Health & Fitness
Little Silver a "Super Zip" - So What?
The Washington Post released an interesting interactive graphic application which lets you input your Zip code and see the economic statistics for your town and the communities that surround it. It focuses on two primary metrics: the median family income and the percentage of college graduates.
If you go to the web site and type in 07739 or 07757 you’ll get a map of our area, with towns (or rather ZIP codes) appearing in different colors. The Zip codes appearing in yellow are known as “Super ZIP codes”. The site gives each zip code a numerical ranking between 0 and 99, based on the average of its percentile ranks in college education and in income. “Super ZIP codes” have a numerical rank of 95 or higher, and nationwide there are only 650 of them.
Little Silver is not only a Super Zip, but it’s the highest-ranked one on the Peninsula. Here’s how the percentile rankings for Little Silver and Oceanport appear on the Washington Post site, together with those of Rumson, Fair Haven and Shrewsbury:
Find out what's happening in Little Silver-Oceanportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Zip/Town Ranking Median Family Income % College Grad
Find out what's happening in Little Silver-Oceanportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
07739/Little Silver 99 $163,382 70
07704/Fair Haven 98 $126,929 69
07760/Rumson 96 $123,630 59
07702/Shrewsbury 96 $121,791 59
07757/Oceanport 86 $ 88,551 43
The nice thing about the interactive map is that once you type in a Zip code, you can move the cursor to any of the surrounding towns, and the data will automatically update to the new Zip code/town. Here’s the link to the map: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2013/11/09/washington-a-world-apart/
Read the article that was written about the Super Zips. It points out some of the downsides that come with being a town with high median family income and a high percentage of college graduates. There tends to be less diversity, both economic, ethnic and racial in such towns. Living in a town with a ranking less than 95 doesn’t mean you have to give up things like excellent schools and high quality of life- Oceanport is a great example.
As a professional REALTOR® I look at lots of data about our area every day, and I like to serve as a resource to people by providing useful information about the local real estate market. The Washington Post map is fun to use and the rankings are very interesting, but it’s hard for me to draw any conclusions because I haven’t drilled down to see where the raw data came from, and how good the information was. As I mentioned in an earlier post, both Little Silver and Fair Haven are in the “top 20” real estate markets in New Jersey (based on their real estate absorption rates). However, the median 2013 sales price of a single-family home in Little Silver is far from the highest of the 5 towns listed.
If you have some ideas or questions about the Washington Post results I’d love to talk to you about them. Text, email or call me!
Len
Leonard “Len” Dunikoski, GRI
REALTOR® Associate
Diane Turton Realtors – Rumson Office
8 West River Road
Rumson, NJ 07760
(732) 239-0739 (cell) (732) 530-6686 (office)
@ListWithLen