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.
Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest median real estate price is $458,320, which is more expensive than 75.3% of the neighborhoods in North Carolina and 62.1% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest is currently $2,070, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 64.4% of the neighborhoods in North Carolina.
Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Huntersville, North Carolina.
Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to small (studio to two bedroom) single-family homes and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest 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.
Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest has a 15.2% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 78.4% 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
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.
Modes of Transportation
Our research revealed that more commuters here take the bus to work (12.3% ride the bus) than 96.1% of all American neighborhoods. If you like the idea of leaving your car and home and hopping the bus to work, this might be a good neighborhood for you to consider.
Real Estate
Most neighborhoods are composed of a mixture of ages of homes, but the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest stands out as rather unique in having nearly all of its residential real estate built in one time period, namely between 1970 and 1999, generally considered to be established, but not old housing. What you'll sense when you look around or drive the streets of this neighborhood is that many of the residences look the same because of this similarity of age. In fact, 81.1% of the residential real estate here was built in this one time period.
Diversity
Did you know that the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood has more Scots-Irish and Dominican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Scots-Irish ancestry and 4.9% have Dominican ancestry.
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. More residents of the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 98.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. This neighborhood is really made up of people who know each other, don't move often, and have lived here in this very neighborhood for quite a while.
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 Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood in Huntersville are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 64.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 29.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 80.6% 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 Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood, 44.4% 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 25.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (16.5%), and 13.2% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood is English, spoken by 80.3% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (18.9%).
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 Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood in Huntersville, NC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (13.0%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (11.0%), and residents who report Mexican roots (10.2%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (10.0%), along with some Scots-Irish ancestry residents (7.5%), among others. In addition, 11.5% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
Getting to Work
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in Shepherds Vineyard / Sherwood Forest neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (40.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (68.3%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (12.3%) . 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.
