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.
Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest median real estate price is $458,320, which is more expensive than 75.3% of the neighborhoods in North Carolina and 62.1% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest is currently $2,070, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 64.4% of the neighborhoods in North Carolina.
Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Huntersville, North Carolina.
Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to small (studio to two bedroom) single-family homes and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 2000 and the present.
Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest has a 15.2% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 78.4% 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
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 Huntersville, the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Modes of Transportation
More people ride the bus in this neighborhood each day to get to work than 96.1% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Real Estate
Most neighborhoods are composed of a mixture of ages of homes, but the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest stands out as rather unique in having nearly all of its residential real estate built in one time period, namely between 1970 and 1999, generally considered to be established, but not old housing. What you'll sense when you look around or drive the streets of this neighborhood is that many of the residences look the same because of this similarity of age. In fact, 81.1% of the residential real estate here was built in this one time period.
Diversity
Did you know that the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood has more Scots-Irish and Dominican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Scots-Irish ancestry and 4.9% have Dominican ancestry.
Migration / Stability
Some neighborhoods have more internal cohesiveness than others. While other neighborhoods feel like a collection of strangers who just happen to live near each other. Sometimes this comes down to not only the personalities of the people in a place, but how long people have been together in that neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research has revealed some interesting things about the rootedness of people in the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood. More residents of the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 98.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. This neighborhood is really made up of people who know each other, don't move often, and have lived here in this very neighborhood for quite a while.
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 Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood in Huntersville are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 64.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 29.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 80.6% 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 Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood, 44.4% 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 25.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (16.5%), and 13.2% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood is English, spoken by 80.3% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (18.9%).
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 Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood in Huntersville, NC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (13.0%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (11.0%), and residents who report Mexican roots (10.2%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (10.0%), along with some Scots-Irish ancestry residents (7.5%), among others. In addition, 11.5% 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 Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (40.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (68.3%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (12.3%) . 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.
