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.
San Juan Capistrano South median real estate price is $595,240, which is less expensive than 74.3% of California neighborhoods and 25.7% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in San Juan Capistrano South is currently $3,843, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 69.4% of the neighborhoods in California.
San Juan Capistrano South is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in San Juan Capistrano, California.
San Juan Capistrano South real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) townhomes and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the San Juan Capistrano South 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 San Juan Capistrano South are 4.9%, which is lower than one will find in 67.0% of American neighborhoods. Demand for real estate in San Juan Capistrano South 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 San Juan Capistrano, the San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Occupations
There are more people living in the San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood employed as sales and service workers (51.0%) than almost any neighborhood in the country. From fast-food service workers to major sales accounts, sales and service workers make up the largest proportion of our national employment picture. But despite that size and importance nationally, this neighborhood still stands out as unique due to the dominance of people living here who work in such occupations.
Real Estate
If you love row houses and attached homes, you will probably really like the San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood. The ambiance, the charm, of row houses is something special. And in sheer abundance of row houses, this neighborhood truly stands out. The real estate here has a higher proportion of row houses and attached homes than nearly any neighborhood in America. In fact, 44.8% of the residential real estate here is classified as row houses and attached homes.
In addition, the San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood is very unique in that it has one of the highest proportions of one, two, or no bedroom real estate of any neighborhood in America. Most neighborhoods have a mixture of home or apartment sizes from small to large, but here the concentration of studios and other small living spaces is at near-record heights. With 90.9% of the real estate here of this small size, this most assuredly is a notable feature that makes this neighborhood unique, along with just a handful of other neighborhoods in the U.S. that share this characteristic.
Furthermore, most neighborhoods are composed of a mixture of ages of homes, but the San Juan Capistrano South stands out as rather unique in having nearly all of its residential real estate built in one time period, namely between 1970 and 1999, generally considered to be established, but not old housing. What you'll sense when you look around or drive the streets of this neighborhood is that many of the residences look the same because of this similarity of age. In fact, 86.7% of the residential real estate here was built in this one time period.
Modes of Transportation
While most Americans do drive to work alone each day, the San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood stands out by having 90.0% of commuters doing so, which is a higher proportion of people driving alone to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.4% of all American neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood has more Croatian and Mexican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.6% of this neighborhood's residents have Croatian ancestry and 78.3% have Mexican ancestry.
San Juan Capistrano South is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 73.2% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Spanish at home. This is a higher percentage than 97.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The Neighbors
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 San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood in San Juan Capistrano are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 49.8% of the neighborhoods in America. With 30.9% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 82.1% 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 San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood, 49.0% 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 manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 30.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (12.4%), and 8.2% in executive, management, and professional occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 73.2% of households. Some people also speak English (23.1%).
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 San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood in San Juan Capistrano, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (78.3%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (7.6%), and residents who report English roots (2.0%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (1.8%), along with some German ancestry residents (1.7%), among others. In addition, 38.8% 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 San Juan Capistrano South neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (48.0% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (90.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (5.3%) . 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.
