ZIP code 28421

ZIP 28421 is a small town in Pender County, North Carolina, with 2,130 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #588 of 853 ranked by population — larger than 31% of them. The median age here is 47.9 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 28421 earn a median of $56,154 a year, 28.5% below the national figure of $78,538. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 12.3% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 28421 is valued at $109,000, 64.1% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $669 a month, 52.4% below the national figure, or roughly $8,028 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 14.3% 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 1.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 71.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. 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.

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 28421 is tabulated inside Pender County, North Carolina, one of 6 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 853 across North Carolina. 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 28421 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 28421 reports a median household income of $56,154, 14% below the $64,997 county median, and 10% below the $62,646 typical NC ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $109,000, 42% below the county figure and 46% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $669 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

North Carolina charges 4.75% statewide, and local governments overlapping 28421 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 28421 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.