ZIP 88260 vs ZIP 88262

This side-by-side compares ZIP 88260 (Lovington, NM) and ZIP 88262 (Mcdonald, NM) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 88260 has a population of 14,343 at 7 people per square mile, while ZIP 88262 has 30 at 0 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 88260 reports a median household income of $75,476 against — in ZIP 88262, with per-capita income of $27,130 vs $66,585. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 13.4% in 88260 and 0.0% in 88262. Poverty rate reads 21.7% vs 0.0%, and unemployment 5.8% vs 73.3% — 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 $175,400 in 88260 versus — in 88262, with median rent of $1,024 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 76.3% 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.