Detroit, MI

ZIP code 48211 is assigned to Detroit, MI, and falls within Wayne County. Like every US postal code, it began as a mail-routing device rather than a geographic boundary — the US Postal Service groups delivery routes under a single code so carriers and sorting equipment can process mail efficiently. Today it also serves as a practical shorthand for the area itself: roughly 5,556 people live inside it.

At 1,309 residents per square mile spread over 4.244 square miles, 48211 reads as a suburban area. It is a smaller postal code by population, and density shapes almost everything else on this page — how people get to work, whether they own or rent, and what housing costs.

Household earnings are well below the national median. At $33,347, 48211 ranks among the lower-income postal codes, ahead of 3% of them. The US median for comparison is $70,109. Bear in mind that median income describes the midpoint household, not the average — it is not pulled upward by a handful of very high earners the way a mean would be.

Housing in 48211 costs well below the national median. A typical home is valued at $66,900 against a US median of $207,500, and median gross rent runs $985 a month. The split between owning and renting is fairly even at 44.7% owner-occupied, which tends to indicate a mix of housing types rather than one dominant form.

The building stock is dominated by detached single-family houses, which account for 64.2% of housing units here. The median construction year is 1938, making the housing here largely pre-war. The vacancy rate of 33.1% is high, which in many places reflects seasonal or second-home use rather than abandonment.

The population skews younger than the country as a whole, with a median age of 31 against 42 nationally. Households are relatively large at 3.3 people on average, with 56.1% classified as family households.

Getting to work takes 24.9 minutes on average one way. The dominant mode is drove alone at 76.4% of workers.

Beyond addressing mail, 48211 does a lot of quiet administrative work. Retailers use it to calculate shipping and sales tax at checkout. Insurers use it to set premiums, since risk profiles vary geographically. Employers and marketers use it to define service areas. Government agencies use it to route benefits and organise reporting. If you have ever been asked for a postal code by a form that clearly does not intend to send you anything, this is why.

For anyone weighing a move, 48211 offers a compact profile of Detroit: 5,556 residents, a median household income of $33,347, 16.1% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher, and an unemployment rate of 15.7%. A handful of figures like these answer more relocation questions than most neighbourhood guides do.

One caution worth repeating: a postal code is not a neighbourhood. 48211 may cover parts of several distinct areas, and a single neighbourhood in Detroit may be split across more than one code. Boundaries also shift as USPS adjusts delivery routes. Treat the figures here as describing a delivery area, which is what they actually measure.