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.
Barber Spur / Gray Point median real estate price is $248,423, which is more expensive than 58.2% of the neighborhoods in Louisiana and 30.5% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Barber Spur / Gray Point is currently $1,469, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 41.8% of Louisiana neighborhoods.
Barber Spur / Gray Point is a remote neighborhood (based on population density) located in Ville Platte, Louisiana.
Barber Spur / Gray Point 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 occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 2000 and the present.
Real estate vacancies in Barber Spur / Gray Point are 5.7%, which is lower than one will find in 61.8% of American neighborhoods. Demand for real estate in Barber Spur / Gray Point 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
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 Ville Platte, the Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Length of Commute
Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 12.6% 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 97.6% of all neighborhoods in America.
Occupations
NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research identifies the Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood as having one of the highest concentrations of people employed in manufacturing or as laborers of any neighborhood in America. In fact, despite the loss of manufacturing jobs nationally, this neighborhood has 45.7% of its working residents employed in such fields, which is a higher proportion than 97.5% of American neighborhoods.
Modes of Transportation
Our research reveals that 90.9% of commuters who live in the Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood get to work each day by driving alone in their automobiles, which is a higher proportion than 97.3% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood has more French and Canadian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 31.5% of this neighborhood's residents have French ancestry and 2.8% have Canadian ancestry.
Barber Spur / Gray Point is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 22.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak French at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.8% 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 Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 97.5% 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
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 Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood in Ville Platte are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 73.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 27.7% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 78.7% 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 Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood, 45.7% 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 33.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (12.0%), and 9.3% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood is English, spoken by 77.4% of households. Some people also speak French (22.1%).
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 Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood in Ville Platte, LA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as French (31.5%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (12.6%), and residents who report Mexican roots (7.2%), and some of the residents are also of French Canadian ancestry (5.1%), along with some English ancestry residents (3.8%), 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 Barber Spur / Gray Point neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (36.2% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America. However, there is also a significant group of residents (12.6%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (90.9%) 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 (6.7%) . 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.
