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.
Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale median real estate price is $106,185, which is less expensive than 87.6% of Louisiana neighborhoods and 94.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale is currently $1,297, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 60.6% of Louisiana neighborhoods.
Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale 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 Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 35.5%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 96.6% 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.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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.
Modes of Transportation
Our research shows that more people carpool to work here in the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale (32.2%) than in 99.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
People
The Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood stands out for having an average per capita income lower than 99.1% of the neighborhoods in the United States. The Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood also has a greater percentage of children living in poverty (71.2%) than found in 98.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods. Children living in poverty is one of the challenges facing America, and the world, and in this neighborhood in particular, the problem can be considered acute.
In addition, neighborhoodScout's exclusive research revealed that 99.2% of the adult residents in the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood do not have a 4-year college degree, which is a lower rate of college graduated adults than found in 98.8% of the neighborhoods in America.
Also, one of the most interesting things about the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in America. With 52.0% of the households here made up of people living alone, NeighborhoodScout's research reveals that this is a larger proportion of people living alone than in 96.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
Real Estate
Renter-occupied real estate is dominant in the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 96.2%, which is higher than 98.3% 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. Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 35.5% of the residential real estate vacant, the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 96.6% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
In addition, the real estate in the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood really stands out in the way it looks for a unique reason: this neighborhood has a higher proportion of apartment complexes or high-rise apartments than nearly every neighborhood in the country. Most neighborhoods are a mixture of real estate and housing types, but here it is almost entirely dominated by big apartment buildings and complexes. In fact, 84.3% of the real estate here is classified as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments, which is more than is found in 97.3% of American neighborhoods.
Furthermore, the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale 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 85.3% 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.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood buck this trend. 21.2% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 95.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood has more African and Sub-Saharan African ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 19.0% of this neighborhood's residents have African ancestry and 19.0% have Sub-Saharan African ancestry.
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 Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood in Baton Rouge are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 99.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 71.2% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 98.6% of U.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 Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood, 40.6% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer 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 31.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (14.1%), and 10.7% in executive, management, and professional occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood is English, spoken by 88.8% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (10.1%).
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood in Baton Rouge, LA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (19.0%). There are also a number of people of African ancestry (19.0%), and residents who report Mexican roots (4.3%).
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 Melrose East / Lobdell Woodale neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (52.1% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (57.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (32.2%) and 7.9% of residents also ride the bus 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.
