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.
Mid-City median real estate price is $748,290, which is more expensive than 38.9% of the neighborhoods in California and 81.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Mid-City is currently $3,457, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 41.5% of California neighborhoods.
Mid-City is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Santa Ana, California.
Mid-City 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 occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Mid-City neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
In Mid-City, the current vacancy rate is 2.7%, which is a lower rate of vacancies than 81.9% of all neighborhoods in the U.S. This means that the housing supply in Mid-City is very tight compared to the demand for property here.
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 Santa Ana, the Mid-City neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Real Estate
Most neighborhoods have a mixture of ages of homes in them, from new to old, but this neighborhood stands out due to its concentration of residential real estate built in one time frame: from 1940 through 1969, generally considered older, well-established homes. This was a busy time in America for home construction. After the end of World War II, as GIs came home, bought newly built homes on the edges of cities with the help of the GI Bill, and began their families. This housing era generally coincides with the 'Baby Boom' generation (1945 - 1964), and many baby boomers grew up in homes built in this era. But what is so interesting about the Mid-City neighborhood, is that an incredible 87.9% of the homes here were built in this era. So when you walk its streets or drive through, this neighborhood has a look and feel that harkens to that era in American life, a very important slice of Americana.
Car Ownership
We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis shows that the Mid-City neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 34.9% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 96.0% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
People
With a nice mix of college students, safety from crime, and decent walkability, the Mid-City neighborhood rates highly as a college student friendly place to live, and one that college students and their parents may want to consider. NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that it rates more highly for a good place for college students to live than 88.2% of the neighborhoods in CA. This often also means that the area has certain amenities and services geared towards college students, from undergraduates to graduate students.
Diversity
Did you know that the Mid-City neighborhood has more Mexican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 90.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Mexican ancestry.
Mid-City is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 89.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Spanish at home. This is a higher percentage than 99.5% 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 Mid-City neighborhood has a greater percentage of residents born in another country (50.4%) than are found in 97.7% 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 Mid-City neighborhood in Santa Ana are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 81.5% of the neighborhoods in America. With 13.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 56.3% 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 Mid-City neighborhood, 32.4% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 31.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (21.6%), and 13.0% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Mid-City neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 89.1% of households. Some people also speak English (8.0%).
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Boston's Beacon Hill blue-blood streets, Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish enclaves, Los Angeles' Persian neighborhoods. Each has its own culture derived primarily from the ancestries and culture of the residents who call these neighborhoods home. Likewise, each neighborhood in America has its own culture – some more unique than others – based on lifestyle, occupations, the types of households – and importantly – on the ethnicities and ancestries of the people who live in the neighborhood. Understanding where people came from, who their grandparents or great-grandparents were, can help you understand how a neighborhood is today.
In the Mid-City neighborhood in Santa Ana, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (90.2%). There are also a number of people of Asian ancestry (3.3%). In addition, 50.4% 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 Mid-City neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (46.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (81.7%) 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 (11.5%) . 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.
