Chinatown median real estate price is $2,545,260, which is more expensive than 95.3% of the neighborhoods in California and 99.2% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Chinatown is currently $1,155, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 99.5% of California neighborhoods.
Chinatown is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in San Francisco, California.
Chinatown 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 renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Chinatown 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 1940 and 1969.
Home and apartment vacancy rates are 8.3% in Chinatown. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 46.3% of the neighborhoods in the nation, approximately near the middle range for vacancies.
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.
Real Estate
What you'll find when you visit or move to this neighborhood is one of the most crowded neighborhoods in all of America. With an incredible 149,293 people per square mile, it is more densely populated than 99.9% of America's neighborhoods. Being a walkable neighborhood can help increase property values for the simple reason that people enjoy it and value it. To put it plainly, despite our love affair with the automobile, American's enjoy taking to the streets, sidewalks, paths, and courtyards of a place to get a coffee, relax, and take in the sights and sounds. And, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive and first quantitative walkable score index, the Chinatown neighborhood is one of the most walkable neighborhoods in America.
In addition, the real estate in the Chinatown neighborhood really stands out in the way it looks for a unique reason: this neighborhood has a higher proportion of apartment complexes or high-rise apartments than nearly every neighborhood in the country. Most neighborhoods are a mixture of real estate and housing types, but here it is almost entirely dominated by big apartment buildings and complexes. In fact, 93.7% of the real estate here is classified as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments, which is more than is found in 98.8% of American neighborhoods.
Furthermore, 90.0% of the real estate in the Chinatown neighborhood is occupied by renters, which is nearly the highest rate of renter occupancy of any neighborhood in America.
Also of note, the Chinatown neighborhood is very unique in that it has one of the highest proportions of one, two, or no bedroom real estate of any neighborhood in America. Most neighborhoods have a mixture of home or apartment sizes from small to large, but here the concentration of studios and other small living spaces is at near-record heights. With 83.4% of the real estate here of this small size, this most assuredly is a notable feature that makes this neighborhood unique, along with just a handful of other neighborhoods in the U.S. that share this characteristic.
Finally, do you watch 'This Old House' on Public Television? Do you love the idea of fixing up a Colonial or Victorian era home, complete with the charm of yesteryear? Do you like to stroll or drive streets lined with gracious older residences? If you found yourself nodding yes to any of these questions, you are going to be interested in this unique neighborhood. The Chinatown neighborhood stands out on a national scale for the sheer concentration of historic residences it contains: 67.1% of the residential real estate here was built from 1939 or earlier, some much earlier. This is a greater concentration of historic homes than 98.1% of the neighborhoods in the United States.
Modes of Transportation
In the Chinatown neighborhood, walking to work is a real option for many. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research reveals walking to and from work is the chosen way to commute for 45.6% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 99.7% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!
Also, more people ride the bus in this neighborhood each day to get to work than 98.2% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Chinatown neighborhood buck this trend. 55.0% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
People
One of the unique characteristics of the Chinatown neighborhood revealed by analysis is that the per capita income of residents here is lower than that found in 97.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
Occupations
Each year, fewer and fewer Americans make their living as farmers, foresters, or fishers. But the Chinatown neighborhood truly stands out among U.S. neighborhoods. According to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, this neighborhood has a greater proportion of farmers, foresters, or fishers than 96.5% of all American neighborhoods. This is truly a unique cultural characteristic of this neighborhood.
Furthermore, from major sales accounts to fast-food workers, sales and service employees are often the backbone of the local economy. In the Chinatown neighborhood, they truly stand out. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis identifies this neighborhood as having a higher percentage of sales and service workers than 96.1% of all American neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Chinatown neighborhood has more Asian and Native American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 88.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Asian ancestry and 3.0% have Native American ancestry.
Chinatown is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 73.9% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Chinese at home. This is a higher percentage than 100.0% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Migration / Stability
The freedom of moving to new places versus the comfort of home. How much and how often people move not only can create diverse and worldly neighborhoods, but simultaneously it can produce a loss of intimacy with one's surroundings and a lack of connectedness to one's neighbors. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research has identified this neighborhood as unique with regard to the transience of its populace. What is interesting to note, is that the Chinatown neighborhood has a greater percentage of residents born in another country (74.5%) than are found in 99.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
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 Chinatown neighborhood in San Francisco are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 97.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 26.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 77.3% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the Chinatown neighborhood, 39.4% 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 executive, management, and professional occupations, with 35.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (15.1%), and 5.3% 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 Chinatown neighborhood is Chinese, spoken by 73.9% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English and Spanish.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Boston's Beacon Hill blue-blood streets, Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish enclaves, Los Angeles' Persian neighborhoods. Each has its own culture derived primarily from the ancestries and culture of the residents who call these neighborhoods home. Likewise, each neighborhood in America has its own culture – some more unique than others – based on lifestyle, occupations, the types of households – and importantly – on the ethnicities and ancestries of the people who live in the neighborhood. Understanding where people came from, who their grandparents or great-grandparents were, can help you understand how a neighborhood is today.
In the Chinatown neighborhood in San Francisco, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (88.2%). There are also a number of people of Mexican ancestry (3.3%), and residents who report Native American roots (3.0%), and some of the residents are also of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (2.9%), along with some African ancestry residents (2.9%), among others. In addition, 74.5% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 Chinatown neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (35.1% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (45.6%) 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 (21.8%) and 18.3% 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.
