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.
The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell median real estate price is $412,656, which is less expensive than 86.0% of Massachusetts neighborhoods and 44.7% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell is currently $3,349, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 49.2% of Massachusetts neighborhoods.
The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Lowell, Massachusetts.
The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) small apartment buildings and single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell 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 1970 and 1999.
Home and apartment vacancy rates are 7.5% in The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 50.7% of the neighborhoods in the nation, approximately near the middle range for vacancies.
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 Lowell, the The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Real Estate
Three-deckers, duplexes, old Victorian homes cut up into apartments. Independent stores on the corner selling pizza. These are some of the hallmarks of neighborhoods with lots of small 2, 3, and 4 unit apartment buildings. The The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell neighborhood really stands out in this regard, however, as it is dominated by such small apartment buildings more than nearly any other neighborhood in America. This is a stunning visual and lifestyle example of this type of neighborhood. In fact, 54.9% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings, which is a higher proportion than found in 98.9% of America's neighborhoods.
In addition, 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 The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell neighborhood is among the top 5% of American neighborhoods in terms of walkability.
People
NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that the The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 98.0% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 22.7% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.
Diversity
Did you know that the The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell neighborhood has more Brazilian and Dominican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 5.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Brazilian ancestry and 6.7% have Dominican ancestry.
The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 9.9% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Mon-Khmer, which is the dominant language of Cambodia, at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 100.0% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell neighborhood in Lowell are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 77.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 33.7% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 84.6% of U.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 The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell neighborhood, 42.5% 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 22.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (20.7%), and 14.6% 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 The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell neighborhood is English, spoken by 59.6% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Mon-Khmer (the dominant language of Cambodia), French and Portuguese.
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 The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell neighborhood in Lowell, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (19.7%). There are also a number of people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (10.0%), and residents who report Puerto Rican roots (9.4%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (7.3%), along with some Dominican ancestry residents (6.7%), among others. In addition, 31.9% 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 The Acre / University of Massachusetts Lowell neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (39.6% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (64.8%) 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 (14.0%) and 10.3% 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.
