ZIP code 78705

ZIP 78705 is a small city in Travis County, Texas, with 32,937 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #329 of 1,989 ranked by population — larger than 83% of them. The median age here is 21.1 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 78705 earn a median of $30,336 a year, 61.4% below the national figure of $78,538. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 47.9% 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 78705 is valued at $627,900, 107% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,520 a month, 8.1% above the national figure, or roughly $18,240 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 60.1% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is severely stretched — a median-income renter clears the cost-burden line by a wide margin before utilities beyond the gross-rent definition. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 20.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 11.6% 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.

Home values sit at 20.7× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere. A median age of 21.1 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.

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 78705 is tabulated inside Travis County, Texas, one of 48 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 1,989 across Texas. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. 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 78705 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 78705 reports a median household income of $30,336, 70% below the $102,799 county median, and 55% below the $68,103 typical TX ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $627,900, 16% above the county figure and 222% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,520 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

A taxable purchase made inside 78705 carries 8.25% at the register, assembled from the Austin jurisdiction stack: the Texas state rate plus every county, municipal and special district levy that reaches this address. Because those district boundaries were drawn for schools, transit and hospital funding rather than for mail delivery, two addresses inside 78705 can legitimately fall under different totals — the rate shown here is the one that applies to the dominant jurisdiction.

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 78705 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.