ZIP code 97050

ZIP 97050 is a very small community in Sherman County, Oregon, with 225 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #375 of 428 ranked by population — larger than 12% of them. The median age here is 53.9 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 97050 earn a median of $55,833 a year, 28.9% 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 20% 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 97050 is valued at $173,400, 42.8% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $756 a month, 46.2% below the national figure, or roughly $9,072 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 16.2% 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 3.1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 79.8% 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 53.9 puts ZIP 97050 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. With 225 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare ZIP 97050 against its county rather than against national figures.

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 97050 is tabulated inside Sherman County, Oregon, one of 5 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 428 across Oregon. This is one of the smallest tabulated ZIP areas in the state, the kind of rural route where a single subdivision or farm cluster accounts for most 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 97050 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 97050 reports a median household income of $55,833, 5% below the $58,792 county median, and 22% below the $71,485 typical OR ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $173,400, 15% below the county figure and 55% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $756 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Oregon charges 0% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 97050.

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 97050 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.