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.
Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village median real estate price is $638,149, which is more expensive than 77.7% of the neighborhoods in Maryland and 77.5% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village is currently $4,311, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 96.1% of the neighborhoods in Maryland.
Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Bowie, Maryland.
Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to large (four, five or more bedroom) single-family homes and townhomes. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
Real estate vacancies in Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village are 4.4%, which is lower than one will find in 70.8% of American neighborhoods. Demand for real estate in Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village is above average for the U.S., and may signal some demand for either price increases or new construction of residential product for this neighborhood.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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 Bowie, the Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village 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 Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village 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 Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.
In addition, a majority of the adults in the Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village neighborhood are wealthy and educated executives. They own stately homes that tend to maintain high real estate appreciation rates. Their upper-level careers keep them busy, but allow them to live comfortably. If you're an executive and want to keep similar company, consider settling in this neighborhood, rated as an executive lifestyle "best choice" neighborhood for Maryland by NeighborhoodScout's analysis, which rated it as better for executive lifestyles than 97.7% of the neighborhoods in Maryland. In addition to being an excellent choice for highly educated executives, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for urban sophisticates.
Occupations
The government often provides some of the more stable jobs in the economy. From local, to state, to federal government workers, the government can also be a major employer. What NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed, is that the Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 20.4% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 99.1% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Real Estate
If you love row houses and attached homes, you will probably really like the Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village 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, 30.0% of the residential real estate here is classified as row houses and attached homes.
In addition, homes built from 2000 through today make up a higher proportion of the Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village neighborhood's real estate landscape than 95.0% of the neighborhoods in America. When you are driving around this neighborhood, you'll notice right away that it is one of the newest built of any, with the smell of fresh paint, and the look of young landscaping nearly everywhere you look. In fact, 65.9% of the residential real estate here is classified as newer.
Diversity
Did you know that the Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village neighborhood has more Jamaican and Iranian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 11.6% of this neighborhood's residents have Jamaican ancestry and 2.4% have Iranian ancestry.
Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 6.2% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak African languages at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.1% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village neighborhood in Bowie are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 94.6% 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 Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village neighborhood, 61.5% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions, with 20.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (19.3%), and 11.5% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
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 Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village neighborhood is English, spoken by 78.4% of households. Other important languages spoken here include African languages, French and Spanish.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
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 Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village neighborhood in Bowie, MD, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (17.1%). There are also a number of people of Jamaican ancestry (11.6%), and residents who report African roots (6.8%), and some of the residents are also of Irania ancestry (2.4%), along with some Puerto Rican ancestry residents (1.8%), among others. In addition, 20.8% 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 Woodmore Towne Centre / Balk Hill Village neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (36.0% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (71.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. 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.
