48505Flint, Michigan

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 48505.

43out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 4% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity6209th of 6,210 published ZIP areas3
Growth5405th of 5,428 published ZIP areas4
Housing affordability3822nd of 6,685 published ZIP areas75
Climate5732nd of 6,789 published ZIP areas60
Physical resilienceTop 19% of 6,709 published ZIP areas83
Access5189th of 6,791 published ZIP areas82
Economic stability6681st of 6,742 published ZIP areas14
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 12.3% and the Opportunity signal places 48505 in the bottom 1%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 0 units authorized over the past twelve months, 100% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 48505 in the top 19% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
18,032
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$33,283
Bottom 3% nationally
Density
1,446/sq mi
12.5 sq mi of land
Median age
37.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Flint
Michigan
Metro area
Flint, MI
Nearest major airport
MBS
37 mi · Mbs Intl
Median home value
$31,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 12.3% is lower than 0% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 6.8% over the past year, to 27,357 employed residents.

Median household income of $33,283 is below 97% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,350$33,283Bottom 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,214$18,546Bottom 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate39.4%Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.8 minTop 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher10.8%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment27,357Bottom 28%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-7.2%Bottom 1%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-6.8%Bottom 1%June 2026
Labor force31,183Bottom 31%June 2026
Labor force participation52.4%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$57,810Bottom 11%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$45,880Bottom 11%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate12.3%Top 1%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202433k29k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $33,283 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 — Flint, MI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators6,260
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,800$28,330
Home Health and Personal Care Aides4,090$34,740
Retail Salespersons4,080$34,320
Registered Nurses3,910$97,780
Stockers and Order Fillers3,710$37,800

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 Flint, MI, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 13.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
2
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
2019-20 school year
Reading proficiency
2019-20 school year
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
The New Standard Academy · charterThe New Standard Academy85913.95%5%
Beecher Alternative EducationBeecher Community School District2914.5

95.9% 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 $797 takes 29% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 1.0 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
28.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
1.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$797
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$31,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income0.95Bottom 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate48.3%Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±52810,696Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$41$797Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$2,475$31,700Bottom 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income28.7%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate28.9%Top 15%2024 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 →
Development Momentum
4/ 100
Ranks 5405 of 5,428 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

At 0.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
0
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 1% nationally
Year over year
−100%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Flint, MI, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 82°F and January a low of 16°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 32.0 inches, including 52.1 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 42, in the Good 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 FLINT BISHOP INTL AP, 7.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation32.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall52.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low16°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index42.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing48°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
42
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
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

83 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoModerate
Strong windElevated
Heat waveModerate
Winter weatherModerate

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

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.

Genesee County records 11.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 19.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 28.6 per 100,000 residents in Genesee County.

Homicide
11.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
19.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
28.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.4
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 Genesee 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 48505 rather than 48505 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
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. 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.

Access

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 37 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mbs IntlMBS37 mi8,002 ft
Capital Region IntlLAN49 mi8,506 ft
Detroit Metro Wayne CountyDTW62 mi12,003 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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Area Score
43
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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)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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
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.

48505 vs Flint

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

48505
Flint
Median household income
$33,283
vs
$37,646
Per capita income
$18,546
vs
$21,720
Population density
1,446/sq mi
vs
2,398/sq mi
Median home value
$31,700
vs
$53,500
Median gross rent
$797
vs
$915
Homeownership rate
48.3%
vs
53.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
10.8%
vs
14.2%
Poverty rate
39.4%
vs
34.1%
Median age
37.2
vs
36.9

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.