ZIP code 98405

ZIP 98405 is a small city in Pierce County, Washington, with 25,306 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #134 of 605 ranked by population — larger than 77% of them. The median age here is 38.1 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 98405 earn a median of $80,024 a year, 1.9% 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 13.7% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 98405 is valued at $443,800, 46.3% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,480 a month, 5.3% above the national figure, or roughly $17,760 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 22.2% 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 5.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 51.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Median income runs above the national figure while poverty also runs above it — a split distribution, not a uniformly comfortable place. Averages hide that; the two numbers together do not.

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 98405 is tabulated inside Pierce County, Washington, one of 57 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 605 across Washington. This is a mid-sized suburban ZIP inside a county that is split across many delivery areas. 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 98405 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 98405 reports a median household income of $80,024, 18% below the $97,815 county median, and close to the $80,861 typical WA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $443,800, 9% below the county figure and 5% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,480 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 98405 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 98405 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.