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Real Estate Prices & Overview

Southwest Reading median real estate price is $126,254, which is less expensive than 86.9% of Pennsylvania neighborhoods and 90.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

The average rental price in Southwest Reading is currently $1,168, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 87.1% of Pennsylvania neighborhoods.

Southwest Reading is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Southwest Reading 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 Southwest Reading neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built before 1940.

Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Southwest Reading. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 16.0%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 80.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This can sometimes be the case in neighborhoods dominated by new construction that is not yet occupied. But often neighborhoods with vacancy rates this high are places that can be plagued by a protracted vacancy problem. If you live here, you may find that a number of buildings in your neighborhood are actually empty.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.

People

The Southwest Reading neighborhood stands out for having an average per capita income lower than 99.0% of the neighborhoods in the United States. The Southwest Reading neighborhood also has a greater percentage of children living in poverty (74.8%) than found in 99.0% of all U.S. neighborhoods. Children living in poverty is one of the challenges facing America, and the world, and in this neighborhood in particular, the problem can be considered acute.

In addition, whether by choice, divorce, or unplanned pregnancy, single moms may have the toughest job in the book. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that the Southwest Reading neighborhood has more single mother households than 98.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. Often high concentrations of single mother homes can be a strong indicator of family and social issues such as poverty, high rates of school dropouts, crime, and other societal problems.

Also, the Southwest Reading neighborhood is unique for having just 5.6% of adults here having earned a bachelor's degree. This is a lower rate of college graduates than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.7% of America's neighborhoods.

Real Estate

Many people dream of living along a street lined with row houses or other attached homes. Such places do often have an abundance of charm. If you are one of these people, the Southwest Reading neighborhood could be your paradise. With 35.4% of the homes and real estate here classified as rowhouses or other attached homes, this neighborhood brims with opportunity to find the right place for you. Only 2.4% of U.S. neighborhoods have more row houses than this neighborhood, making it one of the most interesting things about this special neighborhood.

Modes of Transportation

Our research revealed that more commuters here take the bus to work (14.6% ride the bus) than 97.2% 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.

Occupations

Each year, fewer and fewer Americans make their living as farmers, foresters, or fishers. But the Southwest Reading neighborhood truly stands out among U.S. neighborhoods. According to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, this neighborhood has a greater proportion of farmers, foresters, or fishers than 95.9% of all American neighborhoods. This is truly a unique cultural characteristic of this neighborhood.

Diversity

Did you know that the Southwest Reading neighborhood has more Dutch and Puerto Rican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 14.6% of this neighborhood's residents have Dutch ancestry and 34.3% have Puerto Rican ancestry.

Southwest Reading is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Native American languages at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.7% 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 Southwest Reading neighborhood in Reading are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 99.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 74.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 99.0% 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 Southwest Reading neighborhood, 37.1% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 25.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (20.2%), and 12.9% in executive, management, and professional 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 Southwest Reading neighborhood is English, spoken by 54.6% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and African languages.

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 Southwest Reading neighborhood in Reading, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Puerto Rican (34.3%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (19.1%), and residents who report Dutch roots (14.6%), and some of the residents are also of South American ancestry (11.4%), along with some Dominican ancestry residents (10.9%), among others. In addition, 13.3% 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 Southwest Reading neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (43.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.

Here most residents (57.8%) 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 (18.2%) and 14.6% of residents also ride the bus 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.


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