Balboa median real estate price is $4,320,426, which is more expensive than 97.6% of the neighborhoods in California and 99.6% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Balboa is currently $4,540, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 81.9% of the neighborhoods in California.
Balboa is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Newport Beach, California. This is a coastal neighborhood (i.e., is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet).
Balboa real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to small (studio to two bedroom) single-family homes and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Balboa neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Balboa. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 37.4%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 97.2% of all U.S. neighborhoods. A relatively large percentage of housing here is seasonally occupied (19.2%). 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.
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 Balboa 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, Balboa 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, despite all of the residential real estate here in the Balboa neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 37.4%, which is higher than 97.2% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the Balboa neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 17.9% 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 99.3% of all neighborhoods in America.
Wealth makes most things in life easier, and a few things harder. If you are wealthy and enjoy keeping up with the Jones', this neighborhood will interest you. In fact, according to NeighborhoodScout's research, the Balboa neighborhood is wealthier than 98.3% of the neighborhoods in the United States. Residents here are truly in a unique situation even when compared to other Americans, based on the sheer amount of wealth concentrated here. Even in times of economic downturn, residents of this neighborhood, as a group, suffered less and recovered more quickly. This is indeed a stand-out characteristic of this neighborhood.
In addition, if you're a regular supporter of the arts and enjoy outings to the theatre, weekend boutique-ing, or even a finely aged wine with dinner, than you're in good company with the people of the Balboa neighborhood. This neighborhood is uniquely immersed with more "urban sophisticates" than 95.6% of neighborhoods across the country. The people here truly stand out as a class among their own. They are an exclusive community characterized by refined tastes, cultural inclinations, and the means to live well. Urban sophisticates live a big city lifestyle, whether or not they live in or near a big city. They are educated executives or managers by week, and serial patrons of the arts by weekend. If this lifestyle pertains to you, than you'll certainly feel right at home in the Balboa neighborhood. In addition to being an excellent choice for urban sophisticates, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for active retirees and highly educated executives.
The government often provides some of the more stable jobs in the economy. From local, to state, to federal government workers, the government can also be a major employer. What NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed, is that the Balboa neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 14.1% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 96.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Did you know that the Balboa neighborhood has more Austrian and English ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 4.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Austrian ancestry and 24.3% have English ancestry.
Balboa is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 3.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Russian at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.5% 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 Balboa neighborhood in Newport Beach are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 98.3% of the neighborhoods in America. With 22.2% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 72.8% 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 Balboa neighborhood, 59.4% 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 31.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions (14.1%), and 5.7% 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 Balboa neighborhood is English, spoken by 86.6% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Russian and German/Yiddish.
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 Balboa neighborhood in Newport Beach, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (24.3%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (13.5%), and residents who report Irish roots (10.7%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (7.8%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (6.3%), among others.
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 Balboa neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (47.8% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans. However, there is also a significant group of residents (17.9%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (72.1%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.