ZIP 27948 vs ZIP 27949

This side-by-side compares ZIP 27948 (Kill Devil Hills, NC) and ZIP 27949 (Kitty Hawk, NC) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 27948 has a population of 10,862 at 454 people per square mile, while ZIP 27949 has 6,947 at 177 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 27948 reports a median household income of $86,193 against $120,662 in ZIP 27949, with per-capita income of $46,939 vs $67,976. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 43.5% in 27948 and 55.0% in 27949. Poverty rate reads 8.6% vs 3.2%, and unemployment 7.8% vs 9.2% — 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 $437,500 in 27948 versus $677,600 in 27949, with median rent of $1,673 and $1,306 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 74.2% vs 83.4%. 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.