% above 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 21.5% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 12561 is valued at $411,600, 35.7% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,603 a month, 14% above the national figure, or roughly $19,236 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.4% 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 4.6×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 58.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. 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.

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.

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 12561 is tabulated inside Ulster County, New York, one of 55 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 1,826 across New York. 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 12561 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 12561 reports a median household income of $89,694, 4% above the $86,103 county median, and 13% above the $79,429 typical NY ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $411,600, 28% above the county figure and 77% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,603 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 12561 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 12561 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.