ZIP code 38126

ZIP 38126 is a mid-size town in Shelby County, Tennessee, with 5,723 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #279 of 638 ranked by population — larger than 56% of them. The median age here is 28.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 38126 earn a median of $30,825 a year, 60.8% 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 45.3% 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 38126 is valued at $59,000, 80.6% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $794 a month, 43.5% below the national figure, or roughly $9,528 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 30.9% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is a stretch on median earnings. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 1.9×, 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. 15.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

ZIP 38126 is the unusual combination of expensive to rent and cheap to buy: rent takes 30.9% of median income while homes cost only 1.9× it. Where that pattern shows up, the gap is normally down to down-payment and credit barriers rather than price. A median age of 28.1 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

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 38126 is tabulated inside Shelby County, Tennessee, one of 38 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 638 across Tennessee. 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 38126 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 38126 reports a median household income of $30,825, 46% below the $57,500 county median, and 48% below the $59,143 typical TN ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $59,000, 69% below the county figure and 70% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $794 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Tennessee charges 7% statewide, and local governments overlapping 38126 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 38126 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.