ZIP 48189 vs ZIP 48139

This side-by-side compares ZIP 48189 (Whitmore Lake, MI) and ZIP 48139 (Hamburg, MI) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 48189 has a population of 13,632 at 153 people per square mile, while ZIP 48139 has 206 at 115 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 48189 reports a median household income of $87,145 against $47,188 in ZIP 48139, with per-capita income of $49,944 vs $45,134. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 38.7% in 48189 and 12.5% in 48139. Poverty rate reads 5.9% vs 0.0%, and unemployment 2.1% 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 $313,400 in 48189 versus — in 48139, with median rent of $1,246 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 79.3% vs 79.5%. 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.