ZIP 14871 vs ZIP 14905

This side-by-side compares ZIP 14871 (Pine City, NY) and ZIP 14905 (Elmira, NY) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 14871 has a population of 5,456 at 37 people per square mile, while ZIP 14905 has 9,070 at 841 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 14871 reports a median household income of $72,484 against $90,825 in ZIP 14905, with per-capita income of $40,188 vs $42,923. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 27.2% in 14871 and 41.3% in 14905. Poverty rate reads 13.9% vs 15.0%, and unemployment 3.8% vs 4.9% — 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 $174,800 in 14871 versus $174,100 in 14905, with median rent of $1,002 and $1,009 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 86.1% vs 68.2%. 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.