ZIP 50609 vs ZIP 50621

This side-by-side compares ZIP 50609 (Beaman, IA) and ZIP 50621 (Conrad, IA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 50609 has a population of 446 at 5 people per square mile, while ZIP 50621 has 1,530 at 9 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 50609 reports a median household income of $90,250 against $88,077 in ZIP 50621, with per-capita income of $45,813 vs $45,311. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 29.7% in 50609 and 29.6% in 50621. Poverty rate reads 0.3% vs 3.9%, and unemployment 0.0% vs 0.9% — 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 $241,700 in 50609 versus $214,700 in 50621, with median rent of $785 and $840 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 89.1% vs 78.2%. 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.