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.
Willowwood / Heritage Trace median real estate price is $514,885, which is more expensive than 70.3% of the neighborhoods in Delaware and 66.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Willowwood / Heritage Trace is currently $2,543, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 70.9% of the neighborhoods in Delaware.
Willowwood / Heritage Trace is a rural neighborhood (based on population density) located in Smyrna, Delaware.
Willowwood / Heritage Trace real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to large (four, five or more bedroom) single-family homes and townhomes. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
In Willowwood / Heritage Trace, the current vacancy rate is 0.0%, which is a lower rate of vacancies than 100.0% of all neighborhoods in the U.S. This means that the housing supply in Willowwood / Heritage Trace is very tight compared to the demand for property here.
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 Smyrna, the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Real Estate
Owner-occupied real estate dominates the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood. In fact, according to NeighborhoodScout research, the percentage of residential real estate occupied by its owner is higher here than in 95.1% of neighborhoods in America. With a real estate vacancy rate of only 0.0%, the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood has a lower vacancy rate than 100.0% of U.S. neighborhoods, a very elite group. Such a low vacancy rate may indicate very strong real estate demand in the neighborhood combined with some impediments to increasing supply, such as zoning or existing density of development, among other potential reasons.
In addition, if you like the look and ambience of new homes and newly built neighborhoods, you will love the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood. A whopping 86.4% of the homes and other residential real estate here were built after 1999, which is a higher proportion of new homes then you will find in 98.2% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. Everything here just feels new. In fact, the concentration of newer homes here is so great that they completely dominate the landscape. In most neighborhoods, there is a mixture of ages of residential real estate, but here it is almost completely built during one time frame: 2000 through today.
People
In a nation where 1 out of every 4 children lives in poverty, the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood stands out as being ranked among the lowest 0.0% of neighborhoods affected by this global issue.
In addition, the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood is a great option for families, as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's research on this neighborhood. The combination of top public schools, low crime rates, and owner-occupied single family homes, make this neighborhood among the top 6.9% of family-friendly neighborhoods in the state of Delaware. Many other families also live here, making it easy to socialize and develop a sense of community. In addition, families here highly value education, as is reflected by the strength of the local schools. In addition to being an excellent choice for families with school-aged children, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for college students.
Occupations
With 2.6% of employed workers living in the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood active in the military, this neighborhood has the distinction of having a higher proportion of people in the military than 97.1% of American neighborhoods. This is a major shaper of the neighborhood's culture and character.
Length of Commute
Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 10.6% of commuters here travel more than one hour just one-way to work. That is more than two hours per day. This percentage with two-hour + round-trip commutes is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.2% of all neighborhoods in America.
Diversity
Did you know that the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood has more Puerto Rican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 8.8% of this neighborhood's residents have Puerto Rican ancestry.
Willowwood / Heritage Trace is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.7% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Korean at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 95.3% 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 Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood in Smyrna are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 73.6% 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.
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 Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood, 45.1% 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 21.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (18.1%), and 15.7% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood is English, spoken by 87.0% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (7.2%).
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 Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood in Smyrna, DE, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (15.5%). There are also a number of people of Puerto Rican ancestry (8.8%), and residents who report Polish roots (8.0%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (7.3%), along with some English ancestry residents (7.1%), among others.
Getting to Work
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in Willowwood / Heritage Trace neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (47.3% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans. However, there is also a significant group of residents (10.6%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (86.7%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. 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.
