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Real Estate Prices & Overview

Lake Merritt median real estate price is $1,197,637, which is more expensive than 75.8% of the neighborhoods in California and 94.6% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in Lake Merritt is currently $2,473, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 72.9% of California neighborhoods.

Lake Merritt is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Oakland, California.

Lake Merritt 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 Lake Merritt neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.

Lake Merritt has a 10.3% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 62.8% of American neighborhoods). Most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This could either signal that there is a weak demand for real estate in the neighborhood or that large amount of new housing has been built and not yet occupied. Either way, if you live here, you may find many of the homes or apartments are empty.

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 Oakland, the Lake Merritt 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 Lake Merritt neighborhood stands out as being ranked among the lowest 0.0% of neighborhoods affected by this global issue.

In addition, one of the most interesting things about the Lake Merritt neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in America. With 69.2% of the households here made up of people living alone, NeighborhoodScout's research reveals that this is a larger proportion of people living alone than in 99.7% of the neighborhoods in America.

Also, some neighborhoods have residents that are more educated than others. But in this neighborhood there is a dramatic difference. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that 36.4% 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 95.7% of U.S. neighborhoods, where the average American neighborhood has 13.4% of its adults with a graduate degree. If you are highly educated, you may have much in common with many of your neighbors here.

Real Estate

The Lake Merritt neighborhood is very unique in that it has one of the highest proportions of one, two, or no bedroom real estate of any neighborhood in America. Most neighborhoods have a mixture of home or apartment sizes from small to large, but here the concentration of studios and other small living spaces is at near-record heights. With 96.6% of the real estate here of this small size, this most assuredly is a notable feature that makes this neighborhood unique, along with just a handful of other neighborhoods in the U.S. that share this characteristic.

In addition, the real estate in the Lake Merritt neighborhood really stands out in the way it looks for a unique reason: this neighborhood has a higher proportion of apartment complexes or high-rise apartments than nearly every neighborhood in the country. Most neighborhoods are a mixture of real estate and housing types, but here it is almost entirely dominated by big apartment buildings and complexes. In fact, 91.6% of the real estate here is classified as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments, which is more than is found in 98.5% of American neighborhoods.

Furthermore, renter-occupied real estate is dominant in the Lake Merritt neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 85.0%, which is higher than 95.4% 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.

Occupations

Executives, managers and professionals make up 75.9% of the workforce in the Lake Merritt neighborhood which, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, is a higher proportion of such high-level people than is found in 98.0% of the neighborhoods in America. For this reason, this neighborhood really stands out as unique.

Modes of Transportation

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. NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed that the Lake Merritt neighborhood is a fantastic option for bicycle commuters, as 4.7% of commuters here do ride their bikes to and from work on a daily basis. This is a higher amount than we found in 97.9% of the neighborhoods in America.

Also, in the Lake Merritt neighborhood, 19.4% of people ride the train to work each day. This is a very high percentage compared to most places. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this is a higher level of train ridership than in 97.1% of the neighborhoods in America.

Finally, in the Lake Merritt neighborhood, walking to work is a real option for many. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research reveals walking to and from work is the chosen way to commute for 13.2% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 96.5% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!

Car Ownership

American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Lake Merritt neighborhood buck this trend. 28.1% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.9% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Diversity

Did you know that the Lake Merritt neighborhood has more Belgian and Armenian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Belgian ancestry and 1.5% have Armenian ancestry.

Lake Merritt is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 17.0% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Chinese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.0% 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 Lake Merritt neighborhood in Oakland are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 47.3% 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.

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 Lake Merritt neighborhood, 75.9% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional 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 13.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (9.2%), and 4.9% in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions.

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 Lake Merritt neighborhood is English, spoken by 67.8% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese, French, African languages and Spanish.

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 Lake Merritt neighborhood in Oakland, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (25.0%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (9.9%), and residents who report Irish roots (8.7%), and some of the residents are also of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (6.0%), along with some German ancestry residents (6.0%), among others. In addition, 33.5% 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 Lake Merritt neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (39.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (30.7%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (19.4%) and 13.2% 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.


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