49321Comstock Park, Michigan

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 49321.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity4910th of 6,210 ZIP areas measured40
Schools2247th of 4,422 ZIP areas measured51
Housing affordabilityTop 24% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured93
Climate5237th of 6,789 ZIP areas measured62
Physical resilienceTop 5% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured94
AccessTop 37% of 6,791 ZIP areas measured95
Economic stabilityTop 31% of 6,742 ZIP areas measured69
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 4.2% and the Opportunity signal places 49321 in the bottom 21%.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 49321 in the top 5% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 16 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
15,970
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$77,870
Top 41% nationally
Density
607/sq mi
26.3 sq mi of land
Median age
38.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Comstock Park
Michigan
Metro area
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI
Nearest major airport
GRR
16 mi · Gerald R Ford Intl
Median home value
$274,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 60% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 7.4% over the past year, to 324,616 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$8,355$77,870Top 41%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,051$38,602Top 43%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.7%Bottom 41%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.8 minBottom 23%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher30.3%Top 34%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment324,616Top 16%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-8.1%Bottom 1%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-7.4%Bottom 1%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force338,972Top 16%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation68.7%Top 19%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$60,660Bottom 21%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,570Bottom 24%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.6%Bottom 15%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Bottom 40%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202478k60k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $77,870 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators19,540$39,120
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand18,840$36,130
Registered Nurses13,740$83,920
Fast Food and Counter Workers13,190$28,240
Retail Salespersons12,600$34,800
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners11,490$35,890

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Comstock Park, MI, the city containing this ZIP code.

31% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 41% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
31.3%
Top 45% in Michigan
Reading proficiency
41.4%
Bottom 43% in Michigan
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Comstock Park High SchoolComstock Park Public Schools52219.3
Stoney Creek ElementaryComstock Park Public Schools43214.4
Mill Creek Middle SchoolComstock Park Public Schools38516.042%57%
Pine Island ElementaryComstock Park Public Schools37914.035%46%
Alpine Elementary SchoolKenowa Hills Public Schools32311.514%18%
Comstock Park Flex AcademyComstock Park Public Schools3333.0

55.8% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Michigan’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,191 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,191
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$274,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.52Top 38%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate63.6%Bottom 20%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4046,887Top 23%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$48$1,191Top 36%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,952$274,400Top 37%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.4%Top 45%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.6%Bottom 31%of 33,0282024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 83°F and January a low of 19°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 39.4 inches, including 77.6 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 51, in the Moderate band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GRAND RAPIDS, 14.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index68.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation39.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall77.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low19°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
51
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
68
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

94 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado and strong wind.

Strong windModerate
TornadoModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, heat wave, inland flooding, cold wave, ice storm, landslide, earthquake, hail, lightning, wildfire, hurricane.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Kent County records 3.2 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 10.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.8 per 100,000 residents in Kent County.

Homicide
3.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Kent County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around 49321 rather than 49321 itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 16 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Gerald R Ford IntlGRR16 mi10,001 ft
Battle Creek Exec At Kellogg FldBTL57 mi10,004 ft
Capital Region IntlLAN59 mi8,506 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

49321 vs Comstock Park

How this ZIP area compares with Comstock Park as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

49321
Comstock Park
Median household income
$77,870
vs
$59,984
Per capita income
$38,602
vs
$33,564
Population density
607/sq mi
vs
2,727/sq mi
Median home value
$274,400
vs
$235,300
Median gross rent
$1,191
vs
$1,189
Homeownership rate
63.6%
vs
48.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher
30.3%
vs
26.0%
Poverty rate
8.7%
vs
11.8%
Median age
38.1
vs
34.7

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.