Downsville is a tiny town located in the state of New York. With a population of 474 people and just one neighborhood, Downsville is the 894th largest community in New York. Much of the housing stock in Downsville was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic towns in the country.
Downsville is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 87.02% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Downsville is a town of service providers, managers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Downsville who work in management occupations (25.95%), maintenance occupations (21.37%), and food service (12.21%).
Of important note, Downsville is also a town of artists. Downsville has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Downsville’s character.
It is a fairly quiet town because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Downsville has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Downsville has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Downsville than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Downsville may be for you.
One of the benefits of Downsville is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 15.17 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.
Being a small town, Downsville does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
In terms of college education, Downsville ranks among the least educated cities in the nation, as only 5.86% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Downsville in 2022 was $26,272, which is low income relative to New York, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $105,088 for a family of four. However, Downsville contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Downsville home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Downsville residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Downsville include German, Italian, Irish, English, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Downsville is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Other Indo-European.
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.
Despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 52.6%, which is higher than 98.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In addition, this neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 13 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 96.4% of America. One of the notable things about is that it is one of the quietest neighborhoods in America, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and quantitative rating of quietness. When you are here, you will find it to be very quiet. If quiet and peaceful are your cup of tea, you may have found a great place for you.
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The 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 neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 14.5% 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 98.4% of all neighborhoods in America.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Yugoslav ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 0.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Yugoslav ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 15.3% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Italian at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 neighborhood in Downsville are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 42.7% of the neighborhoods in America. With 14.2% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 58.6% 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 neighborhood, 31.9% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 31.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (26.7%), and 11.1% in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 95.5% of households. Some people also speak Italian (15.3%).
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 Downsville, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (24.4%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (18.9%), and residents who report English roots (10.9%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (10.6%), along with some Dutch ancestry residents (3.4%), among others.
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 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (28.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans. However, there is also a significant group of residents (14.5%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (76.8%) 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 (16.3%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.