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.
Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood median real estate price is $255,352, which is more expensive than 43.1% of the neighborhoods in Illinois and 31.6% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood is currently $2,402, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 70.4% of the neighborhoods in Illinois.
Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Normal, Illinois.
Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to large (four, five or more bedroom) single-family homes and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Real estate vacancies in Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood are 4.2%, which is lower than one will find in 72.2% of American neighborhoods. Demand for real estate in Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood is above average for the U.S., and may signal some demand for either price increases or new construction of residential product for this neighborhood.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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 Normal, the Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
People
For many reasons, Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood is rated by NeighborhoodScout as one of the top 1.4% of ideal neighborhoods for first-time home buyers in the state of Illinois. Homes here are priced below median housing values in the state, yet the neighborhood has a track record according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive neighborhood home appreciation rates of above average real estate appreciation over the last five years compared to other IL neighborhoods, protecting your investment in your first home, while simultaneously making it less risky for your lender. Not only does this neighborhood stand out for combining price and home value stability or increases, it also is a neighborhood with a high quality resident population according exclusive data, meaning this is likely a good place to buy, live, and enjoy. While many first time home buyers focus purely on low cost and convenient location, which can risk your investment in your first home and put you in a less than desirable neighborhood, this neighborhood is a true standout for a lot of reasons, and definitely worth a look if you are a first time home buyer. In addition to being an excellent choice for first-time home buyers, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for highly educated executives and urban sophisticates.
Real Estate
Real estate in the Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood neighborhood is almost exclusively owner-occupied. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher rate of owner-occupied housing than is found in 95.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. If you are seeking to rent, this neighborhood may not have many options, but high rates of ownership often indicate stability in a neighborhood.
Diversity
Did you know that the Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood neighborhood has more Welsh and Scottish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 6.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Welsh ancestry and 6.2% have Scottish ancestry.
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 Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood neighborhood in Normal are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 70.5% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 5.2% 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 64.0% 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 Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood neighborhood, 60.6% 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 14.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (12.8%), and 12.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support 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 Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood neighborhood is English, spoken by 95.3% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.
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 Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood neighborhood in Normal, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (31.6%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (15.0%), and residents who report English roots (14.2%), and some of the residents are also of Welsh ancestry (6.7%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (6.2%), among others.
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 Pleasant Hills / Maple Wood neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (53.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (62.8%) 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 (15.9%) and 5.8% 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.
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.
