ZIP code 98251

ZIP 98251 is a small town in Snohomish County, Washington, with 4,782 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #299 of 605 ranked by population — larger than 50% of them. The median age here is 39.7 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 98251 earn a median of $78,512 a year, essentially level with 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 11% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 98251 is valued at $414,900, 36.8% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,833 a month, 30.4% above the national figure, or roughly $21,996 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 28% 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 5.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 84.8% 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.

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 98251 is tabulated inside Snohomish County, Washington, one of 27 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 605 across Washington. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. 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 98251 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 98251 reports a median household income of $78,512, 23% below the $101,882 county median, and 3% below the $80,861 typical WA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $414,900, 32% below the county figure and close to the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,833 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Washington charges 6.5% statewide, and local governments overlapping 98251 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 98251 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.