What do we mean by a neighborhood?
Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ® uses the official government designation for neighborhoods - the census tract.
Census tracts are small, relatively permanent subdivisions of a county that are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau in conjunction with local authorities all across the country to define real neighborhoods that are bounded to contain areas with homogeneous population characteristics (including economic status, lifestyle, and living conditions). Census tracts usually have 4,000 persons, but can range between 1,500 and 8,000 persons. This is the most fine-grained area for which detailed information is made available from the government, to protect the individual privacy of each of us. Because census tracts are based on population, they vary in size depending on the density of settlement. In urban areas, they are small, and in rural areas they can cover an entire small town or even a few small towns in very rural areas.
Since census tracts are subdivisions of a county, we did a spatial overlay of the census tracts onto city and town boundaries using a geographic information system to properly assign each census tract to its appropriate city or town. Then we named each census tract to the local colloquially recognized neighborhood name for that spot (e.g., Boston, MA (Dorchester). If there was not a name available, we named the census tract by the largest street intersection in the census tract (e.g., Worcester, MA (Lincoln St/Plantation St)
Why we don't use Zip Codes as neighborhoods
Zip codes were developed by the Postal Service for the purpose of delivering mail, but were never intended to define coherent neighborhoods. In addition, Zip Codes can have as many as 10 distinctly different census tracts contained within them. When distinct census tracts are blended together in a single Zip Code, the data reflects their average conditions and often gives a false sense of the area. The result is that potentially great matching neighborhoods can be missed, and erroneous matches can also be produced and delivered to you.
Using census tracts makes great matches possible, and helps people find the areas that are best for them and their families. Because we are committed to providing the highest possible quality and finding the neighborhoods that best meet your criteria, we use census tracts. And, as always, we show you the actual street map of the neighborhood so you know exactly where your best matching neighborhood is located.
What is a Condition Alert?
A condition alert is a condition in the neighborhood that triggers an alert. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ contains condition alerts to highlight conditions that are extreme, whether good or bad. This helps answer crucial questions about the state of the neighborhood being evaluated, such as:
What are the risks of violent crime here?
Is the risk of home break-ins or other property crimes increasing?
Does real estate here hold its value?
Are the trends in local vacancies or unemployment concerning?
...and dozens more.
Information at a glance that you need to know to invest, appraise or finance a property.
Madison Northwest median real estate price is $474,604, which is more expensive than 91.2% of the neighborhoods in Alabama and 62.4% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Madison Northwest is currently $3,059, based on Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 98.7% of the neighborhoods in Alabama.
Madison Northwest is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Madison, Alabama.
Madison Northwest real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to large (four, five or more bedroom) single-family homes and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Madison Northwest neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
Home and apartment vacancy rates are 6.6% in Madison Northwest. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ analysis shows that this rate is lower than 54.7% of the neighborhoods in the nation, approximately near the middle range for vacancies.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Madison, the Madison Northwest neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
People
In a nation where 1 out of every 4 children lives in poverty, the Madison Northwest neighborhood stands out as being ranked among the lowest 0.0% of neighborhoods affected by this global issue.
In addition, a majority of the adults in the Madison Northwest neighborhood are wealthy and educated executives. They own stately homes that tend to maintain high real estate appreciation rates. Their upper-level careers keep them busy, but allow them to live comfortably. If you're an executive and want to keep similar company, consider settling in this neighborhood, rated as an executive lifestyle "best choice" neighborhood for Alabama by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's analysis, which rated it as better for executive lifestyles than 99.7% of the neighborhoods in Alabama. In addition to being an excellent choice for highly educated executives, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for families with school-aged children, urban sophisticates and college students.
Also, the rate of college educated adults in the Madison Northwest neighborhood is a unique characteristic of the neighborhood. 73.8% of adults here have received at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, compared to the average neighborhood in America, which has 35.0% of the adults with a bachelor's degree. The rate here is higher than Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ found in 95.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Occupations
The government often provides some of the more stable jobs in the economy. From local, to state, to federal government workers, the government can also be a major employer. What Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's analysis revealed, is that the Madison Northwest neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 18.7% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 98.7% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Furthermore, the Madison Northwest neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 95.4% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 70.8% of the employed people here make a living as an executive, a manager, or other professional. With such a high concentration, this truly shapes the character of this neighborhood, and to a large degree defines what this neighborhood is about.
Real Estate
Homes built from 2000 through today make up a higher proportion of the Madison Northwest neighborhood's real estate landscape than 97.7% of the neighborhoods in America. When you are driving around this neighborhood, you'll notice right away that it is one of the newest built of any, with the smell of fresh paint, and the look of young landscaping nearly everywhere you look. In fact, 82.7% of the residential real estate here is classified as newer. In fact, the concentration of newer homes here is so great that they completely dominate the landscape. In most neighborhoods, there is a mixture of ages of residential real estate, but here it is almost completely built during one time frame: 2000 through today.
In addition, one way that the Madison Northwest neighborhood really stands out, is that it has more large 4, 5, or additional bedroom homes and real estate than 96.1% of the neighborhoods in America. When you walk or drive around this neighborhood, you'll instantly notice the size of the homes here which definitely makes a strong visual statement.
Diversity
Did you know that the Madison Northwest neighborhood has more English ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 25.0% of this neighborhood's residents have English ancestry.
Madison Northwest is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 2.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Japanese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
The Neighbors
There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.
The neighbors in the Madison Northwest neighborhood in Madison are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 93.1% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the Madison Northwest neighborhood, 70.8% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions, with 18.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (14.0%), and 10.4% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
Languages
The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the Madison Northwest neighborhood is English, spoken by 87.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Japanese and Vietnamese.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the Madison Northwest neighborhood in Madison, AL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (25.0%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (8.7%), and residents who report Asian roots (7.5%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (6.2%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (1.8%), among others.
Getting to Work
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in Madison Northwest neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (47.2% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (81.2%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.
SCOUT’s patented match algorithm identifies the most similar neighborhoods to a subject location, and quantifies the similarity to the subject location. This allows analysts to identify the most similar neighborhoods in a local market area for appraisals, investments, and research.
The algorithm uses 273 neighborhood conditions, identifies the dominant dimensions underlying the conditions and calculates the similarity. This captures the true culture and character of locations, economic conditions, and trends.
The closer to 100% means the locations are nearly identical. 80% is a very good, but not excellent match, and so forth.
