ZIP code 98115

ZIP 98115 is a small city in King County, Washington, with 54,248 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #8 of 605 ranked by population — larger than 98% of them. The median age here is 37.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. 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 98115 earn a median of $148,190 a year, 88.7% above the national figure of $78,538. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 6% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 98115 is valued at $1,041,500, 243.3% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $2,118 a month, 50.6% above the national figure, or roughly $25,416 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17.2% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 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. 59.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. 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 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.

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 98115 is tabulated inside King County, Washington, one of 86 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 605 across Washington. 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 98115 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 98115 reports a median household income of $148,190, 17% above the $127,093 county median, and 83% above the $80,861 typical WA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $1,041,500, 30% above the county figure and 147% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $2,118 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

A taxable purchase made inside 98115 carries 10.45% at the register, assembled from the Seattle jurisdiction stack: the Washington 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 98115 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 98115 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.