Downtown Lafayette median real estate price is $314,365, which is more expensive than 68.8% of the neighborhoods in Louisiana and 40.7% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Downtown Lafayette is currently $1,340, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 55.3% of Louisiana neighborhoods.
Downtown Lafayette is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Downtown Lafayette real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) single-family homes and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Downtown Lafayette 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 Lafayette. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 21.3%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 88.3% 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 Lafayette, the Downtown Lafayette neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
An extraordinary 51.1% of the residents of the Downtown Lafayette neighborhood are currently enrolled in college. This is such a large part of life in this neighborhood that the neighborhood changes a great deal with the change of semesters and is far quieter during the summer when many students are away.
In addition, with a nice mix of college students, safety from crime, and decent walkability, the Downtown Lafayette neighborhood rates highly as a college student friendly place to live, and one that college students and their parents may want to consider. NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that it rates more highly for a good place for college students to live than 85.7% of the neighborhoods in LA. This often also means that the area has certain amenities and services geared towards college students, from undergraduates to graduate students.
From major sales accounts to fast-food workers, sales and service employees are often the backbone of the local economy. In the Downtown Lafayette neighborhood, they truly stand out. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis identifies this neighborhood as having a higher percentage of sales and service workers than 98.7% of all American neighborhoods.
More people in Downtown Lafayette choose to walk to work each day (16.6%) 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.
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The Downtown Lafayette neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Residents of the Downtown Lafayette neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 63.7% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.
Did you know that the Downtown Lafayette neighborhood has more French ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 26.4% of this neighborhood's residents have French ancestry.
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 Lafayette neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 97.8% 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 Downtown Lafayette neighborhood in Lafayette are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 79.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 13.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 57.8% 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 Downtown Lafayette neighborhood, 45.4% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 35.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (11.2%), and 7.9% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
The most common language spoken in the Downtown Lafayette neighborhood is English, spoken by 90.7% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (3.6%).
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 Downtown Lafayette neighborhood in Lafayette, LA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as French (26.4%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (10.2%), and residents who report English roots (5.4%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (4.5%), along with some Asian ancestry residents (3.8%), among others.
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 Lafayette neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (63.7% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (62.3%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (16.6%) and 8.4% 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.