ZIP code 28208

ZIP 28208 is a small city in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, with 38,948 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #78 of 853 ranked by population — larger than 90% of them. The median age here is 33.6 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 28208 earn a median of $51,339 a year, 34.6% below 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 20.1% 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 28208 is valued at $198,300, 34.6% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,173 a month, 16.6% below the national figure, or roughly $14,076 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 27.4% 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 3.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 39.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. 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.

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 28208 is tabulated inside Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, one of 34 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 28208 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 28208 reports a median household income of $51,339, 42% below the $89,207 county median, and 18% below the $62,646 typical NC ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $198,300, 52% below the county figure and close to the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,173 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

A taxable purchase made inside 28208 carries 7.25% at the register, assembled from the Charlotte 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 28208 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 28208 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.