ZIP code 98281

ZIP 98281 is a small town in Whatcom County, Washington, with 1,275 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #405 of 605 ranked by population — larger than 33% of them. The median age here is 55.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. 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 98281 earn a median of $80,197 a year, 2.1% above the national figure of $78,538. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 12.2% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 98281 is valued at $460,500, 51.8% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,055 a month, 25% below the national figure, or roughly $12,660 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 15.8% 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 5.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 81.8% 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.

A median age of 55.7 puts ZIP 98281 well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

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 98281 is tabulated inside Whatcom County, Washington, one of 16 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 605 across Washington. 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 98281 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 98281 reports a median household income of $80,197, 6% below the $84,963 county median, and close to the $80,861 typical WA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $460,500, 8% below the county figure and 9% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,055 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 98281 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 98281 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.