W 66th St / S May St median real estate price is $160,060, which is less expensive than 76.9% of Illinois neighborhoods and 84.5% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in W 66th St / S May St is currently $1,311, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 73.9% of Illinois neighborhoods.
W 66th St / S May St is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Chicago, Illinois.
W 66th St / S May St real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) small apartment buildings and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the W 66th St / S May 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.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in W 66th St / S May St. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 31.3%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 95.2% of all U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This can sometimes be the case in neighborhoods dominated by new construction that is not yet occupied. But often neighborhoods with vacancy rates this high are places that can be plagued by a protracted vacancy problem. If you live here, you may find that a number of buildings in your neighborhood are actually empty.
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 Chicago, the W 66th St / S May St neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Length of Commute
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The W 66th St / S May St neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the W 66th St / S May St neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 21.8% 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 99.7% of all neighborhoods in America.
Modes of Transportation
More people ride the bus in this neighborhood each day to get to work than 99.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Also, if you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 23.1% of the W 66th St / S May St neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 97.5% of America's neighborhoods.
People
Of note, 68.9% of the children in this area live in poverty; an extraordinarily high percentage compared to other neighborhoods in the nation. In a nation where approximately one in four children grows up in poverty, this neighborhood stands out for the depth of the problem manifested here.
In addition, one of the most interesting things about the W 66th St / S May St neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in America. With 50.4% 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 95.9% of the neighborhoods in America.
Car Ownership
We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis shows that the W 66th St / S May St neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. 42.7% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.3% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Occupations
There are more people living in the W 66th St / S May St neighborhood employed as sales and service workers (57.6%) 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.
Real Estate
Three-deckers, duplexes, old Victorian homes cut up into apartments. Independent stores on the corner selling pizza. These are some of the hallmarks of neighborhoods with lots of small 2, 3, and 4 unit apartment buildings. The W 66th St / S May St neighborhood really stands out in this regard, however, as it is dominated by such small apartment buildings more than nearly any other neighborhood in America. This is a stunning visual and lifestyle example of this type of neighborhood. In fact, 34.1% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings, which is a higher proportion than found in 95.8% of America's neighborhoods.
In addition, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 31.3% of the residential real estate vacant, the W 66th St / S May St neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 95.2% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
Diversity
Did you know that the W 66th St / S May St neighborhood has more African and Greek ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 12.9% of this neighborhood's residents have African ancestry and 2.4% have Greek ancestry.
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 W 66th St / S May 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 100.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 68.9% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 98.4% 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 W 66th St / S May St neighborhood, 42.4% 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 manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 27.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (17.1%), and 13.4% in executive, management, and professional occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the W 66th St / S May St neighborhood is English, spoken by 92.8% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (4.1%).
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 W 66th St / S May St neighborhood in Chicago, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (12.9%). There are also a number of people of African ancestry (12.9%), and residents who report Greek roots (2.4%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (1.8%).
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 W 66th St / S May St neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (40.0% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (35.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (28.5%) and 23.1% 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.
