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Real Estate Prices & Overview

W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave median real estate price is $228,425, which is less expensive than 67.1% of Illinois neighborhoods and 75.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

The average rental price in W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave is currently $2,418, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 70.2% of the neighborhoods in Illinois.

W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Chicago, Illinois.

W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to small (studio to two bedroom) single-family homes and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave 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 W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 26.3%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 93.2% 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 Chicago, the W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

Occupations

There are more people living in the W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood employed as sales and service workers (59.2%) than almost any neighborhood in the country. From fast-food service workers to major sales accounts, sales and service workers make up the largest proportion of our national employment picture. But despite that size and importance nationally, this neighborhood still stands out as unique due to the dominance of people living here who work in such occupations.

Real Estate

Corner bodegas, stores on the first floor and apartments above, former grand Victorian residences converted into apartments, three-deckers built shoulder-to-shoulder, duplexes. Such building types define the real estate of neighborhoods dominated by small 2, 3, and 4 unit apartment buildings. Many are in older core neighborhoods of Eastern and Midwestern cities, or historic town centers in their hinterlands. If you wax romantic about the look and feel of such neighborhoods, with fresh pizza, falafel and an independent florist at the corner, then you might find the W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood worth a close look. This neighborhood is an absolutely outstanding example of the dominance of small 2, 3, and 4 unit apartment buildings compared to neighborhoods across the nation, as they make up a substantial portion of this neighborhood's real estate stock. In fact, no less than 40.8% of the real estate here is made up of such dwellings, which is higher than 97.2% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

In addition, do you watch 'This Old House' on Public Television? Do you love the idea of fixing up a Colonial or Victorian era home, complete with the charm of yesteryear? Do you like to stroll or drive streets lined with gracious older residences? If you found yourself nodding yes to any of these questions, you are going to be interested in this unique neighborhood. The W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood stands out on a national scale for the sheer concentration of historic residences it contains: 58.4% of the residential real estate here was built from 1939 or earlier, some much earlier. This is a greater concentration of historic homes than 96.2% of the neighborhoods in the United States.

People

Single parenting is hard. But you don't have to tell the W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood about it; they already know. 18.1% of this neighborhood's households are run by single mothers, which is a higher concentration than NeighborhoodScout found in 95.8% of American neighborhoods. Further NeighborhoodScout research showed strong statistical correlations among high rates of children living in single parent households, and neighborhood crime, particularly violent crime, neighborhood poverty, and, importantly, the percentage of low weight births and rates of infant mortality.

Diversity

Did you know that the W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood has more Welsh and Haitian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 6.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Welsh ancestry and 13.4% have Haitian 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 W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood in Chicago are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 92.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 22.9% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 73.6% 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 W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood, 40.8% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 26.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (21.9%), and 10.6% in executive, management, and professional occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood is English, spoken by 90.1% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (8.7%).

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 W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood in Chicago, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Haitian (13.4%). There are also a number of people of Mexican ancestry (11.3%), and residents who report Welsh roots (6.1%).

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 W 118th St / S Lafayette Ave neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (38.9% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.

Here most residents (65.1%) 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 (10.6%) and 8.9% of residents also ride the bus 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.


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