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.
Westwood North median real estate price is $1,365,252, which is more expensive than 91.6% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts and 95.6% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Westwood North is currently $4,406, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 80.9% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts.
Westwood North is a rural neighborhood (based on population density) located in Westwood, Massachusetts.
Westwood North real estate 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 Westwood North neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Westwood North has a 12.8% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 72.0% of American neighborhoods). Most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This could either signal that there is a weak demand for real estate in the neighborhood or that large amount of new housing has been built and not yet occupied. Either way, if you live here, you may find many of the homes or apartments are empty.
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 Westwood, the Westwood North neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Westwood North neighborhood buck this trend. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 42.1% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 98.7% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
People
If you're a regular supporter of the arts and enjoy outings to the theatre, weekend boutique-ing, or even a finely aged wine with dinner, than you're in good company with the people of the Westwood North neighborhood. This neighborhood is uniquely immersed with more "urban sophisticates" than 96.4% of neighborhoods across the country. The people here truly stand out as a class among their own. They are an exclusive community characterized by refined tastes, cultural inclinations, and the means to live well. Urban sophisticates live a big city lifestyle, whether or not they live in or near a big city. They are educated executives or managers by week, and serial patrons of the arts by weekend. If this lifestyle pertains to you, than you'll certainly feel right at home in the Westwood North neighborhood. In addition to being an excellent choice for urban sophisticates, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for active retirees and highly educated executives.
In addition, wealth makes most things in life easier, and a few things harder. If you are wealthy and enjoy keeping up with the Jones', this neighborhood will interest you. In fact, according to NeighborhoodScout's research, the Westwood North neighborhood is wealthier than 95.1% of the neighborhoods in the United States. Residents here are truly in a unique situation even when compared to other Americans, based on the sheer amount of wealth concentrated here. Even in times of economic downturn, residents of this neighborhood, as a group, suffered less and recovered more quickly. This is indeed a stand-out characteristic of this neighborhood.
Also, the rate of college educated adults in the Westwood North neighborhood is a unique characteristic of the neighborhood. 72.7% of adults here have received at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, compared to the average neighborhood in America, which has 34.3% of the adults with a bachelor's degree. The rate here is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 95.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Modes of Transportation
If you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 10.3% of the Westwood North neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 95.1% of America's neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Westwood North neighborhood has more Irish and Croatian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 36.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Irish ancestry and 1.6% have Croatian ancestry.
Westwood North is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.3% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Portuguese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 96.1% 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 Westwood North neighborhood in Westwood 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 95.1% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 3.6% 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 69.5% 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 Westwood North neighborhood, 63.4% 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 24.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (7.6%), and 3.7% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Westwood North neighborhood is English, spoken by 86.7% of households. Some people also speak Chinese (2.7%).
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 Westwood North neighborhood in Westwood, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (36.1%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (10.4%), and residents who report German roots (9.8%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (8.4%), along with some English ancestry residents (7.8%), among others. In addition, 11.4% 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 Westwood North neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (36.1% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (69.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (10.3%) . 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.
