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.
Reservoir Park median real estate price is $151,793, which is less expensive than 85.0% of Pennsylvania neighborhoods and 88.3% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in Reservoir Park is currently $1,661, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 55.6% of Pennsylvania neighborhoods.
Reservoir Park is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Reservoir Park real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to small (studio to two bedroom) townhomes and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Reservoir Park neighborhood are relatively historic, built no later than 1939, and in some cases, quite a bit earlier. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Reservoir Park has a 12.3% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 71.4% 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
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.
People
Whether by choice, divorce, or unplanned pregnancy, single moms may have the toughest job in the book. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that the Reservoir Park neighborhood has more single mother households than 99.6% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. Often high concentrations of single mother homes can be a strong indicator of family and social issues such as poverty, high rates of school dropouts, crime, and other societal problems.
In addition, one of the unique characteristics of the Reservoir Park neighborhood revealed by analysis is that the per capita income of residents here is lower than that found in 98.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
Modes of Transportation
Our research shows that more people carpool to work here in the Reservoir Park (34.4%) than in 99.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
Also, in the Reservoir Park neighborhood, walking to work is a real option for many. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research reveals walking to and from work is the chosen way to commute for 12.5% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 96.3% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!
Real Estate
Many people dream of living along a street lined with row houses or other attached homes. Such places do often have an abundance of charm. If you are one of these people, the Reservoir Park neighborhood could be your paradise. With 61.9% of the homes and real estate here classified as rowhouses or other attached homes, this neighborhood brims with opportunity to find the right place for you. Only 0.7% of U.S. neighborhoods have more row houses than this neighborhood, making it one of the most interesting things about this special neighborhood.
In addition, if you find historic homes and neighborhoods attractive, you love the details, the history, and the charm, then you are sure to be interested in this neighborhood. With 58.0% of the residential real estate in the Reservoir Park neighborhood built no later than 1939, and some built considerably earlier, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of historic residences than 96.1% of all neighborhoods in America. In this regard, this neighborhood truly stands out as special.
Car Ownership
Most American households own a car or other vehicle. Many own two cars or perhaps three. In the United States, it is useful to have an automobile not only for commuting, but also for shopping and getting to other services one needs. But NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed that households in the Reservoir Park neighborhood have a highly unusual car ownership. 26.1% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Reservoir Park neighborhood has more Puerto Rican and Jamaican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 17.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Puerto Rican ancestry and 7.3% have Jamaican ancestry.
Reservoir Park is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 3.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak African languages at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.5% 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 Reservoir Park neighborhood in Harrisburg are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 98.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 33.9% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 85.2% of U.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 Reservoir Park neighborhood, 33.1% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 26.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (22.3%), and 16.0% 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 Reservoir Park neighborhood is English, spoken by 90.1% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and African languages.
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 Reservoir Park neighborhood in Harrisburg, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Puerto Rican (17.9%). There are also a number of people of Jamaican ancestry (7.3%), and residents who report Sub-Saharan African roots (6.8%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (6.6%), along with some German ancestry residents (4.7%), among others.
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 Reservoir Park neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (36.2% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (40.6%) 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 (34.4%) and 12.5% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work 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.
