ZIP code 28762

ZIP 28762 is a mid-size town in McDowell County, North Carolina, with 6,305 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #401 of 853 ranked by population — larger than 53% of them. The median age here is 54.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. 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 28762 earn a median of $52,269 a year, 33.4% 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 12.9% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 28762 is valued at $176,300, 41.9% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $757 a month, 46.2% below the national figure, or roughly $9,084 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17.4% 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 3.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 71.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 54.5 puts ZIP 28762 well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. 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 28762 is tabulated inside McDowell County, North Carolina, one of 4 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 853 across North Carolina. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. 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 28762 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 28762 reports a median household income of $52,269, 5% below the $55,036 county median, and 17% below the $62,646 typical NC ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $176,300, 3% above the county figure and 13% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $757 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 28762 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 28762 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.