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Real Estate Prices & Overview

Brightwood median real estate price is $236,101, which is less expensive than 97.9% of Massachusetts neighborhoods and 69.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

The average rental price in Brightwood is currently $1,021, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 99.7% of Massachusetts neighborhoods.

Brightwood is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Brightwood 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 small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Brightwood neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built before 1940.

Home and apartment vacancy rates are 6.4% in Brightwood. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 57.6% of the neighborhoods in the nation, approximately near the middle range for vacancies.

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 NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.

People

One of the unique characteristics of the Brightwood neighborhood revealed by analysis is that the per capita income of residents here is lower than that found in 99.5% of the neighborhoods in America. The Brightwood neighborhood also has a greater percentage of children living in poverty (62.3%) than found in 97.3% of all U.S. neighborhoods. Children living in poverty is one of the challenges facing America, and the world, and in this neighborhood in particular, the problem can be considered acute.

In addition, the Brightwood neighborhood is unique for having just 3.7% of adults here having earned a bachelor's degree. This is a lower rate of college graduates than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.0% of America's neighborhoods.

Also, whether by choice, divorce, or unplanned pregnancy, single moms may have the toughest job in the book. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that the Brightwood neighborhood has more single mother households than 97.2% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. Often high concentrations of single mother homes can be a strong indicator of family and social issues such as poverty, high rates of school dropouts, crime, and other societal problems.

Real Estate

Renter-occupied real estate is dominant in the Brightwood neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 90.1%, which is higher than 96.8% of the neighborhoods in America. If you were to buy and live in the property you bought here, you would be almost alone in doing so.

In addition, 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 Brightwood 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, 33.6% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings, which is a higher proportion than found in 95.7% of America's neighborhoods.

Car Ownership

American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Brightwood neighborhood buck this trend. 19.4% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 95.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Diversity

Did you know that the Brightwood neighborhood has more Puerto Rican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 77.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Puerto Rican ancestry.

Brightwood is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 67.9% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Spanish at home. This is a higher percentage than 97.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

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 Brightwood neighborhood in Springfield are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 99.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 62.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 97.3% of U.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 Brightwood neighborhood, 40.3% of the working population is employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support 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 25.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (18.5%), and 15.7% 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 Brightwood neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 67.9% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English and Italian.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.

In the Brightwood neighborhood in Springfield, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Puerto Rican (77.3%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (5.5%), and residents who report Sub-Saharan African roots (3.3%), and some of the residents are also of Dominican ancestry (2.5%), along with some South American ancestry residents (1.2%), 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 Brightwood neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (49.9% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.

Here most residents (59.7%) 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 (21.1%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


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