West Town median real estate price is $918,437, which is more expensive than 96.2% of the neighborhoods in Illinois and 87.4% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in West Town is currently $2,839, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 80.8% of the neighborhoods in Illinois.
West Town is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Chicago, Illinois.
West Town real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) small apartment buildings and single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the West Town 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 2000 and the present.
Home and apartment vacancy rates are 8.1% in West Town. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 46.4% of the neighborhoods in the nation, approximately near the middle range for vacancies.
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 Chicago, the West Town neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the West Town 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 West Town community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.
In addition, if you're a regular supporter of the arts and enjoy outings to the theatre, weekend boutique-ing, or even a finely aged wine with dinner, than you're in good company with the people of the West Town neighborhood. This neighborhood is uniquely immersed with more "urban sophisticates" than 96.8% of neighborhoods across the country. The people here truly stand out as a class among their own. They are an exclusive community characterized by refined tastes, cultural inclinations, and the means to live well. Urban sophisticates live a big city lifestyle, whether or not they live in or near a big city. They are educated executives or managers by week, and serial patrons of the arts by weekend. If this lifestyle pertains to you, than you'll certainly feel right at home in the West Town neighborhood. In addition to being an excellent choice for urban sophisticates, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for young, single professionals.
Corner bodegas, stores on the first floor and apartments above, former grand Victorian residences converted into apartments, three-deckers built shoulder-to-shoulder, duplexes. Such building types define the real estate of neighborhoods dominated by small 2, 3, and 4 unit apartment buildings. Many are in older core neighborhoods of Eastern and Midwestern cities, or historic town centers in their hinterlands. If you wax romantic about the look and feel of such neighborhoods, with fresh pizza, falafel and an independent florist at the corner, then you might find the West Town neighborhood worth a close look. This neighborhood is an absolutely outstanding example of the dominance of small 2, 3, and 4 unit apartment buildings compared to neighborhoods across the nation, as they make up a substantial portion of this neighborhood's real estate stock. In fact, no less than 60.9% of the real estate here is made up of such dwellings, which is higher than 99.3% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In addition, being a walkable neighborhood can help increase property values for the simple reason that people enjoy it and value it. To put it plainly, despite our love affair with the automobile, American's enjoy taking to the streets, sidewalks, paths, and courtyards of a place to get a coffee, relax, and take in the sights and sounds. And, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive and first quantitative walkable score index, the West Town neighborhood is one of the most walkable neighborhoods in America.
Furthermore, if you find historic homes and neighborhoods attractive, you love the details, the history, and the charm, then you are sure to be interested in this neighborhood. With 59.3% of the residential real estate in the West Town neighborhood built no later than 1939, and some built considerably earlier, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of historic residences than 96.5% of all neighborhoods in America. In this regard, this neighborhood truly stands out as special.
In the West Town neighborhood, many people's commute means walking from the bedroom to the home office. NeighborhoodScout's analysis found that 32.6% of residents worked from home. This may not seem like a large number, but Scout's research shows that this is a higher percentage of people working from home than 96.4% of the neighborhoods in America. Often people who work from home are engaged in the creative or technological economy, such as is found in areas around Boston, and in Silicon Valley. Other times, people may be engaged in other businesses like trading stocks from home, or running a small beauty salon.
Executives, managers and professionals make up 70.1% of the workforce in the West Town neighborhood which, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, is a higher proportion of such high-level people than is found in 95.1% of the neighborhoods in America. For this reason, this neighborhood really stands out as unique.
Did you know that the West Town neighborhood has more South American and Lebanese ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 6.5% of this neighborhood's residents have South American ancestry and 1.0% have Lebanese ancestry.
West Town is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.0% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Japanese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.5% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 West Town neighborhood in Chicago are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 78.3% 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.
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 West Town neighborhood, 70.1% 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 11.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (10.0%), and 8.0% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
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 West Town neighborhood is English, spoken by 52.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Langs. of India.
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 West Town neighborhood in Chicago, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (31.3%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (9.0%), and residents who report Irish roots (8.5%), and some of the residents are also of South American ancestry (6.5%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (6.4%), among others. In addition, 17.3% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 West Town neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (39.8% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (44.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (8.6%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.
