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.
Town Center / Old Bennington median real estate price is $207,130, which is less expensive than 91.5% of Vermont neighborhoods and 78.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
The average rental price in Town Center / Old Bennington is currently $1,712, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. Rents here are currently lower in price than 52.3% of Vermont neighborhoods.
Town Center / Old Bennington is a suburban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Bennington, Vermont.
Town Center / Old Bennington real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) single-family homes and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Town Center / Old Bennington 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 1940 and 1969.
Home and apartment vacancy rates are 7.0% in Town Center / Old Bennington. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 52.4% 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 Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 83.8% 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.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood buck this trend. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 45.8% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 99.3% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
Occupations
With 7.1% of employed workers living in the Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood active in the military, this neighborhood has the distinction of having a higher proportion of people in the military than 99.1% of American neighborhoods. This is a major shaper of the neighborhood's culture and character.
Real Estate
Three-deckers, duplexes, old Victorian homes cut up into apartments. Independent stores on the corner selling pizza. These are some of the hallmarks of neighborhoods with lots of small 2, 3, and 4 unit apartment buildings. The Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood really stands out in this regard, however, as it is dominated by such small apartment buildings more than nearly any other neighborhood in America. This is a stunning visual and lifestyle example of this type of neighborhood. In fact, 38.1% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings, which is a higher proportion than found in 96.8% of America's neighborhoods.
People
Divorcees may find friendship and understanding in this neighborhood, as 19.8% of its residents are divorced. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis found that this divorce rate is higher than in 95.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
In addition, the Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood stands out within Vermont for its college student friendly environment. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood is home to a number of college students, is relatively walkable, and above average in safety. In combination, this makes it stand out for a good place for college students to consider. Because a number of college students live here, this neighborhood may be close to a college campus and offer certain amenities nearby geared towards the student body. While it's not an environment for everyone, ambitious scholars can enjoy seasonal excitement between semesters and school breaks, and parents can rest easy knowing that the area has an above average safety rating. For each of these reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 8.3% of college-friendly places to live in VT.
Diversity
Did you know that the Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood has more Scottish and Slovak ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 15.4% of this neighborhood's residents have Scottish ancestry and 2.2% have Slovak ancestry.
Town Center / Old Bennington is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 10.0% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Italian at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.9% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood in Bennington are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 88.6% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 48.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 93.6% 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 Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood, 43.5% 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 28.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (16.4%), and 11.6% 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 Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.0% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian, Polish and Spanish.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood in Bennington, VT, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (18.7%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (18.1%), and residents who report Italian roots (18.1%), and some of the residents are also of Scottish ancestry (15.4%), along with some German ancestry residents (13.0%), among others.
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 Town Center / Old Bennington neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (83.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (72.9%) 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 (15.9%) . 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.
