ZIP code 15521

ZIP 15521 is a small town in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, with 1,961 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #959 of 1,833 ranked by population — larger than 47% of them. The median age here is 45.1 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 15521 earn a median of $57,353 a year, 27% 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 18.8% 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 15521 is valued at $192,700, 36.5% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,056 a month, 24.9% below the national figure, or roughly $12,672 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 22.1% 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 3.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 91.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

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 15521 is tabulated inside Bedford County, Pennsylvania, one of 23 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 1,833 across Pennsylvania. 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 15521 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 15521 reports a median household income of $57,353, 3% below the $58,981 county median, and 18% below the $70,000 typical PA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $192,700, 21% above the county figure and 3% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,056 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Pennsylvania charges 6% statewide, and local governments overlapping 15521 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 15521 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.