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.
Soundview Southwest median real estate price is $401,605, which is more expensive than 33.0% of the neighborhoods in New York and 53.0% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Soundview Southwest is currently $2,218, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 65.9% of New York neighborhoods.
Soundview Southwest is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Bronx, New York. This is a coastal neighborhood (i.e., is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet).
Soundview Southwest 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 Soundview Southwest neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
In Soundview Southwest, the current vacancy rate is 2.2%, which is a lower rate of vacancies than 84.7% of all neighborhoods in the U.S. This means that the housing supply in Soundview Southwest is very tight compared to the demand for property here.
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 Bronx, the Soundview Southwest neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Real Estate
The Soundview Southwest neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 36,564 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 97.6% of the nation's neighborhoods. Soundview Southwest is a neighborhood that is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Many times, such places have amenities that bring locals and visitors to the waterfront for recreational activities or to check out the scenery. In some densely populated areas that are less financially well-off, the neighborhood waterfront can be relatively industrial and less open to recreation. In addition to being coastal, Soundview Southwest is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.
In addition, one of the really unique and interesting things about the look and setting of the Soundview Southwest neighborhood is that it is almost entirely dominated by large apartment buildings, such as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments. 94.6% 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 98.9% of all neighborhoods in America.
Furthermore, the Soundview Southwest 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 84.8% 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.
Also of note, renter-occupied real estate is dominant in the Soundview Southwest neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 87.6%, which is higher than 96.1% of the neighborhoods in America. If you were to buy and live in the property you bought here, you would be almost alone in doing so.
Modes of Transportation
If you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 36.0% of the Soundview Southwest neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 98.7% of America's neighborhoods.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Soundview Southwest neighborhood buck this trend. 25.4% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.4% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Soundview Southwest neighborhood has more Puerto Rican and Dominican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 26.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Puerto Rican ancestry and 8.8% have Dominican ancestry.
Soundview Southwest is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 6.9% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak African languages at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.3% of the neighborhoods in America.
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. More residents of the Soundview Southwest neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 98.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. This neighborhood is really made up of people who know each other, don't move often, and have lived here in this very neighborhood for quite a while.
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 Soundview Southwest neighborhood in Bronx are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 61.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 15.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 61.2% of U.S. neighborhoods.
A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.
In the Soundview Southwest neighborhood, 49.6% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 22.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (17.9%), and 10.4% 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 Soundview Southwest neighborhood is English, spoken by 68.9% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and African languages.
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 Soundview Southwest neighborhood in Bronx, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Puerto Rican (26.5%). There are also a number of people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (14.6%), and residents who report Dominican roots (8.8%), and some of the residents are also of Jamaican ancestry (7.3%), along with some African ancestry residents (6.1%), among others. In addition, 11.1% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 Soundview Southwest neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (37.1% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (37.5%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (36.0%) and 6.9% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors 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.
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.
