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.
Borough Center / Big Spring median real estate price is $289,500, which is more expensive than 48.5% of the neighborhoods in Pennsylvania and 36.0% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Borough Center / Big Spring is currently $1,390, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 71.2% of Pennsylvania neighborhoods.
Borough Center / Big Spring is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
Borough Center / Big Spring real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four 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 Borough Center / Big Spring 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.
In Borough Center / Big Spring, the current vacancy rate is 2.1%, which is a lower rate of vacancies than 85.5% of all neighborhoods in the U.S. This means that the housing supply in Borough Center / Big Spring 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 Bellefonte, the Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Modes of Transportation
In the Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood, walking to work is a real option for many. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research reveals walking to and from work is the chosen way to commute for 14.9% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 97.1% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!
People
One of the most interesting things about the Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in America. With 49.8% 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 95.5% of the neighborhoods in America.
In addition, if you're nearing retirement age, or in retirement, the Borough Center / Big Spring is an excellent choice for you to consider for top-quality retirement living. This neighborhood is rated by NeighborhoodScout as among the top 8.0% of retiree-friendly neighborhoods in Pennsylvania, combining peace and quiet, safety from crime, and offering diverse housing options from which retirees can choose. Maybe it's because of these amenities that a large proportion of the residents here are college educated seniors, mixed with other age groups. For these and other reasons, NeighborhoodScout identifies this neighborhood as a top-notch place to consider if you are thinking of or planning to retire in Pennsylvania.
Real Estate
Three-deckers, duplexes, old Victorian homes cut up into apartments. Independent stores on the corner selling pizza. These are some of the hallmarks of neighborhoods with lots of small 2, 3, and 4 unit apartment buildings. The Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood really stands out in this regard, however, as it is dominated by such small apartment buildings more than nearly any other neighborhood in America. This is a stunning visual and lifestyle example of this type of neighborhood. In fact, 31.5% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings, which is a higher proportion than found in 95.1% of America'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 Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood stands out on a national scale for the sheer concentration of historic residences it contains: 66.2% of the residential real estate here was built from 1939 or earlier, some much earlier. This is a greater concentration of historic homes than 97.9% of the neighborhoods in the United States.
Diversity
Did you know that the Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood has more Swiss and Romanian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 3.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Swiss ancestry and 1.3% have Romanian ancestry.
Borough Center / Big Spring is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 6.2% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Polish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 95.3% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood in Bellefonte are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 75.9% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 18.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 66.1% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood, 39.5% 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 31.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (16.9%), and 11.7% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood is English, spoken by 94.7% of households. Some people also speak Polish (6.2%).
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 Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood in Bellefonte, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (26.3%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (14.9%), and residents who report Irish roots (13.1%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (8.1%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (5.8%), among others.
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 Borough Center / Big Spring neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (51.0% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (61.9%) 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 (14.9%) and 11.8% 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.
