Poll:Is your ZIP in the Super ZIP's?

[Ronstar]

House in Chicago MSA is a 54. Condo in Scottsdale is 87. Glad its in the poor side of town

 

[jetpack]

I moved from a 96 (new york) to a 52 (small town) when I quit my day job. I saved about 10x more now I did then.

 

[unclemick]

28 Moving on up.

heh heh heh -

 

[Free To Canoe]

You people are lucky. When I was a young boy we were too poor to have a zip code.

My zip is not in the data base! One nearby is 13. I was going for low score here.

 

[Options]

Yea, it's up there. And just this morning I figured out if I dump this place in the next couple of years instead of waiting 5 years as I have planned, I will have more than hit my "number". I'll let the trendies who are clamoring to get into this hood pay top dollar while I downsize. VG FP, ORP, FIRECALC and FIDO all say if I sell soon I'll have several hundred thousand $ at plan end vs. close to 0 if I wait 5 years. As my intention is to die owing somebody something, this is a very good feeling.

 

[NosmoKing]

83 and that is in an oasis...

 

[zesty]

I live in a 41 and work in a 94. It's a really tiny 94 though (pretty much a town that is owned by a big company), and the whole surrounding area is in the 20's.

 

[NW-Bound]

My zip is not in the data base!

This reminded me of a place called Buford in Wyoming. It consists of 10 acres of land, had its own ZIP code of 82052, and its own post office that closed in 2004. During the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, 2000 railroad workers called the place home.

See: Buford, Wyoming: Meet the Only Resident of America's Smallest Town | TIME.com.

The owner sold the whole town for $900K in 2012.

The most recent sign shows a 100% gain in population. Perhaps the new owner is married, while the previous one was a widower.

 

[aim-high]

Grew up - 80
Live now - 95
A place I enjoyed living - 69

 

[Alan]

We were living in a 44 and retired to a 95. Median income is 3 times higher in our new location. Our Household income where we worked for 17 years was 6 times higher than the median where we used to live. No wonder we able to LBYM and RE.

 

[Htown Harry]

Interesting story, and a very interesting GIS tool.

My gentrified in-city zip code is in the very high 90's. It would have ranked lower when I moved into a small cottage 30 years ago, before the invasion of McMansions owned by doctors, lawyers and energy company pros. Although we outgrew the cottage and built a new house, it's a modest 3/2-1/2, not a 4/3-1/2 with granite and hardwoods. I'm not as comfortable as I once was at the block parties, probably because I have no interest in comparing overseas vacations, private schools or German cars. I think I am one of just three or four on my block still mowing my own lawn.

A story with more about the bottom 10% of zip codes would be interesting, too. I was disappointed to see that one side of my city has 15 contiguous zip codes rated 10 or lower, including two 1's.

 

[jollystomper]

Born and and grew up - 22 then 41.
Attended college - 64.
Current living - 88.

 

[project2501]

grew up in 39 and 56

lived and worked in a 88

left eggheadland 88 and the Joneses for oconus became a extreme minimalist

accumulated enough $ from oconus work
paid cash for the house to retire in a 49 that neighbors a 61

 

[Walt34]

48 now.

90 where we moved from.

97 where I grew up but we lived on the "poor side of town". Someone buying a brand new car on our street was a rare thing.

 

[Dreamer]

Interesting:

Grew up - 26, medium h/h income $43,057, 15% college grads

Lived since 1986 - 46, medium h/h income $23,722, 53% college grads

Lots of coal miners where I grew up.

 

[Jake46]

89 for Fort Collins 80528

 

[Rena]

Most of my life in 58, currently 47. I am very ok with that!

 

[REWahoo]

I'm stunned: 87. Heck, some of my neighbors don't even have all their teeth...

 

[Willers]

68 and then 99 for my 2 childhood homes

70 in our current location

14 in our planned RE location (wow...)

 

[NW-Bound]

If one pays attention to the caption at the bottom of the screen of this Web tool, he will see:

Washington: A world apart.
The largest collection of Super Zips is around Washington, DC.​

So, I clicked around and saw that while some areas inside DC proper are ranked as low as 13 and 23, there are so many ZIPs nearby, mostly in VA, being ranked at 99 with median income as high as $195K. I guess many of these are bedroom communities for federal workers and the beltway bandits.

In contrast, the ZIP for the TV show "Beverly Hills 90210" is ranked only at 96, with a median income of $130K.

I don't know what one can conclude from this.

 

[Lsbcal]

...snip...
So, I clicked around and saw that while some areas inside DC proper are ranked as low as 13 and 23, there are so many ZIPs nearby, mostly in VA, being ranked at 99 with median income as high as $195K. I guess many of these are bedroom communities for federal workers and the beltway bandits.
...

I wonder if most of those are not Fed employed but rather: lobbyists, private sector contractors to government, doctors, lawyers (lots of these), etc.

We were thinking of going towards the Washington D.C. area for a vacation last summer but after looking at the congestion and pricing, decided to fly off elsewhere.

 

[ls99]

My camp is in the bottom 1 % income neighborhood, the house is inthe better income range.

 

[Keim]

My town was given a 50. Average income about $33k, and low number of college graduates. I take heart that I live in a college town. THis undoubtedly skewed income and grad rates low.

In another recent survey, my town was listed as one of the smartest towns in the US...

 

[NW-Bound]

I wonder if most of those are not Fed employed but rather: lobbyists, private sector contractors to government, doctors, lawyers (lots of these), etc.

We were thinking of going towards the Washington D.C. area for a vacation last summer but after looking at the congestion and pricing, decided to fly off elsewhere.

The private sector companies doing contract work for the government are located around the beltway, hence are called the beltway bandits. Most if not all are tech companies, hence their employees are highly paid, not too different from the towns close to San Jose like Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Los Altos, etc...

Federal employees enjoy a median salary of $78.5K, which is already higher than the median of a private worker, and that is the average over all of the country. When restricted to just workers around the DC, I think these jobs tend to be more at the central level, hence enjoy an even higher wage.

Then, when there's a concentration of wealth, that drives up the cost of living, which brings about another boost of income to compensate.

About the traffic jam, the last time I drove on the Beltway near Bethesda was when visiting a friend. It was a Friday evening which no doubt added to the problem, but the traffic was maddening. And this was 17 years ago.

 

[EllisWyatt]

Current (retirement) area : 40
Previous house (15 miles away) : 92

The change in cost of living has been amazing - by moving 1 Parish (that's county, to those of you not from Louisiana) west, property taxes have dropped 80%, sales tax has dropped 1.25%, quality of life has increased >100% - no traffic congestion, and the people here are less stressed and therefore more pleasant.

Checked the neighborhood outside of D.C. that I grew up in : 96

Now has horrific traffic congestion, uber-high taxes, etc., etc.

I wonder if there's an inverse relationship between the ranking and the livability of an area