ZIP 20129 vs ZIP 20197

This side-by-side compares ZIP 20129 (Paeonian Springs, VA) and ZIP 20197 (Waterford, VA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 20129 has a population of 618 at 74 people per square mile, while ZIP 20197 has 1,840 at 53 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 20129 reports a median household income of $250,001 against $190,703 in ZIP 20197, with per-capita income of $124,816 vs $80,988. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 96.4% in 20129 and 76.2% in 20197. Poverty rate reads 0.7% vs 9.9%, and unemployment 1.1% vs 11.6% — 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 $1,238,300 in 20129 versus $1,080,200 in 20197, with median rent of — and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 92.6% vs 85.7%. 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.