
Wake County · North Carolina
ZIP code 27612
- Population
- 40,475
- Median income
- $95,565
- Median home
- $481,500
- Sales tax
- 7.25%
ZCTA residents
Household, past 12 months
Owner-occupied value
Combined state + local
Quick answer
ZIP 27612 sits in Wake County, North Carolina and is home to 40,475 people. Median household income is $95,565, the median home is worth $481,500 and median gross rent is $1,544. 53.8% of households own their home, and purchases are taxed at 7.25% combined.
- County
- Wake County
- State
- North Carolina (NC)
- Area codes
- 919, 984
FIPS 37183
853 ZIPs covered
NANPA codes serving this area
The numbers for 27612
American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZCTA.
- Population
- 40,475ZIP 27612 residents
- Median household income
- $95,565Past 12 months, inflation adjusted
- Median home value
- $481,500Owner-occupied units
- Median gross rent
- $1,544Rent plus utilities, monthly
- Median age
- 39 yrsAll residents
- Homeownership rate
- 53.8%Owner-occupied households
ZIP 27612 in context
How this area compares with national benchmarks.
ZIP 27612 is a small city in Wake County, North Carolina, with 40,475 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #71 of 853 ranked by population — larger than 91% of them. The median age here is 39 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 27612 earn a median of $95,565 a year, 21.7% 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 6.8% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.
The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 27612 is valued at $481,500, 58.7% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,544 a month, 9.8% above the national figure, or roughly $18,528 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 19.4% 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×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 53.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.
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.
Reading ZIP 27612 in context
How 27612 sits inside Wake County and North Carolina.
ZIP 27612 is tabulated inside Wake County, North Carolina, one of 32 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 853 across North Carolina. 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 27612 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.
Against its own county, 27612 reports a median household income of $95,565, 4% below the $99,819 county median, and 53% above the $62,646 typical NC ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $481,500, 8% above the county figure and 137% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,544 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.
A taxable purchase made inside 27612 carries 7.25% at the register, assembled from the Raleigh jurisdiction stack: the North Carolina state rate plus every county, municipal and special district levy that reaches this address. Because those district boundaries were drawn for schools, transit and hospital funding rather than for mail delivery, two addresses inside 27612 can legitimately fall under different totals — the rate shown here is the one that applies to the dominant jurisdiction.
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 27612 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.
Sales tax in 27612
What a purchase inside this ZIP costs at checkout.
This ZIP falls inside the Raleigh rate area, so state, county, city and district levies are published here as a full stack.
Affordability in this ZIP
Derived from the Census medians above — indicative, not an offer.
A rent burden above 30% is the federal threshold for cost-burdened households, and a price-to-income multiple above 4× is generally considered a stretched housing market. The mortgage figure is principal and interest only — taxes, insurance and HOA dues are extra.
How 27612 compares
ZIP 27612 against the median ZIP in Wake County and across North Carolina.
| Measure | ZIP 27612 | County median | State median | vs state |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $95,565 | $99,819 | $62,646 | +53% |
| Median home value | $481,500 | $445,300 | $203,100 | +137% |
| Median gross rent | $1,544 | $1,498 | $941 | +64% |
| Population | 40,475 | 34,649 | 5,300 | +664% |
Medians are computed across the 32 ZIP areas in Wake County and the 853 ZIP areas in North Carolina.
Statewide rank
Where this ZIP places among all 853 North Carolina ZIP areas.
- Income
- #75
- Home value
- #41
- Population
- #71
richer than 90% of 766 state ZIPs
above 95% of 763 state ZIPs
larger than 92% of 853 state ZIPs
Comparable ZIP codes
North Carolina ZIP areas with almost the same household income.
Nearby ZIP codes
Other ZIP codes filed under Wake County.
Adjacent ZIP Codes
Other ZIP codes in Wake County, North Carolina.
ZIP 27612 questions
Common questions about this ZIP code.
- Where is ZIP code 27612?
- ZIP 27612 lies mostly in Wake County, North Carolina. County assignment follows the largest share of land area, so a ZIP straddling a county line is filed under its dominant county.
- What sales tax do I pay in 27612?
- Purchases are taxed at 7.25% combined, built from the Raleigh jurisdiction stack.
- Is 27612 expensive to live in?
- Median rent runs $1,544 a month, about 19% of median household income, and the median home is worth $481,500 — +137% against the typical North Carolina ZIP.
- Is a ZCTA the same as a postal ZIP code?
- Not exactly. The Census builds ZIP Code Tabulation Areas from the ZIP codes of addresses inside each census block, so a ZCTA can differ slightly from the USPS delivery route of the same number, and PO-box-only ZIPs have no ZCTA at all.
Keep going
Related pages for this area.
Sources & transparency
- US Census Bureau, ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimates — 2019-2023 ACS 5-year — population, income, housing
- Census 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file — County assignment by largest land-area overlap
- North Carolina Department of Revenue — Sales tax rates and local add-ons
Last reviewed December 2024. Figures are published for reference and can change; verify with the source agency before filing or contracting. How we build and check this data.