Wildwood Crest is a very small coastal borough (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 3,069 people and just one neighborhood, Wildwood Crest is the 378th largest community in New Jersey.
Housing costs in Wildwood Crest are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in New Jersey.
Wildwood Crest is a decidedly white-collar borough, with fully 89.30% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Wildwood Crest is a borough of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Wildwood Crest who work in management occupations (17.16%), sales jobs (15.17%), and teaching (13.68%).
Also of interest is that Wildwood Crest has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 14.43% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Another notable thing is that Wildwood Crest is a major vacation destination. Much of the borough’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Wildwood Crest’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.
Wildwood Crest is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.
Even though Wildwood Crest is a smaller borough, it has many people who hop on public transportation – mostly the train for their daily commute to work. Typically, these people are commuting to good jobs in the surrounding cities.
The population of Wildwood Crest is very well educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation, where the average community has 21.84% of its adult population holding a 4-year degree or higher: 39.42% of adults in Wildwood Crest have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.
The per capita income in Wildwood Crest in 2018 was $49,717, which is middle income relative to New Jersey, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $198,868 for a family of four. However, Wildwood Crest contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Wildwood Crest home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Wildwood Crest residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Wildwood Crest include Italian, Irish, German, Polish, and English.
The most common language spoken in Wildwood Crest is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
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.
Do you like a coastal setting? If so, this neighborhood may be to your liking. The neighborhood is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Often such coastal places have amenities and recreational activities on the waterfront that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.
In addition, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 68.7% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 99.6% 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.
Furthermore, if you love row houses and attached homes, you will probably really like the 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, 41.3% of the residential real estate here is classified as row houses and attached homes.
Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the 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 community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.
If your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 3.0% of residents in the neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 95.7% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Italian and Irish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 31.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Italian ancestry and 28.2% have Irish ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.5% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Portuguese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 96.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 neighborhood in Wildwood Crest are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 60.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. 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 neighborhood, 50.0% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 30.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (10.7%), and 9.2% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
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 neighborhood is English, spoken by 95.1% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
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 neighborhood in Wildwood Crest, NJ, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Italian (31.3%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (28.2%), and residents who report German roots (18.7%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (10.8%), along with some English ancestry residents (9.1%), among others.
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 neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (50.4% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (65.1%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (7.0%) and 6.1% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors 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.
