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.
Outer Sunset Northwest median real estate price is $1,387,151, which is more expensive than 77.3% of the neighborhoods in California and 95.0% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Outer Sunset Northwest is currently $3,707, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 66.0% of the neighborhoods in California.
Outer Sunset Northwest is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in San Francisco, California.
Outer Sunset Northwest real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) small apartment buildings and single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built before 1940.
Real estate vacancies in Outer Sunset Northwest are 5.2%, which is lower than one will find in 65.0% of American neighborhoods. Demand for real estate in Outer Sunset Northwest is above average for the U.S., and may signal some demand for either price increases or new construction of residential product for this neighborhood.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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.
Modes of Transportation
If you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 20.6% of the Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 97.3% of America's neighborhoods.
Also, more people ride the bus in this neighborhood each day to get to work than 96.9% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Finally, if your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 2.9% of residents in the Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 95.6% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.
Real Estate
The Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 30,245 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 97.0% of the nation's neighborhoods. Even if you drive or take transit to your place of employment, many people enjoy being able to walk in their neighborhood. What many people don't realize is that most of America's premier vacation locations are also very walkable. The Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood is among the top 5% of American neighborhoods in terms of walkability.
In addition, 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 Outer Sunset Northwest 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, 33.5% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings, which is a higher proportion than found in 95.7% of America's neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood has more Asian and South American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 39.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Asian ancestry and 8.3% have South American ancestry.
Outer Sunset Northwest is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 32.2% 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 99.7% 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 Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood in San Francisco are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 76.4% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 2.1% 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 74.9% of America'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 Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood, 46.1% 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 24.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (17.5%), and 12.3% 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 Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood is English, spoken by 52.3% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese, Spanish and Langs. of India.
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 Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood in San Francisco, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (39.9%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (9.3%), and residents who report South American roots (8.3%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (7.6%), along with some Irish ancestry residents (6.3%), among others. In addition, 32.0% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 Outer Sunset Northwest neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (37.0% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (31.1%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (20.6%) and 14.0% of residents also ride the bus 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.
