Paynes Creek, CA

ZIP code 96075 is assigned to Paynes Creek, CA, and falls within Tehama 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 330 people live inside it.

At 4 residents per square mile spread over 90.689 square miles, 96075 reads as a rural area. It is a sparsely populated postal code, 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 track close to the national picture. The median of $66,000 puts 96075 near the middle of the pack, ahead of 43% 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 96075 costs well below the national median. A typical home is valued at $49,400 against a US median of $207,500. This is firmly renter territory — 77.1% of occupied homes are rented, a pattern typical of city centres, student areas and neighbourhoods with a lot of apartment stock.

The building stock is dominated by detached single-family houses, which account for 56.8% of housing units here. The median construction year is 1975, making the housing here from the later twentieth century. The vacancy rate of 22.2% is high, which in many places reflects seasonal or second-home use rather than abandonment.

The population skews broadly in line with the national age profile, with a median age of 38.7 against 42 nationally. The average household holds 2.29 people, and 54.9% are family households.

Getting to work takes 49.0 minutes on average one way. The dominant mode is drove alone at 87.1% of workers, while 12.9% walk. Commute patterns are one of the better proxies for how a place actually functions day to day.

Beyond addressing mail, 96075 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, 96075 offers a compact profile of Paynes Creek: 330 residents, a median household income of $66,000, 11.3% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher, and an unemployment rate of 26.1%. 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. 96075 may cover parts of several distinct areas, and a single neighbourhood in Paynes Creek 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.