ZIP 49667 vs ZIP 48630

This side-by-side compares ZIP 49667 (Merritt, MI) and ZIP 48630 (Houghton Lake Heights, MI) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both, no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 49667 has a population of 549 at 3 people per square mile, while ZIP 48630 has 69 at 279 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 49667 reports a median household income of $45,500 against $62,019 in ZIP 48630, with per-capita income of $20,311 vs $40,503. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 8.4% in 49667 and 0.0% in 48630. Poverty rate reads 35.2% vs 0.0%, and unemployment 9.8% 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 $123,800 in 49667 versus - in 48630, with median rent of $877 and - per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 72.8% vs 100.0%. 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.