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 Old Quad / City Center median real estate price is $1,865,160, which is more expensive than 89.1% of the neighborhoods in California and 97.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in The Old Quad / City Center is currently $3,690, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 65.5% of the neighborhoods in California.
The Old Quad / City Center is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Santa Clara, California.
The Old Quad / City Center 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 single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the The Old Quad / City Center neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built before 1940.
Home and apartment vacancy rates are 9.2% in The Old Quad / City Center. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 41.8% 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 Santa Clara, the The Old Quad / City Center neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
People
NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that the The Old Quad / City Center neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 98.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 39.2% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.
Modes of Transportation
In the The Old Quad / City Center neighborhood, walking to work is a real option for many. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research reveals walking to and from work is the chosen way to commute for 15.0% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 97.1% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!
Also, would you like to be able to ride your bike to work? If you are attracted to the idea of getting a little exercise of the two-wheeled type while reducing your carbon footprint, bicycling to work might be the answer. But which neighborhood you live in can make this either impossible, or alternatively, a great and realistic option. NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed that the The Old Quad / City Center neighborhood is a fantastic option for bicycle commuters, as 2.7% of commuters here do ride their bikes to and from work on a daily basis. This is a higher amount than we found in 95.1% of the neighborhoods in America.
Diversity
Did you know that the The Old Quad / City Center neighborhood has more Iranian and Portuguese ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Iranian ancestry and 3.0% have Portuguese ancestry.
The Old Quad / City Center is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 3.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Korean at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.0% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 The Old Quad / City Center neighborhood in Santa Clara are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 85.0% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 3.9% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 68.4% of America'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 Old Quad / City Center neighborhood, 55.5% 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 21.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (17.2%), and 5.5% in manufacturing and laborer 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 Old Quad / City Center neighborhood is English, spoken by 64.2% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Langs. of India, Chinese and Korean.
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 The Old Quad / City Center neighborhood in Santa Clara, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (24.9%). There are also a number of people of Mexican ancestry (10.5%), and residents who report Irish roots (9.9%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (8.4%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (4.7%), among others. In addition, 21.6% 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 Old Quad / City Center neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (39.4% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (52.7%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (15.0%) and 11.9% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors 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.
