ZIP code 28501

ZIP 28501 is a mid-size town in Lenoir County, North Carolina, with 18,112 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #216 of 853 ranked by population — larger than 74% of them. The median age here is 39.8 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older 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 28501 earn a median of $33,823 a year, 56.9% 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 30% 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 28501 is valued at $78,600, 74.1% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $717 a month, 49% below the national figure, or roughly $8,604 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 25.4% 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 2.3×, 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. 48.8% 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.

ZIP 28501 is tabulated inside Lenoir County, North Carolina, one of 4 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 853 across North Carolina. This is a mid-sized ZIP that covers a large share of its county's addresses. 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 28501 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 28501 reports a median household income of $33,823, 34% below the $51,550 county median, and 46% below the $62,646 typical NC ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $78,600, 21% below the county figure and 61% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $717 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 28501 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 28501 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.