Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza median real estate price is $369,387, which is more expensive than 64.7% of the neighborhoods in Illinois and 49.8% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza is currently $4,145, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 97.5% of the neighborhoods in Illinois.
Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Evanston, Illinois.
Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza 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 single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 16.9%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 81.8% 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.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
Real Estate
One of the really unique and interesting things about the look and setting of the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood is that it is almost entirely dominated by large apartment buildings, such as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments. 97.8% 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 99.6% of all neighborhoods in America.
In addition, if you like crowded places, then you will probably enjoy the the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive data analysis, this neighborhood is more densely populated than 96.2% of neighborhoods in the U.S., with 25,691 people per square mile living here.
Furthermore, the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza 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 85.3% 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.
People
The rate of college educated adults in the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood is a unique characteristic of the neighborhood. 88.6% of adults here have received at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, compared to the average neighborhood in America, which has 34.3% of the adults with a bachelor's degree. The rate here is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In addition, one of the most interesting things about the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in America. With 49.7% of the households here made up of people living alone, NeighborhoodScout's research reveals that this is a larger proportion of people living alone than in 95.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
Also, if you're looking for an active nightlife with lots of opportunities to flirt and find romance, then you probably won't have to go too far from the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood to find it. Only 4.9% of the neighborhoods in the country have a larger proportion of young, single professionals. The nightlife may not be reminiscent of a "Sex and the City" episode, but the people who live here find friendship, romance, fun, and socializing readily available.
Occupations
Executives, managers and professionals make up 78.6% of the workforce in the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood which, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, is a higher proportion of such high-level people than is found in 98.8% of the neighborhoods in America. For this reason, this neighborhood really stands out as unique.
Modes of Transportation
More people in Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza choose to walk to work each day (16.6%) than almost any neighborhood in America. If you are attracted to the idea of being able to walk to work, this neighborhood could be a good choice.
Also, in the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood, 13.8% of people ride the train to work each day. This is a very high percentage compared to most places. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this is a higher level of train ridership than in 96.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. 23.1% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood has more Ukrainian and Belgian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 3.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Ukrainian ancestry and 1.7% have Belgian ancestry.
Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 12.8% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Chinese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.5% of the neighborhoods in America.
Migration / Stability
Some neighborhoods have more internal cohesiveness than others. While other neighborhoods feel like a collection of strangers who just happen to live near each other. Sometimes this comes down to not only the personalities of the people in a place, but how long people have been together in that neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research has revealed some interesting things about the rootedness of people in the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood. In the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 98.8% of U.S. Neighborhoods. This neighborhood, more than almost any other in America, has new residents from other areas.
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 Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood in Evanston are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 43.2% of the neighborhoods in America. With 16.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 62.7% 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 Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood, 78.6% 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 14.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (6.7%).
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 Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood is English, spoken by 74.8% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Spanish.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Boston's Beacon Hill blue-blood streets, Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish enclaves, Los Angeles' Persian neighborhoods. Each has its own culture derived primarily from the ancestries and culture of the residents who call these neighborhoods home. Likewise, each neighborhood in America has its own culture – some more unique than others – based on lifestyle, occupations, the types of households – and importantly – on the ethnicities and ancestries of the people who live in the neighborhood. Understanding where people came from, who their grandparents or great-grandparents were, can help you understand how a neighborhood is today.
In the Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza neighborhood in Evanston, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (25.1%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (10.7%), and residents who report Polish roots (9.3%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (6.9%), along with some Russian ancestry residents (5.6%), among others. In addition, 25.7% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 Optima Horizons / Sherman Plaza 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 (32.5%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (16.6%) and 13.8% of residents also take the train 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.
