Old Town median real estate price is $626,443, which is more expensive than 88.8% of the neighborhoods in Illinois and 74.8% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Old Town is currently $4,138, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 97.8% of the neighborhoods in Illinois.
Old Town is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Chicago, Illinois.
Old Town 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 occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Old Town 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.
Old Town has a 9.9% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 61.4% 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.
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
People
The rate of college educated adults in the Old Town neighborhood is a unique characteristic of the neighborhood. 85.9% of adults here have received at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, compared to the average neighborhood in America, which has 34.3% of the adults with a bachelor's degree. The rate here is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.2% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In addition, think about the people you know personally. How many of them would purchase box seats to opening night at the symphony? How many of them regularly attend gallery openings, or are the first to reserve tickets to opening night at the ballet? If they're like most of us, they don't do any of these things. But if you're among an exclusive crowd of wealthy and refined patrons of the arts, then you'll feel right at home in the Old Town neighborhood: a neighborhood in which more "urban sophisticates" live than 97.7% of neighborhoods across the U.S. Here, your neighbors are defined as having urbane tastes in literature, music, live theatre and the arts. They are wealthy, educated, travel in style, and live a big city lifestyle whether or not they live in or near a big city. In addition to being an excellent choice for urban sophisticates, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for young, single professionals.
Real Estate
The Old Town neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 39,397 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 97.9% of the nation's neighborhoods.
In addition, one of the really unique and interesting things about the look and setting of the Old Town neighborhood is that it is almost entirely dominated by large apartment buildings, such as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments. 78.9% of the residential real estate here is classified as such. This puts this neighborhood on the map as having a higher proportion of large apartment buildings than 96.6% of all neighborhoods in America.
Furthermore, the Old Town neighborhood is very unique in that it has one of the highest proportions of one, two, or no bedroom real estate of any neighborhood in America. Most neighborhoods have a mixture of home or apartment sizes from small to large, but here the concentration of studios and other small living spaces is at near-record heights. With 83.2% of the real estate here of this small size, this most assuredly is a notable feature that makes this neighborhood unique, along with just a handful of other neighborhoods in the U.S. that share this characteristic.
Modes of Transportation
If your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 4.6% of residents in the Old Town neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 97.8% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.
Also, if you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 17.9% of the Old Town neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 96.9% of America's neighborhoods.
Finally, more people in Old Town choose to walk to work each day (11.3%) than almost any neighborhood in America. If you are attracted to the idea of being able to walk to work, this neighborhood could be a good choice.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Old Town neighborhood buck this trend. 28.8% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Occupations
Executives, managers and professionals make up 71.3% of the workforce in the Old Town neighborhood which, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, is a higher proportion of such high-level people than is found in 96.2% of the neighborhoods in America. For this reason, this neighborhood really stands out as unique.
Diversity
Did you know that the Old Town neighborhood has more Belgian and Arab ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Belgian ancestry and 3.8% have Arab ancestry.
Old Town is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.5% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Persian at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
Migration / Stability
Do you like to be surrounded by people from all over the country or world, with different perspectives and life experiences? Or do you instead prefer to be in a neighborhood where most residents have lived there for a long time, creating a sense of cohesiveness? NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood stands out among American neighborhoods for the uniqueness of the mobility of its residents. In the Old Town neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 95.9% of U.S. Neighborhoods. This neighborhood, more than almost any other in America, has new residents from other areas.
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 Old Town neighborhood in Chicago 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 94.9% of the neighborhoods in America. With 17.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 64.5% 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 Old Town neighborhood, 71.3% 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 18.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (7.8%), and 2.9% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Old Town neighborhood is English, spoken by 73.7% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (10.1%).
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 Old Town neighborhood in Chicago, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (19.7%). There are also a number of people of Asian ancestry (15.5%), and residents who report Irish roots (11.7%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (9.0%), along with some Mexican ancestry residents (7.1%), among others. In addition, 16.5% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in Old Town neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (52.4% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (25.7%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (17.9%) and 11.3% 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.
