Denver ZIP Code Affordability Report 2026

Key findings

• The median Denver ZIP code costs 6.4 years of median household income. Across 38 ZIP codes the median home value is $575,400 against a median household income of $87,845. Not one ZIP is at or under the 3.0 national benchmark, and none is under 4; 5 are above 8.
• Denver's wealth is educated, not inherited. The bachelor's-degree rate explains home value better than anything else in the dataset (r = 0.84 with median home value), and it correlates with the price-to-income ratio itself (r = 0.50): the most credentialed ZIPs are the ones where prices have run furthest ahead of local incomes.
• The least affordable ZIP is not the most expensive one. 80209 (Washington Park) has the metro's highest median home value at $1,018,300 but a ratio of 8.1, because its $125,733 median income keeps pace. The worst ratio is 80246 (Glendale, 10.7): a $716,400 median home against a $67,235 income in a ZIP where only 20% of households own.
• Commute is the price of attainability, more sharply than in most metros. Mean commute time and home value are strongly inversely related (r = -0.69). ZIPs with commutes of 26 minutes or less have a median home value of $733,600 and a ratio of 7.4; ZIPs at 30 minutes or more come in at $495,100 and 5.1.
• The far northeast is the metro's affordability frontier. 80239 (Montbello, 4.4), 80249 (Green Valley Ranch, 4.7) and 80238 (Central Park, 4.6) post the lowest ratios, and Central Park does it with the metro's highest median income ($180,940) and 71% owner-occupancy.
• 9 ZIP codes pass the value screen (above-median income, ratio at or under 6, majority owner-occupied): the northeast trio plus the north suburbs (Thornton, Northglenn), west Lakewood and the Highlands. 5 of the 9 are outside Denver County.

How this report was built

Every figure is computed from the dataset behind the ZIP code pages on this site: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2020–2024 5-Year Estimates at the ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) level for population, median age, median household income, median home value (owner-occupied units), tenure, educational attainment, unemployment and mean travel time to work (tables B01003, B01002, B19013, B25077, B25003, B15003, B23025, B08303). Of the 44 ZIP codes the site covers, 38 carry ACS figures; 5 are PO Box ZIPs with no resident population (80217, 80264, 80290, 80293, 80294) and 1 (80208, the University of Denver campus ZIP) has no ACS estimate. Median gross rent is not in this dataset, so this report does not compute rent burden.

Price-to-income (PTI) is median home value divided by median household income. 3.0 is the long-run U.S. norm for a home the local median earner can finance conventionally; above 5.0 is conventionally described as severely unaffordable. Both numerator and denominator are ZIP-level medians, so the ratio describes the area, not any individual household. Metro medians here weight each ZIP equally, not by population. Correlations are Pearson r across the 38 ZIPs; with a sample this size, treat coefficients under about 0.35 as weak. County assignments are the site's own (Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Jefferson) for ZIPs that straddle the city line. Sources, formulas and limitations are documented in full on the methodology page.

Price-to-income: 13 ZIPs between 4 and 6, 20 between 6 and 8, 5 above 8

Denver sits between the Sun Belt and the coasts. Its median ratio of 6.4 is roughly double Houston's and half of Los Angeles's, and the shape of the distribution — nothing under 4, a fat middle between 5 and 8, a short tail above — is what a metro looks like a decade into a price run-up that incomes have only partly followed. Median household income in the median ZIP is $87,845, comfortably above the national figure; it is the $575,400 median home that makes the ratio.

The top of the table is the central and southeast core. 80246 (Glendale) leads at 10.7 on the metro's second-lowest income and lowest owner-occupancy (20%): an apartment ZIP whose small owner-occupied stock is priced like the neighborhoods around it. 80206 (Cherry Creek, 9.0), 80218 (Capitol Hill, 8.3) and 80209 (Washington Park, 8.1) are the established prestige belt, where six-figure incomes still trail $915,400–$1,018,300 homes. 80230 (Lowry, 8.3) is the metro's oldest ZIP by median age (46) and shows what happens when a redeveloped base becomes an empty-nester enclave: high values, moderate incomes.

The bottom of the table is the far northeast and the north suburbs. 80239 (Montbello) and 80249 (Green Valley Ranch) are the two most attainable ZIPs by ratio, with the metro's lowest degree rates (19%, 31%) and highest unemployment (7.5%, 7.1%) — attainable because values are low, not because incomes are high. 80238 (Central Park, the former Stapleton airport) is the exception that proves the pattern: the highest median income in the dataset ($180,940), a 76% degree rate and 71% ownership, yet a ratio of only 4.6 because master-planned new construction was priced for the households that bought it. Owner-occupancy and price-to-income run in opposite directions across the metro (r = -0.50).

The 12 least affordable ZIP codes by price-to-income

The 12 most attainable ZIP codes by price-to-income

Education is the price map

In most metros this network covers, income is the best single predictor of home value. In Denver it is education. The bachelor's-degree rate correlates with median home value at r = 0.84 — higher than its correlation with income (0.51) — which means buyers with degrees are paying up for ZIPs with other degree-holders beyond what their incomes alone would predict. The degree rate ranges from 19% in 80239 (Montbello) to 80% in 80209 (Washington Park), and the median ZIP is at 53%, itself far above the national rate.

The practical reading: in Denver, a ZIP's degree rate is the best available proxy for where its home values are headed. The ZIPs with degree rates above 70% — Washington Park, University Hills, Cherry Creek, Central Park, LoDo, the Highlands, Capitol Hill — already carry the highest values and, apart from Central Park, the highest ratios. The ZIPs under 35% — Montbello, Thornton, Northglenn, Green Valley Ranch, Federal Heights, Fort Logan, Baker / South Broadway — are the attainable ones, and most are majority owner-occupied working-class neighborhoods rather than rental districts.

Highest degree attainment

Lowest degree attainment

The commute trade

Mean commute time and median home value move against each other at r = -0.69, one of the strongest relationships in the dataset and stronger than in Houston or Atlanta. Denver's core is compact and its expensive ZIPs — Cherry Creek, University Hills, Washington Park, Capitol Hill, the Highlands — all sit at 24 to 25 minutes. The 14 ZIPs at 26 minutes or less have a median home value of $733,600, a ratio of 7.4 and a degree rate of 70%; the 6 ZIPs at 30 minutes or more come in at $495,100, 5.1 and 34%. Five minutes each way buys roughly $238,500 off the median home and a full ratio point.

The long-commute group is the north and northeast — Thornton, Northglenn, Green Valley Ranch — plus Bear Creek and Bear Valley on the southwest edge. These are also, with Central Park, the ZIPs on the value screen below. The trade Denver offers is not the exurban one that Atlanta and Houston offer (40 minutes for a ratio of 3); it is a shorter, in-county trade: six extra minutes for a ratio of 5 instead of 7.

Shortest commutes

Longest commutes

County view

Grouped by county, Adams County is the affordability outlier: its five ZIPs (Thornton, Northglenn, Federal Heights) have the lowest median home value ($472,900), an income only slightly under the metro median, and a ratio of 5.2. Jefferson County (Lakewood, Sloan's Lake, Bear Valley) is the most stretched at 6.9, because its values approach Denver's while its incomes do not. Denver County itself, with 23 of the 38 ZIPs, sits at 6.6.

The value screen: 9 ZIP codes

We screened every ZIP on three conditions at once: median household income at or above the metro median ($87,845), price-to-income at or under 6 (double the national norm, because no Denver ZIP clears 4), and owner-occupancy of at least 50%. 9 ZIP codes pass. Three are the far-northeast frontier (Montbello, Central Park, Green Valley Ranch); three are the Adams County north suburbs (Thornton, Northglenn); two are west Lakewood (Green Mountain, Bear Creek); one, 80211 (Highlands, 6.6), is the only intown prestige ZIP that squeaks in, because its $121,439 income nearly matches its values. Central Park is the standout: it passes with the highest income in the metro and the fourth-lowest ratio.

The screen is deliberately simple and will exclude places that suit a particular household — a renter has no reason to care about owner-occupancy, and a remote worker can ignore the commute column. As a first filter on where the numbers favor the buyer, it points north and east, not toward the core.

Limitations and how to cite this report

• ACS 5-Year Estimates are survey-based; margins of error grow as ZIP population shrinks, and several Denver ZIPs are under 20,000 residents. Differences of a few percent between two ZIPs are not meaningful.
• Median home value is the owner's estimate of what the home would sell for, from the ACS questionnaire, not a transaction price. In fast-repricing ZIPs (RiNo, Five Points, Sloan's Lake, Baker) it lags the market.
• Median gross rent is not in this dataset, so rent burden is not computed here. Owner-occupancy is used as the tenure signal instead.
• ZIP-level medians describe areas, not households. A ratio of 7 means the typical home is expensive relative to the typical income in that ZIP, not that every household there is priced out.
• Metro medians weight each ZIP equally. Population-weighted figures would sit closer to Denver County's values.

Cite as: Denver Zip Codes Data Team, Denver ZIP Code Affordability Report 2026, denverzipcodes.com, published 2026-09-20. Data: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2020–2024 5-Year Estimates. Each ZIP code in the tables links to its full profile page.

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