Downtown Berkeley South median real estate price is $1,266,504, which is more expensive than 75.4% of the neighborhoods in California and 94.7% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Downtown Berkeley South is currently $3,364, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 44.3% of California neighborhoods.
Downtown Berkeley South is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Berkeley, California.
Downtown Berkeley South 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 small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Downtown Berkeley South. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 27.2%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 93.3% of all U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This can sometimes be the case in neighborhoods dominated by new construction that is not yet occupied. But often neighborhoods with vacancy rates this high are places that can be plagued by a protracted vacancy problem. If you live here, you may find that a number of buildings in your neighborhood are actually empty.
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 Berkeley, the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
People
Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood has some of the lowest rates of children living in poverty of any neighborhood in the United States. In a nation where approximately 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, the Downtown Berkeley South community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.
In addition, neighborhoodScout's analysis shows that the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 99.1% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 47.0% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.
Modes of Transportation
In the Downtown Berkeley South 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 32.3% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 99.2% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!
Also, if your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 7.1% of residents in the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 99.1% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.
Finally, in the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood, 22.9% of people ride the train to work each day. This is a very high percentage compared to most places. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this is a higher level of train ridership than in 97.5% of the neighborhoods in America.
Real Estate
The Downtown Berkeley South 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 95.5% 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.
In addition, renter-occupied real estate is dominant in the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 99.1%, which is higher than 99.0% of the neighborhoods in America. If you were to buy and live in the property you bought here, you would be almost alone in doing so.
Furthermore, one of the really unique and interesting things about the look and setting of the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood is that it is almost entirely dominated by large apartment buildings, such as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments. 90.0% 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 98.2% of all neighborhoods in America.
Also of note, the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 37,864 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 97.8% of the nation's neighborhoods.
Car Ownership
Most American households own a car or other vehicle. Many own two cars or perhaps three. In the United States, it is useful to have an automobile not only for commuting, but also for shopping and getting to other services one needs. But NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed that households in the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood have a highly unusual car ownership. 41.7% 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
The Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 95.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 69.7% of the employed people here make a living as an executive, a manager, or other professional. With such a high concentration, this truly shapes the character of this neighborhood, and to a large degree defines what this neighborhood is about.
Diversity
Did you know that the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood has more Romanian and Asian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Romanian ancestry and 51.4% have Asian ancestry.
Downtown Berkeley South is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 29.0% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Chinese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
Migration / Stability
Some neighborhoods have more internal cohesiveness than others. While other neighborhoods feel like a collection of strangers who just happen to live near each other. Sometimes this comes down to not only the personalities of the people in a place, but how long people have been together in that neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research has revealed some interesting things about the rootedness of people in the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood. In the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 97.9% of U.S. Neighborhoods. This neighborhood, more than almost any other in America, has new residents from other areas. What is also interesting to note, is that the Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood has a greater percentage of residents born in another country (42.9%) than are found in 95.3% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
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 Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood in Berkeley are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 80.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, 0.0% 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 100.0% of America'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 Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood, 69.7% 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 18.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (6.5%), and 5.6% 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 Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood is English, spoken by 54.2% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese, Langs. of India, Russian and Tagalog (the first language of the Philippine region).
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 Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood in Berkeley, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (51.4%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (8.0%), and residents who report English roots (6.9%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (4.3%), along with some German ancestry residents (4.1%), among others. In addition, 42.9% 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 Downtown Berkeley South neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (35.9% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (32.3%) hop out the door and walk to work to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (22.9%) and 16.8% of residents also drive alone in a private automobile for their daily commute. This is a special neighborhood for the number of people who walk to work. Combining exercise, low cost, and reduced pollution, plus the chance to see your neighbors, walking to work is fairly uncommon in America but likely to increase as people try to reduce their dependence on automobiles, and this neighborhood offers that opportunity today.
