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.
Union City Southwest median real estate price is $603,148, which is more expensive than 52.2% of the neighborhoods in New Jersey and 73.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Union City Southwest is currently $2,622, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 74.9% of New Jersey neighborhoods.
Union City Southwest is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Union City, New Jersey.
Union City Southwest real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) apartment complexes/high-rise apartments and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Union City Southwest neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built before 1940.
Home and apartment vacancy rates are 8.6% in Union City Southwest. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 43.8% of the neighborhoods in the nation, approximately near the middle range for vacancies.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
Modes of Transportation
More people ride the bus in this neighborhood each day to get to work than 99.3% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Also, in the Union City Southwest neighborhood, 12.2% of people ride the train to work each day. This is a very high percentage compared to most places. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this is a higher level of train ridership than in 96.0% of the neighborhoods in America.
People
Union City Southwest has the amazing distinction of housing more same sex couples living together than 98.3% of neighborhoods in the U.S. If you are seeking such a neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that this is one place that you should consider.
Real Estate
The Union City Southwest neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 43,230 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 98.1% 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 Union City Southwest neighborhood is among the top 5% of American neighborhoods in terms of walkability.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Union City Southwest neighborhood buck this trend. 31.6% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.3% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Union City Southwest neighborhood has more Dominican and South American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 22.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Dominican ancestry and 14.4% have South American ancestry.
Union City Southwest is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 3.7% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Arabic at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.5% of the neighborhoods in America.
Migration / Stability
Do you like to be surrounded by people from all over the country or world, with different perspectives and life experiences? Or do you instead prefer to be in a neighborhood where most residents have lived there for a long time, creating a sense of cohesiveness? NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood stands out among American neighborhoods for the uniqueness of the mobility of its residents. What is interesting to note, is that the Union City Southwest neighborhood has a greater percentage of residents born in another country (47.9%) than are found in 96.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
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 Union City Southwest neighborhood in Union City are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 44.5% of the neighborhoods in America. With 30.9% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 82.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the Union City Southwest neighborhood, 35.8% 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 28.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (23.5%), and 11.9% in clerical, assistant, and tech support 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 Union City Southwest neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 66.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English, Arabic 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 Union City Southwest neighborhood in Union City, NJ, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Dominican (22.2%). There are also a number of people of South American ancestry (14.4%), and residents who report Puerto Rican roots (9.5%), and some of the residents are also of Asian ancestry (7.1%), along with some Mexican ancestry residents (4.8%), among others. In addition, 47.9% 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 Union City Southwest neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (39.1% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (32.4%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (23.9%) and 12.2% of residents also take the train 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.
