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.
Hancock Ave / State St median real estate price is $375,847, which is more expensive than 34.6% of the neighborhoods in Connecticut and 50.4% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Hancock Ave / State St is currently $2,041, based on Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 73.8% of Connecticut neighborhoods.
Hancock Ave / State St is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Hancock Ave / State St real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) small apartment buildings and single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood are relatively historic, built no later than 1939, and in some cases, quite a bit earlier. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Hancock Ave / State St. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 15.8%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 80.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This can sometimes be the case in neighborhoods dominated by new construction that is not yet occupied. But often neighborhoods with vacancy rates this high are places that can be plagued by a protracted vacancy problem. If you live here, you may find that a number of buildings in your neighborhood are actually empty.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
Modes of Transportation
Our research shows that more people carpool to work here in the Hancock Ave / State St (36.8%) than in 99.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
Also, more people in Hancock Ave / State St choose to walk to work each day (10.7%) than almost any neighborhood in America. If you are attracted to the idea of being able to walk to work, this neighborhood could be a good choice.
Real Estate
Three-deckers, duplexes, old Victorian homes cut up into apartments. Independent stores on the corner selling pizza. These are some of the hallmarks of neighborhoods with lots of small 2, 3, and 4 unit apartment buildings. The Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood really stands out in this regard, however, as it is dominated by such small apartment buildings more than nearly any other neighborhood in America. This is a stunning visual and lifestyle example of this type of neighborhood. In fact, 45.4% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings, which is a higher proportion than found in 97.9% of America's neighborhoods.
People
Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's analysis shows that the Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 96.1% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 12.0% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.
In addition, the Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood stands out within Connecticut for its college student friendly environment. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's analysis reveals that this neighborhood is home to a number of college students, is relatively walkable, and above average in safety. In combination, this makes it stand out for a good place for college students to consider. Because a number of college students live here, this neighborhood may be close to a college campus and offer certain amenities nearby geared towards the student body. While it's not an environment for everyone, ambitious scholars can enjoy seasonal excitement between semesters and school breaks, and parents can rest easy knowing that the area has an above average safety rating. For each of these reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 6.5% of college-friendly places to live in CT.
Car Ownership
We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's exclusive analysis shows that the Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. 21.6% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ found in 95.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood has more Haitian and French Canadian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 5.4% of this neighborhood's residents have Haitian ancestry and 3.5% have French Canadian ancestry.
Hancock Ave / State St is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.5% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Native American languages at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.6% 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 Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood in Bridgeport are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 65.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 18.6% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 67.4% of U.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 Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood, 39.3% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 36.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (15.0%), and 9.3% in executive, management, and professional 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 Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood is English, spoken by 44.9% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Langs. of India, French 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 Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood in Bridgeport, CT, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (17.1%). There are also a number of people of Asian ancestry (8.1%), and residents who report Puerto Rican roots (7.8%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (6.6%), along with some Sub-Saharan African ancestry residents (6.1%), among others. In addition, 35.7% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 Hancock Ave / State St neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (50.0% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (47.2%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (36.8%) and 10.7% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work for their daily commute. 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.
