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.
Northtowne Village median real estate price is $179,981, which is less expensive than 74.2% of Texas neighborhoods and 81.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in Northtowne Village is currently $1,878, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 41.1% of Texas neighborhoods.
Northtowne Village is a rural neighborhood (based on population density) located in El Paso, Texas.
Northtowne Village 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 single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Northtowne Village neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Northtowne Village. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 20.5%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 87.5% of all U.S. neighborhoods. A relatively large percentage of housing here is seasonally occupied (12.7%). This can occur in vacation areas, and occasionally it is also found in neighborhoods that are primarily filled with college students, as some apartments could be vacant when school is not in session. If you live here year round, 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 El Paso, the Northtowne Village neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Occupations
With 6.6% of employed workers living in the Northtowne Village neighborhood active in the military, this neighborhood has the distinction of having a higher proportion of people in the military than 99.1% of American neighborhoods. This is a major shaper of the neighborhood's culture and character.
People
Single parenting is hard. But you don't have to tell the Northtowne Village neighborhood about it; they already know. 21.4% of this neighborhood's households are run by single mothers, which is a higher concentration than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.7% of American neighborhoods. Further NeighborhoodScout research showed strong statistical correlations among high rates of children living in single parent households, and neighborhood crime, particularly violent crime, neighborhood poverty, and, importantly, the percentage of low weight births and rates of infant mortality.
In addition, neighborhoodScout's analysis shows that the Northtowne Village neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 95.2% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 11.0% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.
Real Estate
If you like the look and ambience of new homes and newly built neighborhoods, you will love the Northtowne Village neighborhood. A whopping 67.4% 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 95.3% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. Everything here just feels new.
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 Northtowne Village neighborhood in El Paso are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 84.9% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 26.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 77.0% 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 Northtowne Village neighborhood, 29.2% 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 24.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (23.5%), and 22.6% in executive, management, and professional occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Northtowne Village neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 49.0% of households. Some people also speak English (48.2%).
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 Northtowne Village neighborhood in El Paso, TX, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (46.4%). There are also a number of people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (4.7%), and residents who report German roots (4.4%), and some of the residents are also of South American ancestry (4.1%), along with some African ancestry residents (3.8%), among others. In addition, 22.6% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 Northtowne Village neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (52.0% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (76.8%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (12.7%) . 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.
