ZIP code 28709

ZIP 28709 is a small town in Buncombe County, North Carolina, with 2,269 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #573 of 853 ranked by population — larger than 32% of them. The median age here is 49.8 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 28709 earn a median of $75,441 a year, 3.9% below 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 5.8% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 28709 is valued at $360,000, 18.7% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,500 a month, 6.7% above the national figure, or roughly $18,000 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 23.9% 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 4.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 73.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

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 28709 is tabulated inside Buncombe County, North Carolina, one of 16 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 28709 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 28709 reports a median household income of $75,441, 5% above the $71,834 county median, and 20% above the $62,646 typical NC ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $360,000, close to the county figure and 77% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,500 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 28709 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 28709 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.