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.
Montrose Heights median real estate price is $305,736, which is less expensive than 71.2% of Virginia neighborhoods and 61.0% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in Montrose Heights is currently $2,366, based on Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 52.4% of Virginia neighborhoods.
Montrose Heights is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Richmond, Virginia.
Montrose Heights real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) apartment complexes/high-rise apartments and single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Montrose Heights neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Real estate vacancies in Montrose Heights are 4.1%, which is lower than one will find in 71.4% of American neighborhoods. Demand for real estate in Montrose Heights is above average for the U.S., and may signal some demand for either price increases or new construction of residential product for this neighborhood.
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.
People
Of note, 68.4% of the children in this area live in poverty; an extraordinarily high percentage compared to other neighborhoods in the nation. In a nation where approximately one in four children grows up in poverty, this neighborhood stands out for the depth of the problem manifested here.
In addition, an extraordinary 12.7% of the residents of the Montrose Heights neighborhood are currently enrolled in college. This is such a large part of life in this neighborhood that the neighborhood changes a great deal with the change of semesters and is far quieter during the summer when many students are away.
Also, one of the most interesting things about the Montrose Heights neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in America. With 50.1% of the households here made up of people living alone, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's research reveals that this is a larger proportion of people living alone than in 95.5% of the neighborhoods in America.
Finally, with a nice mix of college students, safety from crime, and decent walkability, the Montrose Heights neighborhood rates highly as a college student friendly place to live, and one that college students and their parents may want to consider. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's analysis shows that it rates more highly for a good place for college students to live than 86.0% of the neighborhoods in VA. This often also means that the area has certain amenities and services geared towards college students, from undergraduates to graduate students.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Montrose Heights neighborhood buck this trend. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's Analysis reveals that 42.7% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 98.8% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
Occupations
From major sales accounts to fast-food workers, sales and service employees are often the backbone of the local economy. In the Montrose Heights neighborhood, they truly stand out. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's exclusive analysis identifies this neighborhood as having a higher percentage of sales and service workers than 95.0% of all American neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Montrose Heights neighborhood has more Sub-Saharan African and Haitian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 25.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Sub-Saharan African ancestry and 1.9% have Haitian ancestry.
Montrose Heights is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 12.3% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak French at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
The Neighbors
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the Montrose Heights neighborhood in Richmond are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 100.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 68.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 98.4% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the Montrose Heights neighborhood, 37.2% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 26.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (17.8%), and 17.4% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Montrose Heights neighborhood is English, spoken by 87.5% of households. Some people also speak French (12.3%).
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 Montrose Heights neighborhood in Richmond, VA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (25.1%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (4.0%), and residents who report German roots (4.0%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (2.3%), along with some Haitian ancestry residents (1.9%), 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 Montrose Heights neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (50.4% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (67.7%) 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 (13.4%) and 5.2% of residents also ride the bus 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.
