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.
Bergen Hill South median real estate price is $989,456, which is more expensive than 80.2% of the neighborhoods in New Jersey and 86.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Bergen Hill South is currently $2,782, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 65.5% of New Jersey neighborhoods.
Bergen Hill South is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Bergen Hill South 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 Bergen Hill South neighborhood are relatively historic, built no later than 1939, and in some cases, quite a bit earlier. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.
Real estate vacancies in Bergen Hill South are 5.5%, which is lower than one will find in 63.4% of American neighborhoods. Demand for real estate in Bergen Hill South 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 Jersey City, the Bergen Hill South neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Modes of Transportation
If you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 36.0% of the Bergen Hill South neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 98.6% of America's neighborhoods.
Also, in the Bergen Hill South neighborhood, walking to work is a real option for many. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research reveals walking to and from work is the chosen way to commute for 18.3% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 97.9% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!
Real Estate
The Bergen Hill South neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 33,696 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 97.4% of the nation's neighborhoods. Even if you drive or take transit to your place of employment, many people enjoy being able to walk in their neighborhood. What many people don't realize is that most of America's premier vacation locations are also very walkable. The Bergen Hill South neighborhood is among the top 5% of American neighborhoods in terms of walkability.
People
One of the really interesting characteristics about the Bergen Hill South neighborhood is that, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research, it is an excellent choice in which to reside for college students. Due to its popularity among college students who already choose to live here, its walkability, and its above average safety from crime, the neighborhood is ideal for prospective or already-enrolled college students. Between semesters and during school breaks, you'll notice that the excitement here fluctuates with the college seasons. Despite the excitement however, parents of college-age children can rest easy knowing that this neighborhood has an above average safety rating. For each of these reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 2.6% of college-friendly places to live in the state of New Jersey.
In addition, neighborhoodScout's analysis shows that the Bergen Hill South neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 95.1% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 10.9% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.
Diversity
Did you know that the Bergen Hill South neighborhood has more Puerto Rican and South American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 23.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Puerto Rican ancestry and 13.0% have South American ancestry.
Bergen Hill South is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 4.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Arabic at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.8% 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 Bergen Hill South neighborhood in Jersey City are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 50.8% of the neighborhoods in America. With 33.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 84.3% 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 Bergen Hill South neighborhood, 47.6% 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 19.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (16.9%), and 16.4% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
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 Bergen Hill South neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 45.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English and Arabic.
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 Bergen Hill South neighborhood in Jersey City, NJ, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Puerto Rican (23.9%). There are also a number of people of South American ancestry (13.0%), and residents who report Mexican roots (6.8%), and some of the residents are also of Asian ancestry (6.7%), along with some Dominican ancestry residents (5.8%), among others. In addition, 29.4% 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 Bergen Hill South neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (34.4% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (36.0%) take the train to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (23.6%) and 18.3% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work for their daily commute. This neighborhood is distinguished by the high number of residents who take the train to work each day, which can be a very good way to get to work at a lower cost and with less pollution.
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.
