What do we mean by a neighborhood?
NeighborhoodScout® 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. NeighborhoodScout 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.
Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden median real estate price is $644,875, which is more expensive than 33.5% of the neighborhoods in California and 79.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden is currently $2,071, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 84.7% of California neighborhoods.
Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Palm Desert, California.
Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) single-family homes and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Home and apartment vacancy rates are 6.4% in Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden. 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
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 Palm Desert, the Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Modes of Transportation
In the Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood, carpooling is still a popular way to get to and from work. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that 48.8% of commuters carpool here, which is more than in 99.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Occupations
There are more people living in the Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood employed as sales and service workers (45.4%) than almost any neighborhood in the country. From fast-food service workers to major sales accounts, sales and service workers make up the largest proportion of our national employment picture. But despite that size and importance nationally, this neighborhood still stands out as unique due to the dominance of people living here who work in such occupations.
People
NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that the Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 97.3% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 17.2% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.
In addition, astoundingly, the Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood has one of the highest concentrations of divorcees living here than of any neighborhood, a higher concentration than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. This may be because people living here divorce more often than others, or that divorced people move here after they become divorced. If you are divorced, you will be in good company in this particular Palm Desert neighborhood.
Diversity
Did you know that the Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood has more Mexican and Cuban ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 66.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Mexican ancestry and 3.4% have Cuban ancestry.
Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 0.7% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Urdu, which is the national language of Pakistan, at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 96.3% 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. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood in Palm Desert are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 71.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 33.5% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 84.3% 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 Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood, 54.6% 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 clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 18.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (14.2%), and 11.0% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 62.7% of households. Some people also speak English (36.8%).
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 Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood in Palm Desert, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (66.1%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (9.5%), and residents who report Irish roots (5.0%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (3.4%), along with some Cuban ancestry residents (3.4%), among others. In addition, 32.0% 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 Palm Village Plaza / Palm Village Garden neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (56.3% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (48.8%) carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (46.2%) . Despite relying on the automobile to get to work, residents of this neighborhood share the ride more than most neighborhoods, reducing traffic, pollution, and saving money.
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.
