ZIP code 98385

ZIP 98385 is a very small community in Pierce County, Washington, with 609 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #465 of 605 ranked by population — larger than 23% of them. The median age here is 37.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger 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 98385 earn a median of $132,750 a year, 69% above 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 1.6% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 98385 is valued at $490,000, 61.5% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs not published a month. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 96.5% 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. 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.

With 609 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare ZIP 98385 against its county rather than against national figures.

The Census withheld gross rent for ZIP 98385 because the sample was too thin to publish at this geography. Those values were suppressed at the source, not lost in our dataset, and we do not model a replacement. Everything else on this page comes straight from the ACS 2019-2023 ACS 5-year tables.

ZIP 98385 is tabulated inside Pierce County, Washington, one of 57 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 98385 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 98385 reports a median household income of $132,750, 36% above the $97,815 county median, and 64% above the $80,861 typical WA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $490,000, close to the county figure and 16% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at not published 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 98385 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 98385 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.