ZIP 12603 vs ZIP 12604

This side-by-side compares ZIP 12603 (Poughkeepsie, NY) and ZIP 12604 (Poughkeepsie, NY) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 12603 has a population of 42,810 at 512 people per square mile, while ZIP 12604 has 586 at 2,182 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 12603 reports a median household income of $103,538 against — in ZIP 12604, with per-capita income of $53,644 vs $21,077. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 47.5% in 12603 and 0.0% in 12604. Poverty rate reads 7.5% vs 100.0%, and unemployment 3.8% vs 1.7% — 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 $368,900 in 12603 versus — in 12604, with median rent of $1,727 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 71.6% vs 0.0%. 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.