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.
Pharr North median real estate price is $148,963, which is more expensive than 23.8% of the neighborhoods in Texas and 17.0% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Pharr North is currently $1,114, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 92.4% of Texas neighborhoods.
Pharr North is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Pharr, Texas.
Pharr North real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) mobile homes and single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Pharr North neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Pharr North. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 39.1%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 97.5% of all U.S. neighborhoods. A relatively large percentage of housing here is seasonally occupied (26.2%). This can occur in vacation areas, and occasionally it is also found in neighborhoods that are primarily filled with college students, as some apartments could be vacant when school is not in session. If you live here year round, you may find that a number of buildings in your neighborhood are actually 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 Pharr, the Pharr North neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Real Estate
The Pharr North neighborhood stands out for having the majority of its residential real estate made up of mobile homes. In fact, 57.8% of the occupied real estate here are mobile homes, which is a greater proportion than is found in 99.5% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. If you like mobile homes, this might be a great neighborhood in which to look for real estate.
In addition, despite all of the residential real estate here in the Pharr North neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 39.1%, which is higher than 97.5% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Furthermore, if you like the look and ambience of new homes and newly built neighborhoods, you will love the Pharr North neighborhood. A whopping 77.0% of the homes and other residential real estate here were built after 1999, which is a higher proportion of new homes then you will find in 96.8% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. Everything here just feels new.
Modes of Transportation
While most Americans do drive to work alone each day, the Pharr North neighborhood stands out by having 94.0% of commuters doing so, which is a higher proportion of people driving alone to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.4% of all American neighborhoods.
People
One of the really interesting characteristics about the Pharr North neighborhood is that, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research, it is an excellent choice in which to reside for college students. Due to its popularity among college students who already choose to live here, its walkability, and its above average safety from crime, the neighborhood is ideal for prospective or already-enrolled college students. Between semesters and during school breaks, you'll notice that the excitement here fluctuates with the college seasons. Despite the excitement however, parents of college-age children can rest easy knowing that this neighborhood has an above average safety rating. For each of these reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 2.7% of college-friendly places to live in the state of Texas.
In addition, neighborhoodScout's analysis shows that the Pharr North neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 96.8% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 14.1% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.
Diversity
Did you know that the Pharr North neighborhood has more Mexican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 81.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Mexican ancestry.
Pharr North is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 75.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Spanish at home. This is a higher percentage than 98.2% 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 Pharr North neighborhood in Pharr are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 94.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 47.5% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 93.2% 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 Pharr North neighborhood, 30.5% 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 29.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (24.9%), and 15.0% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Pharr North neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 75.4% of households. Some people also speak English (22.9%).
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 Pharr North neighborhood in Pharr, TX, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (81.9%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (8.3%), and residents who report Asian roots (1.6%). In addition, 25.0% 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 Pharr North neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (52.0% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (94.0%) 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.
