ZIP 95246 vs ZIP 95248

This side-by-side compares ZIP 95246 (Mountain Ranch, CA) and ZIP 95248 (Rail Road Flat, CA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 95246 has a population of 1,615 at 12 people per square mile, while ZIP 95248 has 301 at 4 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 95246 reports a median household income of $98,269 against — in ZIP 95248, with per-capita income of $40,026 vs —. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 21.9% in 95246 and 0.0% in 95248. Poverty rate reads 24.9% vs 0.0%, and unemployment 16.9% 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 $417,100 in 95246 versus — in 95248, with median rent of $1,297 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 87.7% 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.