The 61-Year Old-Detail You Can't Ignore When You're House Hunting
A ZIP code might be administrative at its core — it does, after all, determine where your mail is going — but it’s also a lifestyle in some parts of the country, and it may be the make-or-break decision when you’re deciding to buy a home based on exclusivity, school districts, government representation, and more. But what’s the difference between a postal code vs. a ZIP code? Should you look at postal/ZIP codes when you’re trying to determine where you should live? Does it even matter?
A ZIP code stands for Zone Improvement Plan and is no different than a postal code. But in the U.S., we call our postal codes ZIP codes. It’s as simple as that!
Well, think about it like this, if you’re even a tiny bit familiar with ’90s television and pop culture, then you know exactly where the 90210 ZIP code is on the map. To this day, just seeing those digits evokes sunshine, beaches, and teen drama for me.
But unless you live in Southern California, you might not realize that Beverly Hills also claims 90211, 90212, and 90213 as residential ZIP codes (and there are even more if you have a P.O. Box). I’ve always wondered: When the show grew in popularity, were those living in the “other” Beverly Hills ZIP codes annoyed or relieved that they were left out of the spotlight?
Even with a basic understanding that the U.S. Postal Service uses all manner of transport for sending letters, magazines, packages, and a ceaseless parade of credit card applications and other junk mail, I’m in awe of how quickly things move about the country. (Well, except for Florida, where it’s been my experience that it takes a solid two weeks for any mail to get there.)
It turns out that ZIP codes matter a great deal to some homebuyers — and that there is a (slight) difference between postal codes vs. ZIP codes — depending on where you live. Here’s how to decode it all.
What Is a ZIP Code?
Probably no one will fault you for writing it in lower case, but ZIP should actually be spelled in all caps — it stands for Zone Improvement Plan. It’s one of the more clever acronyms, in my humble opinion, because those numbers do add some zip to sending mail by keeping everything organized.
The five-digit ZIP codes first started showing up in mailing addresses in 1963. The first number represents the national location, starting with 0 in the Northeast and moving westward across the country to 9 on the West Coast. The second and third numbers are indicators of the city or region, while the fourth and fifth numbers refer to the local post offices or postal zones.
In 1983, a four-digit code was added for even easier sorting. To be honest, I’ve never known what my +4 code is in any town that I’ve lived in. All I know is that those four digits sometimes come up automatically when I’m ordering something online, but my mail and packages seem to arrive just fine with or without it. Go figure.
Your ZIP code also determines who your congressional representative is, and in part, what school district you may be assigned to if you have children and want to send them to public schools. For some homebuyers, especially those with children, this is particularly important, and make or break information when looking to buy a home.
Is a ZIP Code Different from a Postal Code?
Not really. Every part of the world that can receive mail has a postal code; we just happen to call ours in the U.S. a ZIP code instead.
What is different between the two is that, while our ZIPs are numerical, you’ll likely find a combination of both letters and numbers in other parts of the world. Canada, for example, has a six-figure postal code that alternates letters and numbers in this way: A1A 1A1.
The Importance of Using the Correct ZIP or Postal Code
When it comes to sending mail, it’s obviously a good idea to have the correct address if you want your letter or package to get to its destination without any delays. But even if you’re a little off on the house number or the apartment number, an astute and conscientious postal worker will likely get it to its rightful destination.
Once, I wrote NY on a birthday card when I meant to write NJ. It still arrived in the birthday girl’s mailbox without delay because everything else, including the ZIP code, was spot-on. Well done, USPS!
Get that ZIP or postal code wrong, though, and well, you might as well have sent that letter straight into a black hole in the universe. If it’s not woefully lost, it’ll arrive back in your mailbox weeks later with some angry-looking stamp that says it couldn’t be delivered.
When Is a ZIP Code More Than Just a ZIP Code?
If you think no one cares about ZIP, you’d be mistaken. ZIP codes can be pretty exclusive depending on where you live. I read lots of real estate listings, and I’ve seen a growing number that brag about the homes having a certain mailing address despite where the property actually appears on the map.
I live in New York City, so I know all about the exclusivity of certain neighborhoods. But post offices and ZIP codes? I contacted friends and family on Facebook to see whether ZIP codes came with a social status where they lived, and for many, it does.
“I have a ZIP code that has a good and a bad reputation depending on which town you say,” one friend in upstate New York told me. (For what it’s worth, I send her family’s holiday card to the “better” town.)
What’s interesting is when your ZIP code and your voting area might be different — which happened to a friend of mine. It’s a different wrinkle in the home-buying process you may want to look into before you sign your contract. “I’m in the ZIP code for one township (a very affluent one) and within the voting area for another, far less affluent one,” said another friend, who lives elsewhere in the Northeast.
Another friend offered numerous stories from family members throughout New Jersey for which ZIP codes come with bragging rights — or not. “The perceived desirability thing goes both ways,” she says.
A friend in New Hampshire told me a story of bordering towns and overlapping ZIP codes that boggled my mind. “It’s a super challenge when you run title searches, and deal with utilities and the appraisal,” she says. While I can understand coveting the social status of a certain neighborhood, having that peculiarity get in the way of real estate transactions must be maddening, and is yet another thing to think about.
Further Reading
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