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.
Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr median real estate price is $338,570, which is more expensive than 62.0% of the neighborhoods in Texas and 46.3% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr is currently $2,109, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 68.5% of the neighborhoods in Texas.
Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Austin, Texas.
Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to small (studio to two bedroom) single-family homes and mobile homes. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
In Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr, the current vacancy rate is 1.9%, which is a lower rate of vacancies than 87.3% of all neighborhoods in the U.S. This means that the housing supply in Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr 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 Austin, the Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Occupations
The government often provides some of the more stable jobs in the economy. From local, to state, to federal government workers, the government can also be a major employer. What NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed, is that the Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 15.2% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 97.3% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Real Estate
Homes built from 2000 through today make up a higher proportion of the Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr neighborhood's real estate landscape than 95.6% of the neighborhoods in America. When you are driving around this neighborhood, you'll notice right away that it is one of the newest built of any, with the smell of fresh paint, and the look of young landscaping nearly everywhere you look. In fact, 68.7% of the residential real estate here is classified as newer.
Diversity
Did you know that the Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr neighborhood has more Mexican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 56.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Mexican ancestry.
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 Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr neighborhood in Austin are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 71.4% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 7.5% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 57.1% of America'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 Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr neighborhood, 41.0% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 26.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (18.6%), and 15.2% in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr neighborhood is English, spoken by 57.3% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (40.4%).
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 Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr neighborhood in Austin, TX, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (56.3%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (5.3%), and residents who report Irish roots (3.4%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (2.4%), along with some English ancestry residents (2.3%), among others. In addition, 18.9% 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 Blue Bluff Rd / Catherine Dr neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (48.6% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (70.9%) 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 (18.0%) . 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.
