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.
Briarforest Northwest median real estate price is $511,914, which is more expensive than 82.5% of the neighborhoods in Texas and 67.1% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Briarforest Northwest is currently $4,600, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 99.4% of the neighborhoods in Texas.
Briarforest Northwest is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Houston, Texas.
Briarforest Northwest 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 Briarforest Northwest neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Briarforest Northwest has a 15.2% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 78.4% of American neighborhoods). Most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This could either signal that there is a weak demand for real estate in the neighborhood or that large amount of new housing has been built and not yet occupied. Either way, if you live here, you may find many of the homes or apartments are empty.
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 Houston, the Briarforest Northwest neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
People
In a nation where 1 out of every 4 children lives in poverty, the Briarforest Northwest neighborhood stands out as being ranked among the lowest 0.0% of neighborhoods affected by this global issue.
In addition, astoundingly, NeighborhoodScout's research reveals that this single neighborhood has a higher concentration of married couples living here than 99.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods. Whether they have school-aged children or not, married couples are the rule in the Briarforest Northwest neighborhood. If you are a married couple, you may find many people here with a similar lifestyle, and perhaps common interests. But if you are single, you might not find many other singles here.
Also, a majority of the adults in the Briarforest Northwest neighborhood are wealthy and educated executives. They own stately homes that tend to maintain high real estate appreciation rates. Their upper-level careers keep them busy, but allow them to live comfortably. If you're an executive and want to keep similar company, consider settling in this neighborhood, rated as an executive lifestyle "best choice" neighborhood for Texas by NeighborhoodScout's analysis, which rated it as better for executive lifestyles than 97.2% of the neighborhoods in Texas. In addition to being an excellent choice for highly educated executives, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for urban sophisticates.
Finally, the rate of college educated adults in the Briarforest Northwest neighborhood is a unique characteristic of the neighborhood. 74.5% of adults here have received at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, compared to the average neighborhood in America, which has 34.3% of the adults with a bachelor's degree. The rate here is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 95.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Real Estate
One way that the Briarforest Northwest neighborhood really stands out, is that it has more large 4, 5, or additional bedroom homes and real estate than 98.5% of the neighborhoods in America. When you walk or drive around this neighborhood, you'll instantly notice the size of the homes here which definitely makes a strong visual statement.
Occupations
Executives, managers and professionals make up 74.9% of the workforce in the Briarforest Northwest neighborhood which, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, is a higher proportion of such high-level people than is found in 97.7% of the neighborhoods in America. For this reason, this neighborhood really stands out as unique.
Diversity
Did you know that the Briarforest Northwest neighborhood has more Belgian and Brazilian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Belgian ancestry and 1.8% have Brazilian ancestry.
Briarforest Northwest is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 3.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Persian at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.7% 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 Briarforest Northwest neighborhood in Houston are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 94.6% 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.
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 Briarforest Northwest neighborhood, 74.9% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 15.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (5.0%), and 4.6% 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 Briarforest Northwest neighborhood is English, spoken by 73.6% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Persian and Chinese.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Boston's Beacon Hill blue-blood streets, Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish enclaves, Los Angeles' Persian neighborhoods. Each has its own culture derived primarily from the ancestries and culture of the residents who call these neighborhoods home. Likewise, each neighborhood in America has its own culture – some more unique than others – based on lifestyle, occupations, the types of households – and importantly – on the ethnicities and ancestries of the people who live in the neighborhood. Understanding where people came from, who their grandparents or great-grandparents were, can help you understand how a neighborhood is today.
In the Briarforest Northwest neighborhood in Houston, TX, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (18.2%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (12.5%), and residents who report Italian roots (11.4%), and some of the residents are also of French ancestry (7.3%), along with some Irish ancestry residents (6.2%), among others. In addition, 31.3% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
Getting to Work
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 Briarforest Northwest neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (34.6% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (79.9%) 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 (5.1%) . 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.
