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.
Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands median real estate price is $292,921, which is more expensive than 56.3% of the neighborhoods in Illinois and 41.1% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands is currently $2,941, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 86.4% of the neighborhoods in Illinois.
Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in West Chicago, Illinois.
Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to large (four, five or more bedroom) single-family homes and townhomes. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands 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 Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands, the current vacancy rate is 2.5%, which is a lower rate of vacancies than 83.5% of all neighborhoods in the U.S. This means that the housing supply in Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands is very tight compared to the demand for property here.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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.
Modes of Transportation
Our research shows that more people carpool to work here in the Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands (30.1%) than in 98.9% of the neighborhoods in America.
People
One of the really interesting characteristics about the Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood is that, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research, it is an excellent choice in which to reside for college students. Due to its popularity among college students who already choose to live here, its walkability, and its above average safety from crime, the neighborhood is ideal for prospective or already-enrolled college students. Between semesters and during school breaks, you'll notice that the excitement here fluctuates with the college seasons. Despite the excitement however, parents of college-age children can rest easy knowing that this neighborhood has an above average safety rating. For each of these reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 1.4% of college-friendly places to live in the state of Illinois. In addition to being an excellent choice for college students, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for families with school-aged children.
In addition, neighborhoodScout's exclusive research revealed that 92.9% of the adult residents in the Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood do not have a 4-year college degree, which is a lower rate of college graduated adults than found in 95.1% of the neighborhoods in America.
Occupations
NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research identifies the Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood as having one of the highest concentrations of people employed in manufacturing or as laborers of any neighborhood in America. In fact, despite the loss of manufacturing jobs nationally, this neighborhood has 44.9% of its working residents employed in such fields, which is a higher proportion than 97.1% of American neighborhoods.
Car Ownership
We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis shows that the Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 35.1% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 96.1% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
Diversity
Did you know that the Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood has more Mexican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 79.8% of this neighborhood's residents have Mexican ancestry.
Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 72.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Spanish at home. This is a higher percentage than 97.7% 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 Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood has a greater percentage of residents born in another country (43.1%) than are found in 95.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The Neighbors
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 Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood in West Chicago are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 72.8% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 5.4% 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 63.3% 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 Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood, 44.9% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer 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 30.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (12.8%), and 10.4% in executive, management, and professional 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 Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 72.1% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English and Polish.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood in West Chicago, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (79.8%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (2.3%), and residents who report Irish roots (2.3%), and some of the residents are also of Asian ancestry (1.6%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (1.6%), among others. In addition, 43.1% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 Fair Meadows / Roosevelt Highlands neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (40.3% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (60.8%) 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 (30.1%) . 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.
