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Watchung, NJ

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


Watchung is a somewhat small borough located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 6,434 people and just one neighborhood, Watchung is the 271st largest community in New Jersey.

Watchung home prices are not only among the most expensive in New Jersey, but Watchung real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Occupations and Workforce

Watchung is a decidedly white-collar borough, with fully 88.70% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Watchung is a borough of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Watchung who work in management occupations (23.44%), office and administrative support (10.18%), and sales jobs (9.57%).

Also of interest is that Watchung has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

A relatively large number of people in Watchung telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 27.76% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Setting & Lifestyle

Because of many things, Watchung is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Watchung really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Watchung perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

One downside of living in Watchung, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 30.85 minutes every day commuting to work. However, local public transit is widely used. For those who would prefer to avoid driving entirely and leave their car at home, it may be an option to use the transit instead.

Even though Watchung is a smaller borough, it has many people who hop on public transportation – mostly the train for their daily commute to work. Typically, these people are commuting to good jobs in the surrounding cities.

Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Watchung, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Watchung is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 62.77% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 21.84%.

The per capita income in Watchung in 2022 was $85,269, which is wealthy relative to New Jersey and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $341,076 for a family of four.

Watchung is a very ethnically-diverse borough. The people who call Watchung home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Watchung residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Watchung include Italian, Irish, Polish, German, and English.

Watchung also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 23.97%.

The most common language spoken in Watchung is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Langs. of India.

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.

People

If you come to know the people here, you will recognize that you're in the company of one of the wealthiest communities in the nation. In fact, a mere 4.7% of America's neighborhoods are wealthier than the neighborhood. Real estate here is exceedingly well-maintained, and similarly, tends to maintain its value over time. The cars driven are mostly luxury brands like Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Lexus. If the public schools aren't up to snuff, the residents of this neighborhood preferentially send their children to private preparatory schools. Vacation to Disney? Yes, but equally popular are summers in Europe. As one would expect in a considerably wealthy neighborhood such as this, also has one of the lowest ratings of child poverty in the nation.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Czechoslovakian and Canadian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 0.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Czechoslovakian ancestry and 1.6% have Canadian ancestry.

is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Portuguese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.0% of the neighborhoods in America.

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 neighborhood in Watchung are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 95.3% 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.

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 neighborhood, 59.4% 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 17.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (11.6%), and 11.3% 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 neighborhood is English, spoken by 77.9% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Langs. of India and Korean.

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 neighborhood in Watchung, NJ, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Italian (18.6%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (13.7%), and residents who report Asian roots (11.5%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (10.0%), along with some German ancestry residents (9.2%), among others. In addition, 24.0% 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 neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (30.9% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.

Here most residents (62.9%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (5.1%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


Real Estate includes:
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Rental Market
Housing Market Details
Neighborhood Setting
Economics & Demographics include:
Lifestyle & Special Character
Household Types
Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
Employment Industries & Occupations
Income & Unemployment Rate
Higher Education Attainment
Crime includes:
Neighborhood Crime Index
Crimes Per Square Mile
Property Crime Comparison
Violent Crime Comparison
Schools include:
School Ratings
Schools In District
Public School Test Scores
School District Enrollment
Educational Expenditures

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