ZIP code 98331

ZIP 98331 is a mid-size town in Jefferson County, Washington, with 5,526 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #284 of 605 ranked by population — larger than 53% of them. The median age here is 43.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older 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 98331 earn a median of $48,313 a year, 38.5% below 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 21.8% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 98331 is valued at $194,700, 35.8% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $850 a month, 39.5% below the national figure, or roughly $10,200 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.1% 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 4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 59.6% 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.

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 98331 is tabulated inside Jefferson County, Washington, one of 8 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 98331 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 98331 reports a median household income of $48,313, 31% below the $70,406 county median, and 40% below the $80,861 typical WA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $194,700, 54% below the county figure and 54% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $850 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 98331 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 98331 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.