Hometown is a very small city located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 4,180 people and just one neighborhood, Hometown is the 379th largest community in Illinois.
Unlike some cities, Hometown isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Hometown are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Hometown is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Hometown who work in office and administrative support (12.54%), sales jobs (7.16%), and teaching (6.50%).
Of important note, Hometown is also a city of artists. Hometown has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Hometown’s character.
Hometown’s overall crime rate ranks among the lowest in the nation, making it a very safe place to live.
In Hometown, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 32.81 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit.
For a small city, Hometown has a lot of people who use public transit to get to work, and those that do mostly ride the bus. This suggests that a real need for low-cost transportation in Hometown exists, and local transit is helping to meet that need.
In terms of college education, Hometown is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 18.28% of adults 25 and older in Hometown have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Hometown in 2022 was $28,736, which is lower middle income relative to Illinois and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $114,944 for a family of four. However, Hometown contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Hometown is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Hometown home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Hometown residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Hometown also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 31.82% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Hometown include Irish, German, Polish, Italian, and English.
The most common language spoken in Hometown is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
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 neighborhood, is that an incredible 92.5% 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.
In addition, if you love row houses and attached homes, you will probably really like the neighborhood. The ambiance, the charm, of row houses is something special. And in sheer abundance of row houses, this neighborhood truly stands out. The real estate here has a higher proportion of row houses and attached homes than nearly any neighborhood in America. In fact, 62.8% of the residential real estate here is classified as row houses and attached homes.
The neighborhood stands out within Illinois for its college student friendly environment. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood is home to a number of college students, is relatively walkable, and above average in safety. In combination, this makes it stand out for a good place for college students to consider. Because a number of college students live here, this neighborhood may be close to a college campus and offer certain amenities nearby geared towards the student body. While it's not an environment for everyone, ambitious scholars can enjoy seasonal excitement between semesters and school breaks, and parents can rest easy knowing that the area has an above average safety rating. For each of these reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 6.4% of college-friendly places to live in IL.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Lithuanian and Austrian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Lithuanian ancestry and 1.3% have Austrian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 14.3% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Polish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 neighborhood in Hometown are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 70.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, 1.1% 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 78.6% 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 neighborhood, 32.0% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 31.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (20.5%), and 15.6% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
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 neighborhood is English, spoken by 76.9% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.
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 neighborhood in Hometown, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (24.9%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (24.4%), and residents who report German roots (17.9%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (12.0%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (11.1%), among others. In addition, 10.5% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (28.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (71.8%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (8.3%) and 6.4% 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.