ZIP 21117 vs ZIP 21153

This side-by-side compares ZIP 21117 (Owings Mills, MD) and ZIP 21153 (Stevenson, MD) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 21117 has a population of 53,778 at 639 people per square mile, while ZIP 21153 has 323 at 64 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 21117 reports a median household income of $101,831 against $220,179 in ZIP 21153, with per-capita income of $52,053 vs $151,894. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 50.8% in 21117 and 84.8% in 21153. Poverty rate reads 5.7% vs 3.5%, and unemployment 5.6% vs 0.0% — 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 $387,400 in 21117 versus $902,300 in 21153, with median rent of $1,848 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 55.0% vs 88.8%. 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.