ZIP code 23897

ZIP 23897 is a small town in Sussex County, Virginia, with 1,019 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #641 of 903 ranked by population — larger than 29% of them. The median age here is 30.9 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 23897 earn a median of $60,938 a year, 22.4% 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% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 23897 is valued at $164,300, 45.8% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,133 a month, 19.4% below the national figure, or roughly $13,596 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 22.3% 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 2.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 36% 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.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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 23897 is tabulated inside Sussex County, Virginia, one of 7 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 903 across Virginia. 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 23897 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 23897 reports a median household income of $60,938, 12% below the $69,063 county median, and 16% below the $72,517 typical VA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $164,300, close to the county figure and 36% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,133 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Virginia charges 4.3% statewide, and local governments overlapping 23897 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 23897 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.