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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.
South Toms River is a very small coastal borough (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 3,736 people and just one neighborhood, South Toms River is the 360th largest community in New Jersey.
Occupations and Workforce
Unlike some boroughs where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, South Toms River is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, South Toms River is a borough of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in South Toms River who work in office and administrative support (15.64%), management occupations (10.67%), and healthcare suport services (8.49%).
There are quite a few people in the armed forces living in South Toms River, and when you visit or drive around town, you will see military people in and out of uniform, shopping, enjoying life, and being part of the community.
Setting & Lifestyle
One of the nice things about South Toms River is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.
Being a small borough, South Toms River does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
Demographics
The citizens of South Toms River are slightly less educated than the national average of 21.84% for the average city or town: 15.53% of adults in South Toms River have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree
The per capita income in South Toms River in 2022 was $31,800, which is low income relative to New Jersey, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $127,200 for a family of four. However, South Toms River contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
South Toms River is an extremely ethnically-diverse borough. The people who call South Toms River home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of South Toms River residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. South Toms River also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 29.93% of the borough’s residents. Important ancestries of people in South Toms River include Italian, Irish, German, Polish, and English.
The most common language spoken in South Toms River is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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.
Real Estate
Do you like a coastal setting? If so, this neighborhood may be to your liking. The neighborhood is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Often such coastal places have amenities and recreational activities on the waterfront that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.
In addition, some neighborhoods are made up of apartments. Some consist of row houses, and most - by far - consist of a mixture of housing types. But the neighborhood stands out due to the total dominance of detached, single-family homes here. There are nearly no other types of residential real estate in the neighborhood. In fact, this neighborhood has a higher proportion of single-family homes in its real estate stock than 96.1% of all American neighborhoods.
Occupations
The neighborhood stands out nationally for having a greater proportion of its residents active in the military than 97.2% of other U.S. neighborhoods. If you come here, you will notice military people active in their jobs, going to and from work, and in plain clothes out and about the neighborhood.
Diversity
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Dominican and Puerto Rican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 8.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Dominican ancestry and 13.5% have Puerto Rican 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 neighborhood in South Toms River are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 73.8% of the neighborhoods in America. With 16.7% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 63.3% of U.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, 30.2% 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 29.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (24.1%), and 16.0% 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 neighborhood is English, spoken by 81.8% 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 neighborhood in South Toms River, NJ, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Puerto Rican (13.5%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (13.4%), and residents who report Irish roots (12.0%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (10.5%), along with some Dominican ancestry residents (8.5%), among others. In addition, 12.4% 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 neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (37.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (81.3%) 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 (12.7%) . 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.
