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Real Estate Prices & Overview

Southwest Berkeley median real estate price is $1,352,360, which is more expensive than 83.5% of the neighborhoods in California and 96.6% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in Southwest Berkeley is currently $2,734, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 63.5% of California neighborhoods.

Southwest Berkeley is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Berkeley, California.

Southwest Berkeley 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 Southwest Berkeley neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.

Southwest Berkeley has a 12.1% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 69.8% 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

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.

Modes of Transportation

If your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 11.7% of residents in the Southwest Berkeley neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 99.7% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.

Also, in the Southwest Berkeley neighborhood, many people's commute means walking from the bedroom to the home office. NeighborhoodScout's analysis found that 32.4% of residents worked from home. This may not seem like a large number, but Scout's research shows that this is a higher percentage of people working from home than 97.9% of the neighborhoods in America. Often people who work from home are engaged in the creative or technological economy, such as is found in areas around Boston, and in Silicon Valley. Other times, people may be engaged in other businesses like trading stocks from home, or running a small beauty salon.

People

NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that the Southwest Berkeley neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 96.3% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 12.8% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.

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 Southwest Berkeley 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, 32.0% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings, which is a higher proportion than found in 95.3% of America's neighborhoods.

Diversity

Did you know that the Southwest Berkeley neighborhood has more Croatian and South American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 3.4% of this neighborhood's residents have Croatian ancestry and 13.4% have South American ancestry.

Southwest Berkeley is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 0.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Japanese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 95.0% of the neighborhoods in America.

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 Southwest Berkeley neighborhood in Berkeley are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 59.4% of the neighborhoods in America. With 12.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 54.1% 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 Southwest Berkeley neighborhood, 56.7% 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 16.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (16.2%), and 9.6% 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 Southwest Berkeley neighborhood is English, spoken by 60.8% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, 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 Southwest Berkeley neighborhood in Berkeley, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (17.6%). There are also a number of people of South American ancestry (13.4%), and residents who report German roots (7.4%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (7.1%), along with some Asian ancestry residents (5.9%), among others. In addition, 26.9% 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 Southwest Berkeley neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (35.6% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.

Here most residents (35.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also bicycle to get to work (11.7%) and 6.4% 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.


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