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.
Altgeld Gardens median real estate price is $160,320, which is less expensive than 78.7% of Illinois neighborhoods and 86.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in Altgeld Gardens is currently $1,678, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 61.6% of Illinois neighborhoods.
Altgeld Gardens is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Chicago, Illinois.
Altgeld Gardens real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) townhomes and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built before 1940.
Home and apartment vacancy rates are 8.3% in Altgeld Gardens. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 46.5% of the neighborhoods in the nation, approximately near the middle range for vacancies.
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 Altgeld Gardens neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
People
Single parenting is hard. But you don't have to tell the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood about it; they already know. 46.8% of this neighborhood's households are run by single mothers, which is a higher concentration than NeighborhoodScout found in 100.0% 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.
In addition, the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood stands out for having an average per capita income lower than 99.7% of the neighborhoods in the United States. Also of note, 54.5% of the children in this area live in poverty; an extraordinarily high percentage compared to other neighborhoods in the nation. In a nation where approximately one in four children grows up in poverty, this neighborhood stands out for the depth of the problem manifested here.
Also, neighborhoodScout's exclusive research revealed that 95.7% of the adult residents in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood do not have a 4-year college degree, which is a lower rate of college graduated adults than found in 97.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
Modes of Transportation
More people ride the bus in this neighborhood each day to get to work than 99.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Real Estate
If you love row houses and attached homes, you will probably really like the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood. The ambiance, the charm, of row houses is something special. And in sheer abundance of row houses, this neighborhood truly stands out. The real estate here has a higher proportion of row houses and attached homes than nearly any neighborhood in America. In fact, 56.3% of the residential real estate here is classified as row houses and attached homes.
In addition, 95.4% of the real estate in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood is occupied by renters, which is nearly the highest rate of renter occupancy of any neighborhood in America.
Length of Commute
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The Altgeld Gardens neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 12.9% of commuters here travel more than one hour just one-way to work. That is more than two hours per day. This percentage with two-hour + round-trip commutes is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.7% of all neighborhoods in America.
Diversity
Did you know that the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood has more African and Jamaican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 9.2% of this neighborhood's residents have African ancestry and 5.1% have Jamaican 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 Altgeld Gardens 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 99.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 54.5% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 95.5% 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 Altgeld Gardens neighborhood, 31.4% 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 clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 29.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (21.1%), and 18.3% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.1% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (3.9%).
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 Altgeld Gardens neighborhood in Chicago, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (9.2%). There are also a number of people of African ancestry (9.2%), and residents who report Jamaican roots (5.1%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (2.3%), along with some Puerto Rican ancestry residents (2.2%), 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 Altgeld Gardens neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (34.8% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods. However, there is also a significant group of residents (12.9%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (65.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (27.3%) . 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.
