ZIP 98273 vs ZIP 98238

This side-by-side compares ZIP 98273 (Mount Vernon, WA) and ZIP 98238 (Conway, WA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 98273 has a population of 28,717 at 132 people per square mile, while ZIP 98238 has 85 at 151 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 98273 reports a median household income of $76,717 against — in ZIP 98238, with per-capita income of $39,235 vs —. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 26.7% in 98273 and 0.0% in 98238. Poverty rate reads 14.8% vs 0.0%, and unemployment 6.0% 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 $492,300 in 98273 versus — in 98238, with median rent of $1,287 and — per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 61.4% vs 0.0%. 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.