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.
22nd St / Central Ave median real estate price is $565,712, which is more expensive than 60.1% of the neighborhoods in New Jersey and 74.8% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in 22nd St / Central Ave is currently $2,669, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 70.7% of New Jersey neighborhoods.
22nd St / Central Ave is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Union City, New Jersey.
22nd St / Central Ave 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 small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built before 1940.
Real estate vacancies in 22nd St / Central Ave are 3.3%, which is lower than one will find in 78.0% of American neighborhoods. Demand for real estate in 22nd St / Central Ave is above average for the U.S., and may signal some demand for either price increases or new construction of residential product for this neighborhood.
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
More people ride the bus in this neighborhood each day to get to work than 99.8% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Real Estate
The 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 61,919 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 98.9% of the nation's neighborhoods. Even if you drive or take transit to your place of employment, many people enjoy being able to walk in their neighborhood. What many people don't realize is that most of America's premier vacation locations are also very walkable. The 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood is among the top 5% of American neighborhoods in terms of walkability.
In addition, 92.1% of the real estate in the 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood is occupied by renters, which is nearly the highest rate of renter occupancy of any neighborhood in America.
Furthermore, one of the really unique and interesting things about the look and setting of the 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood is that it is almost entirely dominated by large apartment buildings, such as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments. 78.7% of the residential real estate here is classified as such. This puts this neighborhood on the map as having a higher proportion of large apartment buildings than 96.5% of all neighborhoods in America.
Also of note, the 22nd St / Central Ave 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 86.2% 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.
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 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. 29.0% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
People
With a nice mix of college students, safety from crime, and decent walkability, the 22nd St / Central Ave 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 87.4% of the neighborhoods in NJ. This often also means that the area has certain amenities and services geared towards college students, from undergraduates to graduate students.
Diversity
Did you know that the 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood has more Dominican and South American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 16.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Dominican ancestry and 14.2% have South American ancestry.
22nd St / Central Ave is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 80.5% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Spanish at home. This is a higher percentage than 98.6% 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 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood has a greater percentage of residents born in another country (53.0%) than are found in 98.2% 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 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood in Union City are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 68.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 42.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 90.3% 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 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood, 37.7% 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 29.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (20.7%), and 12.4% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 80.5% of households. Some people also speak English (14.6%).
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 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood in Union City, NJ, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Dominican (16.1%). There are also a number of people of South American ancestry (14.2%), and residents who report Mexican roots (9.9%), and some of the residents are also of Puerto Rican ancestry (6.6%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (3.4%), among others. In addition, 53.0% 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 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (33.2% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (33.4%) ride the bus to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (31.1%) and 20.9% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors for their daily commute. The bus provides a valuable service in the 22nd St / Central Ave neighborhood of Union City by getting a lot of residents to and from work daily, reducing the costs of commuting and reducing some congestion on the roads as well.
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.
