Montebello, CA

ZIP code 90640 is assigned to Montebello, CA, and falls within Los Angeles 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 61,615 people live inside it.

At 7,403 residents per square mile spread over 8.323 square miles, 90640 reads as a densely built-up area. It is one of the more heavily populated postal codes in the country, 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 $74,833 puts 90640 near the middle of the pack, ahead of 58% 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 90640 costs far above the national median. A typical home is valued at $660,600 against a US median of $207,500, and median gross rent runs $1,771 a month. The split between owning and renting is fairly even at 46.3% owner-occupied, which tends to indicate a mix of housing types rather than one dominant form.

The building stock is dominated by detached single-family houses, which account for 56.8% of housing units here. The median construction year is 1962, making the housing here mid-century. At 3.5%, vacancy is low — housing here is tightly held.

The population skews broadly in line with the national age profile, with a median age of 39.4 against 42 nationally. Households are relatively large at 3.12 people on average, with 73.7% classified as family households.

Getting to work takes 33.0 minutes on average one way. The dominant mode is drove alone at 72.1% of workers.

Beyond addressing mail, 90640 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, 90640 offers a compact profile of Montebello: 61,615 residents, a median household income of $74,833, 22.0% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher, and an unemployment rate of 6.9%. 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. 90640 may cover parts of several distinct areas, and a single neighbourhood in Montebello 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.