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Real Estate Prices & Overview

Brightwood median real estate price is $788,330, which is more expensive than 46.6% of the neighborhoods in the District Of Columbia and 85.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in Brightwood is currently $1,668, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 82.0% of District Of Columbia neighborhoods.

Brightwood is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Washington, District Of Columbia.

Brightwood real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to large (four, five or more bedroom) townhomes and single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Brightwood 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.

Home and apartment vacancy rates are 8.2% in Brightwood. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 47.2% 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

Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the Brightwood neighborhood has some of the lowest rates of children living in poverty of any neighborhood in the United States. In a nation where approximately 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, the Brightwood community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.

In addition, if you're a regular supporter of the arts and enjoy outings to the theatre, weekend boutique-ing, or even a finely aged wine with dinner, than you're in good company with the people of the Brightwood neighborhood. This neighborhood is uniquely immersed with more "urban sophisticates" than 95.5% of neighborhoods across the country. The people here truly stand out as a class among their own. They are an exclusive community characterized by refined tastes, cultural inclinations, and the means to live well. Urban sophisticates live a big city lifestyle, whether or not they live in or near a big city. They are educated executives or managers by week, and serial patrons of the arts by weekend. If this lifestyle pertains to you, than you'll certainly feel right at home in the Brightwood neighborhood.

Real Estate

If you love row houses and attached homes, you will probably really like the Brightwood neighborhood. The ambiance, the charm, of row houses is something special. And in sheer abundance of row houses, this neighborhood truly stands out. The real estate here has a higher proportion of row houses and attached homes than nearly any neighborhood in America. In fact, 72.8% of the residential real estate here is classified as row houses and attached homes.

In addition, being a walkable neighborhood can help increase property values for the simple reason that people enjoy it and value it. To put it plainly, despite our love affair with the automobile, American's enjoy taking to the streets, sidewalks, paths, and courtyards of a place to get a coffee, relax, and take in the sights and sounds. And, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive and first quantitative walkable score index, the Brightwood neighborhood is one of the most walkable neighborhoods in America.

Furthermore, do you watch 'This Old House' on Public Television? Do you love the idea of fixing up a Colonial or Victorian era home, complete with the charm of yesteryear? Do you like to stroll or drive streets lined with gracious older residences? If you found yourself nodding yes to any of these questions, you are going to be interested in this unique neighborhood. The Brightwood neighborhood stands out on a national scale for the sheer concentration of historic residences it contains: 75.5% of the residential real estate here was built from 1939 or earlier, some much earlier. This is a greater concentration of historic homes than 99.3% of the neighborhoods in the United States.

Modes of Transportation

Our research revealed that more commuters here take the bus to work (23.4% ride the bus) than 99.1% of all American neighborhoods. If you like the idea of leaving your car and home and hopping the bus to work, this might be a good neighborhood for you to consider.

Also, in the Brightwood neighborhood, 12.7% 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 95.9% of the neighborhoods in America.

Occupations

The government often provides some of the more stable jobs in the economy. From local, to state, to federal government workers, the government can also be a major employer. What NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed, is that the Brightwood neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 13.5% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 95.9% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Diversity

Did you know that the Brightwood neighborhood has more Sub-Saharan African and Haitian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 17.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Sub-Saharan African ancestry and 2.4% have Haitian ancestry.

Brightwood is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 3.2% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak African languages at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.3% 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 Brightwood neighborhood in Washington are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 62.5% 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 Brightwood neighborhood, 63.3% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 14.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions (13.5%), and 13.4% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.

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 English, spoken by 72.2% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and African languages.

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 Brightwood neighborhood in Washington, DC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (17.9%). There are also a number of people of South American ancestry (6.4%), and residents who report German roots (3.9%), and some of the residents are also of Jamaican ancestry (3.4%), along with some English ancestry residents (3.4%), among others. In addition, 18.0% 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 Brightwood neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (54.2% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.

Here most residents (30.7%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (23.4%) and 12.7% of residents also take the train 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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