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El Paso County · Texas

ZIP code 79904

Population, income, housing costs and the sales tax rate charged on purchases inside ZIP 79904 — Census 2019-2023 ACS 5-year, no modelled estimates.
Population
33,022

ZCTA residents

Median income
$40,892

Household, past 12 months

Median home
$117,400

Owner-occupied value

Sales tax
8.25%

Combined state + local

Quick answer

ZIP 79904 sits in El Paso County, Texas and is home to 33,022 people. Median household income is $40,892, the median home is worth $117,400 and median gross rent is $1,017. 42.4% of households own their home, and purchases are taxed at 8.25% combined.

County
El Paso County

FIPS 48141

State
Texas (TX)

1,989 ZIPs covered

Area codes
915

NANPA codes serving this area

Metro area
El Paso

Rate jurisdiction used for tax

The numbers for 79904

American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZCTA.

Population
33,022ZIP 79904 residents
Median household income
$40,892Past 12 months, inflation adjusted
Median home value
$117,400Owner-occupied units
Median gross rent
$1,017Rent plus utilities, monthly
Median age
33.1 yrsAll residents
Homeownership rate
42.4%Owner-occupied households

ZIP 79904 in context

How this area compares with national benchmarks.

ZIP 79904 is a small city in El Paso County, Texas, with 33,022 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #324 of 1,989 ranked by population — larger than 83% of them. The median age here is 33.1 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 79904 earn a median of $40,892 a year, 47.9% 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 24.1% 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 79904 is valued at $117,400, 61.3% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,017 a month, 27.7% below the national figure, or roughly $12,204 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 29.8% 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 2.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 42.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

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.

Reading ZIP 79904 in context

How 79904 sits inside El Paso County and Texas.

ZIP 79904 is tabulated inside El Paso County, Texas, one of 31 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 79904 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 79904 reports a median household income of $40,892, 24% below the $53,980 county median, and 40% below the $68,103 typical TX ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $117,400, 8% below the county figure and 40% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,017 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

A taxable purchase made inside 79904 carries 8.25% at the register, assembled from the El Paso 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 79904 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 79904 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.

Sales tax in 79904

What a purchase inside this ZIP costs at checkout.

Rate applied
8.25%El Paso jurisdiction stack
Tax on $100
$8Rounded to the dollar
Tax on $1,000
$83Before any exemptions

This ZIP falls inside the El Paso rate area, so state, county, city and district levies are published here as a full stack.

Affordability in this ZIP

Derived from the Census medians above — indicative, not an offer.

Rent burden
30%Median rent ÷ median income
Price-to-income
2.9×Home value ÷ household income
Est. mortgage
$609/mo20% down, 30-yr at 6.75%
Poverty rate
24.1%Residents below poverty line

A rent burden above 30% is the federal threshold for cost-burdened households, and a price-to-income multiple above 4× is generally considered a stretched housing market. The mortgage figure is principal and interest only — taxes, insurance and HOA dues are extra.

How 79904 compares

ZIP 79904 against the median ZIP in El Paso County and across Texas.

MeasureZIP 79904County medianState medianvs state
Median household income$40,892$53,980$68,103-40%
Median home value$117,400$128,250$194,900-40%
Median gross rent$1,017$1,039$1,105-8%
Population33,02218,5295,317+521%

Medians are computed across the 31 ZIP areas in El Paso County and the 1989 ZIP areas in Texas.

Statewide rank

Where this ZIP places among all 1989 Texas ZIP areas.

Income

richer than 7% of 1,756 state ZIPs

#1,637
Home value

above 21% of 1,705 state ZIPs

#1,351
Population

larger than 84% of 1,989 state ZIPs

#324

Comparable ZIP codes

Texas ZIP areas with almost the same household income.

ZIPCountyIncomeHome valueRent
79529Knox County$41,023$66,000$772
76945Coke County$40,556$63,000$600
78220Bexar County$41,244$125,000$1,153
78521Cameron County$41,276$90,500$864
78368San Patricio County$41,286$87,300$806
79752Upton County$40,491$96,200$1,025

Nearby ZIP codes

Other ZIP codes filed under El Paso County.

Adjacent ZIP Codes

Other ZIP codes in El Paso County, Texas.

ZIP 79904 questions

Common questions about this ZIP code.

Where is ZIP code 79904?
ZIP 79904 lies mostly in El Paso County, Texas. County assignment follows the largest share of land area, so a ZIP straddling a county line is filed under its dominant county.
What sales tax do I pay in 79904?
Purchases are taxed at 8.25% combined, built from the El Paso jurisdiction stack.
Is 79904 expensive to live in?
Median rent runs $1,017 a month, about 30% of median household income, and the median home is worth $117,400 — -40% against the typical Texas ZIP.
Is a ZCTA the same as a postal ZIP code?
Not exactly. The Census builds ZIP Code Tabulation Areas from the ZIP codes of addresses inside each census block, so a ZCTA can differ slightly from the USPS delivery route of the same number, and PO-box-only ZIPs have no ZCTA at all.

Related pages for this area.

Sources & transparency

Every figure on this page is a published estimate for ZIP Code Tabulation Area 79904, except the affordability ratios and mortgage estimate, which we derive from those medians and label as estimates.

Last reviewed December 2024. Figures are published for reference and can change; verify with the source agency before filing or contracting. How we build and check this data.