ZIP 80487 vs ZIP 81639

This side-by-side compares ZIP 80487 (Steamboat Springs, CO) and ZIP 81639 (Hayden, CO) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 80487 has a population of 16,745 at 9 people per square mile, while ZIP 81639 has 2,463 at 2 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 80487 reports a median household income of $109,659 against $110,404 in ZIP 81639, with per-capita income of $73,661 vs $46,918. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 59.5% in 80487 and 27.4% in 81639. Poverty rate reads 4.5% vs 5.2%, and unemployment 2.6% vs 3.1% — 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 $1,055,900 in 80487 versus $443,600 in 81639, with median rent of $2,042 and $1,782 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 73.6% vs 81.9%. 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.