ZIP code 38541

ZIP 38541 is a small town in Overton County, Tennessee, with 1,584 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #482 of 638 ranked by population — larger than 24% of them. The median age here is 58 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 38541 earn a median of $37,321 a year, 52.5% 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 16.4% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 38541 is valued at $200,400, 33.9% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,020 a month, 27.5% below the national figure, or roughly $12,240 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 32.8% 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 5.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 79.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. 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.

A median age of 58 puts ZIP 38541 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.

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 38541 is tabulated inside Overton County, Tennessee, one of 8 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 638 across Tennessee. 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 38541 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 38541 reports a median household income of $37,321, 20% below the $46,818 county median, and 37% below the $59,143 typical TN ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $200,400, 8% above the county figure and 3% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,020 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 38541 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 38541 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.