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La Mesa, NM

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.



Overview

La Mesa is a tiny town located in the state of New Mexico. With a population of 649 people and just one neighborhood, La Mesa is the 129th largest community in New Mexico.

Occupations and Workforce

Unlike some towns, La Mesa isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in La Mesa are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, La Mesa is a town of sales and office workers, managers, and construction workers and builders. There are especially a lot of people living in La Mesa who work in office and administrative support (26.39%), business and financial occupations (26.39%), and sales jobs (15.97%).

Setting & Lifestyle

It is a fairly quiet town because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) La Mesa has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. La Mesa has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in La Mesa than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, La Mesa may be for you.

La Mesa is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.

Demographics

The citizens of La Mesa are slightly less educated than the national average of 21.84% for the average city or town: 15.50% of adults in La Mesa have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree

The per capita income in La Mesa in 2022 was $22,584, which is lower middle income relative to New Mexico, and low income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $90,336 for a family of four. However, La Mesa contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

La Mesa is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call La Mesa home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in La Mesa, accounting for 82.24% of the town’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of La Mesa residents report their race to be Native American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in La Mesa include Italian, Scots-Irish, Yugoslavian, Other West Indian, and West Indian.

La Mesa also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 37.21%.

The most common language spoken in La Mesa is Spanish. Other important languages spoken here include English and Italian.

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.

Car Ownership

Most American households own a car or other vehicle. Many own two cars or perhaps three. In the United States, it is useful to have an automobile not only for commuting, but also for shopping and getting to other services one needs. But NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed that households in the neighborhood have a highly unusual car ownership. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 48.1% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 99.5% of the neighborhoods in the nation.

Real Estate

Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 35.5% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 97.0% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.

In addition, this neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 28 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 93.1% of America.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more French and Mexican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 12.1% of this neighborhood's residents have French ancestry and 80.0% have Mexican ancestry.

is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 60.0% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Spanish at home. This is a higher percentage than 95.7% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

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 neighborhood in La Mesa are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 67.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 17.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 66.4% 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 neighborhood, 37.3% 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 25.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (20.1%), and 17.0% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 60.0% of households. Some people also speak English (37.8%).

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 neighborhood in La Mesa, NM, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (80.0%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (12.5%), and residents who report French roots (12.1%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (6.2%), along with some Native American ancestry residents (3.3%), among others. In addition, 19.8% 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 neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (48.6% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (80.1%) 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 (6.1%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.

Real Estate includes:
Average Home Values
Rental Market
Housing Market Details
Neighborhood Setting
Economics & Demographics include:
Lifestyle & Special Character
Household Types
Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
Employment Industries & Occupations
Income & Unemployment Rate
Higher Education Attainment
Crime includes:
Neighborhood Crime Index
Crimes Per Square Mile
Property Crime Comparison
Violent Crime Comparison
Schools include:
School Ratings
Schools In District
Public School Test Scores
School District Enrollment
Educational Expenditures

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