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.
Bywood median real estate price is $222,765, which is less expensive than 68.0% of Pennsylvania neighborhoods and 76.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in Bywood is currently $1,981, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 64.0% of the neighborhoods in Pennsylvania.
Bywood is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.
Bywood real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to small (studio to two bedroom) townhomes and apartment complexes/high-rise apartments. Most of the residential real estate is occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Bywood neighborhood are older, well-established, built between 1940 and 1969. A number of residences were also built before 1940.
In Bywood, the current vacancy rate is 2.5%, which is a lower rate of vacancies than 82.5% of all neighborhoods in the U.S. This means that the housing supply in Bywood is very tight compared to the demand for property here.
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 Upper Darby, the Bywood neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Real Estate
Many people dream of living along a street lined with row houses or other attached homes. Such places do often have an abundance of charm. If you are one of these people, the Bywood neighborhood could be your paradise. With 69.9% of the homes and real estate here classified as rowhouses or other attached homes, this neighborhood brims with opportunity to find the right place for you. Only 0.4% of U.S. neighborhoods have more row houses than this neighborhood, making it one of the most interesting things about this special neighborhood.
In addition, the Bywood neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 36,609 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 97.6% of the nation's neighborhoods. 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 Bywood neighborhood is one of the most walkable neighborhoods in America.
Modes of Transportation
More people ride the bus in this neighborhood each day to get to work than 97.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Also, if you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 11.2% of the Bywood neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 95.8% of America's neighborhoods.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Bywood neighborhood buck this trend. 23.4% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
People
According to NeighborhoodScout's research, Bywood is better suited for first-time home buyers than 87.0% of neighborhoods in the state. Most homes here are priced below the state's median house value, yet maintain comparably good appreciation rates over the last decade relative to other neighborhoods in Pennsylvania. Along with an exclusive multi-metric measure of neighborhood quality developed by NeighborhoodScout that scores high here in this neighborhood, this means that buying into the neighborhood is not only an accessible option but considered a decent first time home buyer choice for building equity in your first home, while being in a quality neighborhood
Diversity
Did you know that the Bywood neighborhood has more Sub-Saharan African and Belgian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 18.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Sub-Saharan African ancestry and 0.8% have Belgian ancestry.
Bywood is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 7.2% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak French at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.5% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Bywood neighborhood in Upper Darby are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 79.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 12.6% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 56.0% of U.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 Bywood neighborhood, 28.6% 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 executive, management, and professional occupations, with 24.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (23.7%), and 23.7% in manufacturing and laborer 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 Bywood neighborhood is English, spoken by 60.1% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, French, Vietnamese 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 Bywood neighborhood in Upper Darby, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (18.9%). There are also a number of people of Asian ancestry (11.3%), and residents who report South American roots (8.7%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (6.0%), along with some African ancestry residents (4.5%), among others. In addition, 32.5% 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 Bywood neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (42.1% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (60.4%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (15.0%) and 11.2% of residents also take the train 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.
