ZIP 76856 vs ZIP 76820

This side-by-side compares ZIP 76856 (Mason, TX) and ZIP 76820 (Art, TX) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 76856 has a population of 3,582 at 2 people per square mile, while ZIP 76820 has 125 at 1 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 76856 reports a median household income of $74,677 against — in ZIP 76820, with per-capita income of $33,616 vs $41,651. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 41.2% in 76856 and 43.4% in 76820. Poverty rate reads 4.3% vs 8.7%, and unemployment 3.5% 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 $292,400 in 76856 versus — in 76820, with median rent of $800 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 80.8% vs 67.6%. 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.