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.
Martin Luther King median real estate price is $66,466, which is less expensive than 95.2% of Illinois neighborhoods and 96.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in Martin Luther King is currently $968, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 97.0% of Illinois neighborhoods.
Martin Luther King is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Decatur, Illinois.
Martin Luther King 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 Martin Luther King 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 1970 and 1999.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Martin Luther King. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 49.7%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 98.7% 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.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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 Decatur, the Martin Luther King neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
People
Of particular note, 15.2% of the people in the Martin Luther King neighborhood currently reside in a correction facility, held due to punishment for a crime.
In addition, one of the unique characteristics of the Martin Luther King neighborhood revealed by analysis is that the per capita income of residents here is lower than that found in 98.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
Also, the Martin Luther King neighborhood is unique for having just 2.8% of adults here having earned a bachelor's degree. This is a lower rate of college graduates than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.4% of America's neighborhoods.
Real Estate
Renter-occupied real estate is dominant in the Martin Luther King neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 90.4%, which is higher than 96.9% of the neighborhoods in America. If you were to buy and live in the property you bought here, you would be almost alone in doing so. Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 49.7% of the residential real estate vacant, the Martin Luther King neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 98.7% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
Modes of Transportation
Our research revealed that more commuters here take the bus to work (14.1% ride the bus) than 97.2% 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.
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 Martin Luther King neighborhood stands apart from most American neighborhood due to the proportion of its residents still working in these fields. With 4.5% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 96.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Migration / Stability
Do you like to be surrounded by people from all over the country or world, with different perspectives and life experiences? Or do you instead prefer to be in a neighborhood where most residents have lived there for a long time, creating a sense of cohesiveness? NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood stands out among American neighborhoods for the uniqueness of the mobility of its residents. In the Martin Luther King neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 98.7% of U.S. Neighborhoods. This neighborhood, more than almost any other in America, has new residents from other areas.
Diversity
Did you know that the Martin Luther King neighborhood has more African ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 6.9% of this neighborhood's residents have African ancestry.
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 Martin Luther King neighborhood in Decatur are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 98.6% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 38.9% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 88.8% 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 Martin Luther King neighborhood, 45.7% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 23.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (17.0%), and 9.1% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Martin Luther King neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.3% of households. Some people also speak Italian (2.2%).
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 Martin Luther King neighborhood in Decatur, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (10.2%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (9.0%), and residents who report Sub-Saharan African roots (6.9%), and some of the residents are also of African ancestry (6.9%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (3.1%), among others.
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 Martin Luther King neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (50.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (71.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (14.1%) and 7.5% 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.
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.
