ZIP code 05837

ZIP 05837 is a very small community in Essex County, Vermont, with 325 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #227 of 265 ranked by population — larger than 14% of them. The median age here is 39.6 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. 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 05837 earn a median of $53,750 a year, 31.6% 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 16.6% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 05837 is valued at $144,200, 52.5% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,694 a month, 20.5% above the national figure, or roughly $20,328 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 37.8% 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 2.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 91.4% 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.

ZIP 05837 is the unusual combination of expensive to rent and cheap to buy: rent takes 37.8% of median income while homes cost only 2.7× it. Where that pattern shows up, the gap is normally down to down-payment and credit barriers rather than price. With 325 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare ZIP 05837 against its county rather than against national figures.

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 05837 is tabulated inside Essex County, Vermont, one of 12 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 265 across Vermont. This is one of the smallest tabulated ZIP areas in the state, the kind of rural route where a single subdivision or farm cluster accounts for most addresses. 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 05837 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 05837 reports a median household income of $53,750, close to the $54,423 county median, and 30% below the $76,250 typical VT ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $144,200, 7% below the county figure and 44% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,694 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Vermont charges 6% statewide, and local governments overlapping 05837 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 05837 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.