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Real Estate Prices & Overview

West Downtown median real estate price is $1,349,165, which is more expensive than 66.5% of the neighborhoods in California and 90.9% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in West Downtown is currently $2,965, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 58.5% of California neighborhoods.

West Downtown is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Santa Barbara, California.

West Downtown real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) apartment complexes/high-rise apartments and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the West Downtown neighborhood are relatively historic, built no later than 1939, and in some cases, quite a bit earlier. A number of residences were also built between 2000 and the present.

Home and apartment vacancy rates are 8.4% in West Downtown. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 45.9% of the neighborhoods in the nation, approximately near the middle range for vacancies.

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.

Length of Commute

Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. Residents of the West Downtown neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 84.3% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.

Real Estate

The West Downtown 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 90.4% 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.

Modes of Transportation

More people in West Downtown choose to walk to work each day (11.6%) than almost any neighborhood in America. If you are attracted to the idea of being able to walk to work, this neighborhood could be a good choice.

Diversity

Did you know that the West Downtown neighborhood has more Greek and Mexican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.0% of this neighborhood's residents have Greek ancestry and 54.0% have Mexican ancestry.

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 West Downtown neighborhood in Santa Barbara are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 43.8% of the neighborhoods in America. With 21.0% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 70.3% of U.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 West Downtown neighborhood, 39.0% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 37.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (15.2%), and 8.3% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the West Downtown neighborhood is English, spoken by 54.4% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (42.9%).

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 West Downtown neighborhood in Santa Barbara, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (54.0%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (5.9%), and residents who report French roots (5.8%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (5.2%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (3.5%), among others. In addition, 19.7% 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 West Downtown neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (84.3% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.

Here most residents (66.5%) 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 (11.6%) and 8.5% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors 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.


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