Portola Valley is a very small town located in the state of California. With a population of 4,204 people and just one neighborhood, Portola Valley is the 545th largest community in California.
Portola Valley home prices are not only among the most expensive in California, but Portola Valley real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.
Portola Valley is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 99.36% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Portola Valley is a town of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Portola Valley who work in management occupations (35.34%), healthcare (10.16%), and business and financial occupations (9.01%).
Also of interest is that Portola Valley has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
Of important note, Portola Valley is also a town of artists. Portola Valley has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Portola Valley’s character.
A relatively large number of people in Portola Valley telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 51.07% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Because of many things, Portola Valley is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Portola Valley really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Portola Valley perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.
Portola Valley is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
If knowledge is power, Portola Valley is a pretty powerful place. 82.82% of the adults in Portola Valley have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.
The per capita income in Portola Valley in 2022 was $192,605, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $770,420 for a family of four.
Portola Valley is a very ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Portola Valley home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Portola Valley residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Portola Valley include German, English, Irish, Italian, and European.
The most common language spoken in Portola Valley is English. Other important languages spoken here include Tagalog and Chinese.
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 Portola Valley, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
If you come to know the people here, you will recognize that you're in the company of one of the wealthiest communities in the nation. In fact, a mere 0.6% of America's neighborhoods are wealthier than the neighborhood. Real estate here is exceedingly well-maintained, and similarly, tends to maintain its value over time. The cars driven are mostly luxury brands like Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Lexus. If the public schools aren't up to snuff, the residents of this neighborhood preferentially send their children to private preparatory schools. Vacation to Disney? Yes, but equally popular are summers in Europe. As one would expect in a considerably wealthy neighborhood such as this, also has one of the lowest ratings of child poverty in the nation.
In addition, if you are planning to retire in California, this neighborhood should be on your must-see list. For many reasons, may be considered a retiree's dream neighborhood. According to Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's exclusive analysis and metrics, it's peaceful and quiet, has above average safety from crime compared to other neighborhoods in California, while also offering a diverse range of housing options. This, along with the vibrant mix of very educated seniors and other age groups who choose to live here, makes the neighborhood more retiree-friendly than 99.4% of neighborhoods in CA. If a California retirement is in your future, this neighborhood should be one of the places you visit. In addition to being an excellent choice for active retirees, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for urban sophisticates, families with school-aged children and highly educated executives.
Also, some neighborhoods have residents that are more educated than others. But in this neighborhood there is a dramatic difference. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's exclusive analysis reveals that 47.8% of the adults here have earned a Masters degree, medical degree, Ph.D. or law degree. This is a higher rate of people with a graduate degree than is found in 98.8% of U.S. neighborhoods, where the average American neighborhood has 13.7% of its adults with a graduate degree. If you are highly educated, you may have much in common with many of your neighbors here.
It used to be that most Americans lived on the farm, or otherwise made their living from the land, the forests, or the sea. With global trade and an economy increasingly based on providing services to one another, fewer people farm, fish or harvest timber now than at any time in American history. But according to Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's leading analysis, the neighborhood stands apart from most American neighborhood due to the proportion of its residents still working in these fields. With 11.0% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 99.2% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Furthermore, the neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 95.9% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 71.6% 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.
In the neighborhood, many people's commute means walking from the bedroom to the home office. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's analysis found that 38.5% of residents worked from home. This may not seem like a large number, but Scout's research shows that this is a higher percentage of people working from home than 98.7% of the neighborhoods in America. Often people who work from home are engaged in the creative or technological economy, such as is found in areas around Boston, and in Silicon Valley. Other times, people may be engaged in other businesses like trading stocks from home, or running a small beauty salon.
Also, would you like to be able to ride your bike to work? If you are attracted to the idea of getting a little exercise of the two-wheeled type while reducing your carbon footprint, bicycling to work might be the answer. But which neighborhood you live in can make this either impossible, or alternatively, a great and realistic option. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's analysis revealed that the neighborhood is a fantastic option for bicycle commuters, as 5.4% of commuters here do ride their bikes to and from work on a daily basis. This is a higher amount than we found in 98.5% of the neighborhoods in America.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more British and Russian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 4.6% of this neighborhood's residents have British ancestry and 4.9% have Russian ancestry.
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 neighborhood in Portola Valley 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 99.4% 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.
A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.
In the neighborhood, 71.6% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is farming, forestry, or commercial fishing, with 11.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (9.0%), and 4.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support 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 neighborhood is English, spoken by 83.9% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog (the first language of the Philippine region).
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 neighborhood in Portola Valley, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (17.1%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (14.9%), and residents who report Irish roots (13.5%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (11.7%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (8.0%), among others. In addition, 17.8% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (40.5% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (48.8%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also bicycle to get to work (5.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.
