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.
Median real estate price in the Town Center of Acton is $928,887, which is more expensive than 74.1% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts and 88.7% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Acton Town Center is currently $3,611, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 60.9% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts.
Acton Town Center is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Acton, Massachusetts.
Real estate in the Town Center of Acton, MA is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to large (four, five or more bedroom) single-family homes and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Town Center neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
In Acton Town Center, the current vacancy rate is 0.9%, which is a lower rate of vacancies than 91.7% of all neighborhoods in the U.S. This means that the housing supply in Acton Town Center 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 Acton, the Town Center neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Modes of Transportation
A unique way of commuting is simply not to. And in the Acton Town Center neighborhood, analysis shows that 39.6% of the residents work from home, avoiding a commute altogether. This may not seem like a large number, but it is a higher proportion of people working from home than is found in 99.5% of the neighborhoods in the United States. One thing NeighborhoodScout's research reveals is that the wealthier and/or more isolated the neighborhood, the greater the proportion of residents who choose to work from home.
People
If knowledge is power, then imagine the cumulative power of one neighborhood where many of the adults have earned an advanced degree, such as a Masters, law degree, medical degree, or even a Ph.D. This is certainly the case in the Acton Town Center neighborhood, where 46.5% have earned an advanced degree. Compare that to the average neighborhood in America, where just 13.4% of adults have completed a post-graduate degree, and you can see why this neighborhood is a stand out. In fact, this neighborhood has a higher rate of adults with an advanced degree than 98.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
In addition, think about the people you know personally. How many of them would purchase box seats to opening night at the symphony? How many of them regularly attend gallery openings, or are the first to reserve tickets to opening night at the ballet? If they're like most of us, they don't do any of these things. But if you're among an exclusive crowd of wealthy and refined patrons of the arts, then you'll feel right at home in the Acton Town Center neighborhood: a neighborhood in which more "urban sophisticates" live than 97.4% of neighborhoods across the U.S. Here, your neighbors are defined as having urbane tastes in literature, music, live theatre and the arts. They are wealthy, educated, travel in style, and live a big city lifestyle whether or not they live in or near a big city. In addition to being an excellent choice for urban sophisticates, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for highly educated executives, families with school-aged children and active retirees.
Occupations
Executives, managers and professionals make up 75.4% of the workforce in the Acton Town Center neighborhood which, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, is a higher proportion of such high-level people than is found in 97.9% of the neighborhoods in America. For this reason, this neighborhood really stands out as unique.
Diversity
Did you know that the Acton Town Center neighborhood has more Brazilian and French ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 3.8% of this neighborhood's residents have Brazilian ancestry and 8.6% have French ancestry.
Acton Town Center is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 6.5% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Langs. of India at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Town Center neighborhood in Acton are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 94.0% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 2.3% 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 74.1% of America's neighborhoods.
A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.
In the Acton Town Center neighborhood, 75.4% 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 13.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (6.6%), and 4.4% 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 Acton Town Center neighborhood is English, spoken by 68.3% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese, Langs. of India and French.
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 Town Center neighborhood in Acton, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (23.4%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (14.6%), and residents who report English roots (13.6%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (11.8%), along with some French ancestry residents (8.6%), among others. In addition, 28.3% 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 Acton Town Center neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (35.2% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (53.1%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. 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.
