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.
Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park median real estate price is $107,933, which is less expensive than 95.1% of Arizona neighborhoods and 94.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park is currently $2,035, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 64.4% of Arizona neighborhoods.
Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Mesa, Arizona.
Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) mobile homes and single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park 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.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 47.6%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 98.5% of all U.S. neighborhoods. A relatively large percentage of housing here is seasonally occupied (45.5%). This can occur in vacation areas, and occasionally it is also found in neighborhoods that are primarily filled with college students, as some apartments could be vacant when school is not in session. If you live here year round, 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
Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood has some of the lowest rates of children living in poverty of any neighborhood in the United States. In a nation where approximately 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, the Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.
Real Estate
The Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood stands out for having the majority of its residential real estate made up of mobile homes. In fact, 88.4% of the occupied real estate here are mobile homes, which is a greater proportion than is found in 100.0% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. If you like mobile homes, this might be a great neighborhood in which to look for real estate.
In addition, the Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood is very unique in that it has one of the highest proportions of one, two, or no bedroom real estate of any neighborhood in America. Most neighborhoods have a mixture of home or apartment sizes from small to large, but here the concentration of studios and other small living spaces is at near-record heights. With 96.4% of the real estate here of this small size, this most assuredly is a notable feature that makes this neighborhood unique, along with just a handful of other neighborhoods in the U.S. that share this characteristic.
Furthermore, despite all of the residential real estate here in the Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 47.6%, which is higher than 98.5% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Modes of Transportation
If your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 4.7% of residents in the Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 97.9% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.
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 Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 13.5% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 95.9% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood has more Canadian and Ukrainian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Canadian ancestry and 2.3% have Ukrainian ancestry.
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 Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood in Mesa are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 76.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood, 43.0% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 32.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (16.0%), and 13.5% in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood is English, spoken by 94.1% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (2.4%).
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 Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood in Mesa, AZ, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (25.1%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (11.6%), and residents who report Irish roots (10.7%), and some of the residents are also of Norwegian ancestry (6.4%), along with some Swedish ancestry residents (3.9%), among others. In addition, 10.2% 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 Hacienda de Valencia / Mesa Shadows Park neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (30.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (66.8%) 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 (15.0%) . 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.
