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.
Chinatown median real estate price is $760,630, which is more expensive than 39.3% of the neighborhoods in California and 83.0% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Chinatown is currently $2,989, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 57.4% of California neighborhoods.
Chinatown is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Oakland, California.
Chinatown 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 Chinatown neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Home and apartment vacancy rates are 9.2% in Chinatown. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 42.0% 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 in Chinatown choose to walk to work each day (18.5%) than almost any neighborhood in America. If you are attracted to the idea of being able to walk to work, this neighborhood could be a good choice.
Also, if you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 19.7% of the Chinatown neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 97.2% of America's neighborhoods.
Real Estate
If you like crowded places, then you will probably enjoy the the Chinatown neighborhood. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive data analysis, this neighborhood is more densely populated than 96.3% of neighborhoods in the U.S., with 26,335 people per square mile living here.
In addition, renter-occupied real estate is dominant in the Chinatown neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 86.5%, which is higher than 95.8% of the neighborhoods in America. If you were to buy and live in the property you bought here, you would be almost alone in doing so.
Diversity
Did you know that the Chinatown neighborhood has more Asian and Native American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 69.0% of this neighborhood's residents have Asian ancestry and 4.8% have Native American ancestry.
Chinatown is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 67.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Chinese at home. This is a higher percentage than 100.0% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Migration / Stability
The freedom of moving to new places versus the comfort of home. How much and how often people move not only can create diverse and worldly neighborhoods, but simultaneously it can produce a loss of intimacy with one's surroundings and a lack of connectedness to one's neighbors. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research has identified this neighborhood as unique with regard to the transience of its populace. What is interesting to note, is that the Chinatown neighborhood has a greater percentage of residents born in another country (61.5%) than are found in 99.3% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
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 Chinatown neighborhood in Oakland are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 94.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 19.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 67.4% 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 Chinatown neighborhood, 65.1% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 16.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (11.1%), and 7.3% 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 Chinatown neighborhood is Chinese, spoken by 67.1% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English and Spanish.
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 Chinatown neighborhood in Oakland, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (69.0%). There are also a number of people of Native American ancestry (4.8%), and residents who report German roots (1.8%), and some of the residents are also of Norwegian ancestry (1.5%). In addition, 61.5% 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 Chinatown neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (41.6% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (36.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (19.7%) and 18.5% 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.
