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.
4th St / Ashford Blvd median real estate price is $424,045, which is more expensive than 43.2% of the neighborhoods in Maryland and 58.2% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in 4th St / Ashford Blvd is currently $2,652, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 44.2% of Maryland neighborhoods.
4th St / Ashford Blvd is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Laurel, Maryland.
4th St / Ashford Blvd 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 townhomes. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 2000 and the present.
4th St / Ashford Blvd has a 11.1% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 66.3% of American neighborhoods). Most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This could either signal that there is a weak demand for real estate in the neighborhood or that large amount of new housing has been built and not yet occupied. Either way, if you live here, you may find many of the homes or apartments are empty.
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 Laurel, the 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
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 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 19.1% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 98.8% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Furthermore, with 2.8% of employed workers living in the 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood active in the military, this neighborhood has the distinction of having a higher proportion of people in the military than 97.4% of American neighborhoods. This is a major shaper of the neighborhood's culture and character.
People
One of the most interesting things about the 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in America. With 53.7% 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 97.3% of the neighborhoods in America.
Real Estate
If you love row houses and attached homes, you will probably really like the 4th St / Ashford Blvd 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, 28.7% of the residential real estate here is classified as row houses and attached homes.
Diversity
Did you know that the 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood has more Sub-Saharan African and Brazilian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 20.6% of this neighborhood's residents have Sub-Saharan African ancestry and 0.9% have Brazilian ancestry.
4th St / Ashford Blvd is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 10.4% 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 99.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood in Laurel are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 59.8% of the neighborhoods in America. With 32.6% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 83.6% 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 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood, 55.2% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 19.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions (19.1%), and 16.2% 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 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood is English, spoken by 65.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, African languages and Tagalog (the first language of the Philippine region).
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 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood in Laurel, MD, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (20.6%). There are also a number of people of Asian ancestry (10.5%), and residents who report African roots (4.6%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (4.3%), along with some German ancestry residents (2.3%), among others. In addition, 32.5% 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 4th St / Ashford Blvd neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (32.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (68.7%) 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 (10.0%) and 7.3% of residents also take the train 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.
