ZIP 93455 vs ZIP 93429

This side-by-side compares ZIP 93455 (Santa Maria, CA) and ZIP 93429 (Casmalia, CA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both, no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 93455 has a population of 41,684 at 149 people per square mile, while ZIP 93429 has 154 at 8 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 93455 reports a median household income of $110,661 against $169,063 in ZIP 93429, with per-capita income of $48,734 vs $83,362. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 32.1% in 93455 and 0.0% in 93429. Poverty rate reads 7.9% vs 20.2%, and unemployment 4.6% 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 $610,300 in 93455 versus - in 93429, with median rent of $2,391 and $1,543 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 76.3% vs 27.6%. 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.