ZIP 07828 vs ZIP 07874

This side-by-side compares ZIP 07828 (Budd Lake, NJ) and ZIP 07874 (Stanhope, NJ) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 07828 has a population of 14,150 at 383 people per square mile, while ZIP 07874 has 8,905 at 273 per square mile. That difference in population size and density alone reshapes how every other metric should be interpreted — a higher-income ZIP with 1,200 residents behaves very differently from one with 45,000.

On income and education, ZIP 07828 reports a median household income of $103,320 against $132,500 in ZIP 07874, with per-capita income of $54,664 vs $56,521. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 43.9% in 07828 and 42.6% in 07874. Poverty rate reads 4.9% vs 3.2%, and unemployment 5.3% vs 3.4% — these four fields alone drive most of the difference in the scorecard grades you will see for each ZIP.

Housing separates these two ZIPs further: median home value sits at $457,700 in 07828 versus $364,000 in 07874, with median rent of $1,587 and $1,763 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 55.3% vs 92.4%. When reading the comparison table below, focus on paired metrics rather than single winners — a ZIP with lower home values and lower income is not strictly "worse" if rent-to-income ratios and commute times land in the same zone. Every value is pulled from the exact same ACS table so the two columns are genuinely comparable.