ZIP code 98439

ZIP 98439 is a mid-size town in Pierce County, Washington, with 5,389 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #286 of 605 ranked by population — larger than 52% of them. The median age here is 25.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 98439 earn a median of $47,056 a year, 40.1% below 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 13.2% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 98439 is valued at not published, while median gross rent runs $1,644 a month, 16.9% above the national figure, or roughly $19,728 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 41.9% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is severely stretched — a median-income renter clears the cost-burden line by a wide margin before utilities beyond the gross-rent definition. 8.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. 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.

A median age of 25.1 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

The Census withheld home value for ZIP 98439 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 98439 is tabulated inside Pierce County, Washington, one of 57 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 98439 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 98439 reports a median household income of $47,056, 52% below the $97,815 county median, and 42% below the $80,861 typical WA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of not published. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,644 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 98439 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 98439 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.