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Real Estate Prices & Overview

West Oakland median real estate price is $160,800, which is less expensive than 79.3% of Pennsylvania neighborhoods and 84.7% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

The average rental price in West Oakland is currently $2,147, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 74.2% of the neighborhoods in Pennsylvania.

West Oakland is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

West Oakland real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to small (studio to two bedroom) single-family homes and townhomes. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the West Oakland 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 2000 and the present.

Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in West Oakland. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 32.0%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 95.5% 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.

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 Pittsburgh, the West Oakland neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

People

NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that the West Oakland neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 99.4% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 56.4% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.

In addition, one of the unique characteristics of the West Oakland neighborhood revealed by analysis is that the per capita income of residents here is lower than that found in 98.9% of the neighborhoods in America. Also of note, 78.4% 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.

Modes of Transportation

More people in West Oakland choose to walk to work each day (31.9%) 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 (15.9% ride the bus) than 97.6% 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.

Real Estate

If you love row houses and attached homes, you will probably really like the West Oakland 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, 29.5% of the residential real estate here is classified as row houses and attached homes.

In addition, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 32.0% of the residential real estate vacant, the West Oakland neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 95.5% 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.

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 West Oakland neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. 21.1% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 95.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Migration / Stability

Some neighborhoods have more internal cohesiveness than others. While other neighborhoods feel like a collection of strangers who just happen to live near each other. Sometimes this comes down to not only the personalities of the people in a place, but how long people have been together in that neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research has revealed some interesting things about the rootedness of people in the West Oakland neighborhood. In the West Oakland neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 98.6% of U.S. Neighborhoods. This neighborhood, more than almost any other in America, has new residents from other areas.

Diversity

Significantly, 6.0% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Chinese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 96.0% 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 West Oakland neighborhood in Pittsburgh are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 98.9% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 78.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 99.3% 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 West Oakland neighborhood, 40.9% 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 23.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (21.5%), and 14.1% 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 West Oakland neighborhood is English, spoken by 81.5% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Polish.

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 West Oakland neighborhood in Pittsburgh, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (15.4%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (11.3%), and residents who report Italian roots (6.8%), and some of the residents are also of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (6.1%), along with some Irish ancestry residents (6.0%), among others.

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 West Oakland neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (50.1% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (31.9%) hop out the door and walk to work to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (21.2%) and 15.9% of residents also ride the bus 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.


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