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.
Ironbound West median real estate price is $497,926, which is less expensive than 61.9% of New Jersey neighborhoods and 35.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in Ironbound West is currently $3,322, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 44.1% of New Jersey neighborhoods.
Ironbound West is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Newark, New Jersey.
Ironbound West real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) small apartment buildings and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Ironbound West neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Real estate vacancies in Ironbound West are 3.2%, which is lower than one will find in 78.8% of American neighborhoods. Demand for real estate in Ironbound West is above average for the U.S., and may signal some demand for either price increases or new construction of residential product for this neighborhood.
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 Newark, the Ironbound West 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 Ironbound West 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, 79.5% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings, which is a higher proportion than found in 99.9% of America's neighborhoods.
In addition, the Ironbound West neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 48,659 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 98.4% of the nation's neighborhoods.
Modes of Transportation
Our research shows that more people carpool to work here in the Ironbound West (46.1%) than in 99.9% of the neighborhoods in America.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Ironbound West neighborhood buck this trend. 40.7% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.2% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Occupations
NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research identifies the Ironbound West neighborhood as having one of the highest concentrations of people employed in manufacturing or as laborers of any neighborhood in America. In fact, despite the loss of manufacturing jobs nationally, this neighborhood has 45.8% of its working residents employed in such fields, which is a higher proportion than 97.6% of American neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Ironbound West neighborhood has more Brazilian and Portuguese ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 34.4% of this neighborhood's residents have Brazilian ancestry and 9.4% have Portuguese ancestry.
Ironbound West is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 28.3% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Portuguese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 100.0% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Ironbound West neighborhood has a greater percentage of residents born in another country (70.5%) than are found in 99.8% 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 Ironbound West neighborhood in Newark are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 85.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 39.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 88.6% 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 Ironbound West neighborhood, 45.8% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer 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 29.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (16.7%), and 8.0% 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 Ironbound West neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 42.2% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Portuguese and English.
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 Ironbound West neighborhood in Newark, NJ, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Brazilian (34.4%). There are also a number of people of South American ancestry (16.7%), and residents who report Portuguese roots (9.4%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (5.0%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (4.0%), among others. In addition, 70.5% 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 Ironbound West neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (42.1% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (46.1%) carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (28.3%) and 7.9% of residents also take the train for their daily commute. Despite relying on the automobile to get to work, residents of this neighborhood share the ride more than most neighborhoods, reducing traffic, pollution, and saving money.
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.
