ZIP 14878 vs ZIP 14891

This side-by-side compares ZIP 14878 (Rock Stream, NY) and ZIP 14891 (Watkins Glen, NY) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 14878 has a population of 781 at 19 people per square mile, while ZIP 14891 has 4,149 at 31 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 14878 reports a median household income of — against $61,875 in ZIP 14891, with per-capita income of $41,776 vs $38,420. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 31.3% in 14878 and 25.5% in 14891. Poverty rate reads 18.9% vs 8.1%, and unemployment 1.5% vs 8.1% — 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 $182,800 in 14878 versus $164,700 in 14891, with median rent of — and $825 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 95.7% vs 67.7%. 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.