Grand Lake is a tiny town located in the state of Colorado. With a population of 405 people and just one neighborhood, Grand Lake is the 216th largest community in Colorado.
Housing costs in Grand Lake are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in Colorado.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Grand Lake is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 37.33% of the Grand Lake workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Grand Lake is a town of construction workers and builders, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Grand Lake who work in sales jobs (23.33%), management occupations (18.67%), and maintenance occupations (14.00%).
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 14.67% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Another notable thing is that Grand Lake is an extremely popular destination for tourists and seasonal residents. So much of the population is seasonal such that the town’s population swells significantly during the vacation season, and drops again when the season ends. Because of this, much of the local economy is centered around tourism; some businesses may be operated only during the high season. During the low season, year-round residents will notice that the city is a substantially quieter place to live.
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!) Grand Lake 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. Grand Lake has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Grand Lake than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Grand Lake may be for you.
Residents of the town have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 15.35 minutes getting to work every day.
Grand Lake 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.
If knowledge is power, Grand Lake is a pretty powerful place. 52.31% of the adults in Grand Lake have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.
The per capita income in Grand Lake in 2022 was $66,849, which is wealthy relative to Colorado and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $267,396 for a family of four. However, Grand Lake contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Grand Lake home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Grand Lake residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Grand Lake include German, English, Irish, Scottish, and French.
The most common language spoken in Grand Lake is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
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.
Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the 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 community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.
In addition, divorcees may find friendship and understanding in this neighborhood, as 21.0% of its residents are divorced. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis found that this divorce rate is higher than in 96.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
Also, if you're nearing retirement age, or in retirement, the is an excellent choice for you to consider for top-quality retirement living. This neighborhood is rated by NeighborhoodScout as among the top 5.5% of retiree-friendly neighborhoods in Colorado, combining peace and quiet, safety from crime, and offering diverse housing options from which retirees can choose. Maybe it's because of these amenities that a large proportion of the residents here are college educated seniors, mixed with other age groups. For these and other reasons, NeighborhoodScout identifies this neighborhood as a top-notch place to consider if you are thinking of or planning to retire in Colorado.
Despite all of the residential real estate here in the 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 73.7%, which is higher than 99.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
A unique way of commuting is simply not to. And in the neighborhood, analysis shows that 29.3% of the residents work from home, avoiding a commute altogether. This may not seem like a large number, but it is a higher proportion of people working from home than is found in 96.5% of the neighborhoods in the United States. One thing NeighborhoodScout's research reveals is that the wealthier and/or more isolated the neighborhood, the greater the proportion of residents who choose to work from home.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Canadian and Scots-Irish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Canadian ancestry and 4.1% have Scots-Irish ancestry.
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 neighborhood in Grand Lake are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 62.5% of the neighborhoods in America. 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.
A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.
In the neighborhood, 34.9% 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 26.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (20.2%), and 18.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 97.4% of households. Some people also speak Italian (3.5%).
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 Grand Lake, CO, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (27.1%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (20.3%), and residents who report Irish roots (12.4%), and some of the residents are also of Swedish ancestry (6.0%), along with some Scots-Irish ancestry residents (4.1%), among others.
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 neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (42.2% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (42.6%) 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 (19.1%) and 6.5% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work 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.