ZIP code 98844

ZIP 98844 is a small town in Okanogan County, Washington, with 4,814 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #298 of 605 ranked by population — larger than 50% of them. The median age here is 50.9 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 98844 earn a median of $42,541 a year, 45.8% below 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 28.6% 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 98844 is valued at $251,100, 17.2% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $757 a month, 46.2% below the national figure, or roughly $9,084 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.4% 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 5.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 77% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

A median age of 50.9 puts ZIP 98844 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.

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 98844 is tabulated inside Okanogan County, Washington, one of 19 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 98844 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 98844 reports a median household income of $42,541, 29% below the $60,146 county median, and 47% below the $80,861 typical WA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $251,100, 13% below the county figure and 40% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $757 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 98844 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 98844 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.