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.
S Drexel Ave / E 61st St median real estate price is $249,491, which is more expensive than 46.0% of the neighborhoods in Illinois and 32.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in S Drexel Ave / E 61st St is currently $1,758, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 54.5% of Illinois neighborhoods.
S Drexel Ave / E 61st St is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Chicago, Illinois.
S Drexel Ave / E 61st St 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 S Drexel Ave / E 61st St 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 1970 and 1999.
S Drexel Ave / E 61st St has a 14.5% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 76.7% 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
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
Modes of Transportation
More people in S Drexel Ave / E 61st St choose to walk to work each day (35.2%) than almost any neighborhood in America. If you are attracted to the idea of being able to walk to work, this neighborhood could be a good choice.
Also, our research revealed that more commuters here take the bus to work (14.5% ride the bus) than 97.1% 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.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood buck this trend. 39.1% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
People
One of the most interesting things about the S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in America. With 52.9% 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 97.0% of the neighborhoods in America.
In addition, one of the unique characteristics of the S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood revealed by analysis is that the per capita income of residents here is lower than that found in 95.3% of the neighborhoods in America.
Real Estate
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 S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood is one of the most walkable neighborhoods in America.
In addition, the real estate in the S Drexel Ave / E 61st St 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, 77.1% of the real estate here is classified as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments, which is more than is found in 96.2% of American neighborhoods.
Furthermore, renter-occupied real estate is dominant in the S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 85.9%, which is higher than 95.6% 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.
Diversity
Did you know that the S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood has more South American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.8% of this neighborhood's residents have South American ancestry.
S Drexel Ave / E 61st St is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 0.9% 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 97.0% 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 S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood in Chicago are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 95.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 28.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 79.5% 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 S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood, 62.5% 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 13.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (12.7%), and 11.1% in manufacturing and laborer 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 S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood is English, spoken by 71.5% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
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 S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood in Chicago, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (15.3%). There are also a number of people of South American ancestry (7.8%), and residents who report Mexican roots (6.7%), and some of the residents are also of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (6.5%), along with some Irish ancestry residents (5.6%), among others. In addition, 20.4% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 S Drexel Ave / E 61st St neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (40.4% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (35.2%) hop out the door and walk to work to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (14.5%) and 14.1% of residents also drive alone in a private automobile for their daily commute. This is a special neighborhood for the number of people who walk to work. Combining exercise, low cost, and reduced pollution, plus the chance to see your neighbors, walking to work is fairly uncommon in America but likely to increase as people try to reduce their dependence on automobiles, and this neighborhood offers that opportunity today.
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.
