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.
Williams Ranch South median real estate price is $588,390, which is more expensive than 29.5% of the neighborhoods in California and 72.0% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Williams Ranch South is currently $3,202, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 45.7% of California neighborhoods.
Williams Ranch South is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Salinas, California.
Williams Ranch South real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) single-family homes and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Williams Ranch South neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
In Williams Ranch South, the current vacancy rate is 2.3%, which is a lower rate of vacancies than 84.5% of all neighborhoods in the U.S. This means that the housing supply in Williams Ranch South is very tight compared to the demand for property here.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
Occupations
It used to be that most Americans lived on the farm, or otherwise made their living from the land, the forests, or the sea. With global trade and an economy increasingly based on providing services to one another, fewer people farm, fish or harvest timber now than at any time in American history. But according to NeighborhoodScout's leading analysis, the Williams Ranch South neighborhood stands apart from most American neighborhood due to the proportion of its residents still working in these fields. With 23.8% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 99.8% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Modes of Transportation
In the Williams Ranch South neighborhood, carpooling is still a popular way to get to and from work. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that 37.1% of commuters carpool here, which is more than in 99.7% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
People
The Williams Ranch South neighborhood is unique for having just 0.4% of adults here having earned a bachelor's degree. This is a lower rate of college graduates than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.9% of America's neighborhoods.
In addition, single parenting is hard. But you don't have to tell the Williams Ranch South neighborhood about it; they already know. 20.9% of this neighborhood's households are run by single mothers, which is a higher concentration than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.5% 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.
Also, with a nice mix of college students, safety from crime, and decent walkability, the Williams Ranch South neighborhood rates highly as a college student friendly place to live, and one that college students and their parents may want to consider. NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that it rates more highly for a good place for college students to live than 87.8% of the neighborhoods in CA. This often also means that the area has certain amenities and services geared towards college students, from undergraduates to graduate students.
Real Estate
If you like crowded places, then you will probably enjoy the the Williams Ranch South neighborhood. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive data analysis, this neighborhood is more densely populated than 96.4% of neighborhoods in the U.S., with 26,491 people per square mile living here.
Diversity
Did you know that the Williams Ranch South neighborhood has more Mexican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 96.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Mexican ancestry.
Williams Ranch South is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 95.7% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Spanish at home. This is a higher percentage than 99.9% of all 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 Williams Ranch South neighborhood. More residents of the Williams Ranch South neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 97.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. This neighborhood is really made up of people who know each other, don't move often, and have lived here in this very neighborhood for quite a while. What is interesting to note, is that the Williams Ranch South neighborhood has a greater percentage of residents born in another country (43.7%) than are found in 95.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
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 Williams Ranch South neighborhood in Salinas are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 62.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 33.7% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 84.6% 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 Williams Ranch South neighborhood, 40.8% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is farming, forestry, or commercial fishing, with 23.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (20.9%), and 10.2% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Williams Ranch South neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 95.7% of households. Some people also speak English (4.3%).
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 Williams Ranch South neighborhood in Salinas, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (96.9%). In addition, 43.7% 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 Williams Ranch South neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (68.6% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (62.3%) 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 (37.1%) . 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.
