Polk Gulch median real estate price is $1,466,313, which is more expensive than 80.8% of the neighborhoods in California and 96.0% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Polk Gulch is currently $3,385, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 43.6% of California neighborhoods.
Polk Gulch is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in San Francisco, California.
Polk Gulch 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 Polk Gulch 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.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Polk Gulch. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 22.4%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 89.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This can sometimes be the case in neighborhoods dominated by new construction that is not yet occupied. But often neighborhoods with vacancy rates this high are places that can be plagued by a protracted vacancy problem. If you live here, you may find that a number of buildings in your neighborhood are actually empty.
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 San Francisco, the Polk Gulch neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
People
Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the Polk Gulch neighborhood has some of the lowest rates of children living in poverty of any neighborhood in the United States. In a nation where approximately 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, the Polk Gulch community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.
In addition, one of the most interesting things about the Polk Gulch neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in America. With 53.9% of the households here made up of people living alone, NeighborhoodScout's research reveals that this is a larger proportion of people living alone than in 97.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
Modes of Transportation
In the Polk Gulch 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 41.4% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 99.6% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!
Also, our research revealed that more commuters here take the bus to work (19.3% ride the bus) than 98.5% of all American neighborhoods. If you like the idea of leaving your car and home and hopping the bus to work, this might be a good neighborhood for you to consider.
Real Estate
The Polk Gulch 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 97.6% 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.
In addition, the real estate in the Polk Gulch 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, 96.8% of the real estate here is classified as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments, which is more than is found in 99.3% of American neighborhoods.
Furthermore, the Polk Gulch neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 51,598 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 98.5% of the nation'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 Polk Gulch neighborhood is one of the most walkable neighborhoods in America.
Also of note, 94.6% of the real estate in the Polk Gulch neighborhood is occupied by renters, which is nearly the highest rate of renter occupancy of any neighborhood in America.
Car Ownership
Most American households own a car or other vehicle. Many own two cars or perhaps three. In the United States, it is useful to have an automobile not only for commuting, but also for shopping and getting to other services one needs. But NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed that households in the Polk Gulch neighborhood have a highly unusual car ownership. 62.8% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.3% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Polk Gulch neighborhood has more Iranian and Asian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 4.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Iranian ancestry and 33.1% have Asian ancestry.
Polk Gulch is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 17.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Chinese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.0% of the neighborhoods in America.
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. In the Polk Gulch neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 98.5% of U.S. Neighborhoods. This neighborhood, more than almost any other in America, has new residents from other areas. What is also interesting to note, is that the Polk Gulch neighborhood has a greater percentage of residents born in another country (43.0%) than are found in 95.4% 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 Polk Gulch neighborhood in San Francisco are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 70.2% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America'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 Polk Gulch neighborhood, 58.0% 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 26.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (7.9%), and 7.7% 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 Polk Gulch neighborhood is English, spoken by 57.5% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Spanish.
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 Polk Gulch neighborhood in San Francisco, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (33.1%). There are also a number of people of Mexican ancestry (12.1%), and residents who report German roots (11.0%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (7.8%), along with some English ancestry residents (4.7%), among others. In addition, 43.0% 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 Polk Gulch neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (46.0% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (41.4%) hop out the door and walk to work to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (19.3%) and 14.2% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors 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.
