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Real Estate Prices & Overview

Downtown San Rafael median real estate price is $1,255,998, which is more expensive than 75.7% of the neighborhoods in California and 94.8% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in Downtown San Rafael is currently $3,907, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 71.8% of the neighborhoods in California.

Downtown San Rafael is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in San Rafael, California.

Downtown San Rafael 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 Downtown San Rafael neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.

Home and apartment vacancy rates are 7.9% in Downtown San Rafael. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 46.0% of the neighborhoods in the nation, approximately near the middle range for vacancies.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

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

In a nation where 1 out of every 4 children lives in poverty, the Downtown San Rafael neighborhood stands out as being ranked among the lowest 0.0% of neighborhoods affected by this global issue.

In addition, the types of households in a neighborhood can tell a lot about the character and lifestyle of those living here. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood, above nearly every neighborhood in America, has a greater percentage of its residents living alone: 69.4%. This is a higher percent living alone than we found in 99.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods. Often residents who live alone are new arrivals to an area who are single, and often senior citizens who have lost a spouse.

Modes of Transportation

More people ride the bus in this neighborhood each day to get to work than 99.2% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Real Estate

The Downtown San Rafael 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 92.9% 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 San Rafael neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 89.6%, which is higher than 96.7% 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 San Rafael neighborhood is that it is almost entirely dominated by large apartment buildings, such as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments. 77.7% 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 96.3% of all neighborhoods in America.

Length of Commute

Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The Downtown San Rafael neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the Downtown San Rafael neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 11.0% of commuters here travel more than one hour just one-way to work. That is more than two hours per day. This percentage with two-hour + round-trip commutes is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.6% of all neighborhoods in America.

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 San Rafael neighborhood have a highly unusual car ownership. 24.4% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.2% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Diversity

Did you know that the Downtown San Rafael neighborhood has more Russian and Scottish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 12.8% of this neighborhood's residents have Russian ancestry and 8.9% have Scottish ancestry.

Downtown San Rafael is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 11.5% 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 98.1% of the neighborhoods in America.

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. In the Downtown San Rafael neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 96.3% of U.S. Neighborhoods. This neighborhood, more than almost any other in America, has new residents from other areas.

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 Downtown San Rafael neighborhood in San Rafael are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 59.5% of the neighborhoods in America. 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.

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 Downtown San Rafael neighborhood, 46.9% 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 28.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (14.0%), and 11.0% 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 San Rafael neighborhood is English, spoken by 76.4% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese, French, Polish 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 San Rafael neighborhood in San Rafael, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (14.5%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (13.3%), and residents who report Italian roots (12.9%), and some of the residents are also of Russian ancestry (12.8%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (8.9%), among others. In addition, 20.9% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.

Getting to Work

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 Downtown San Rafael neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (48.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans. However, there is also a significant group of residents (11.0%) who commute over an hour in each direction.

Here most residents (36.2%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (22.3%) and 10.1% 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.


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Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
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Income & Unemployment Rate
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Crime includes:
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Crimes Per Square Mile
Property Crime Comparison
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Schools include:
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