These distinctive characteristics represent factors which have a strong influence on this community. Factors are considered "distinctive" if this community falls into the top 25% for these characteristics nationally.
> Significant Percentage of Family Households
> Growing Population and / or Moderate Residential Turnover
69% of homes are owner occupied, 11% vacant (mostly weekend places) and 20% are rented.
COMMUNITY SUMMARY
Population Growth (since 2000) 3%
Population Density (ppl / mile) 45
Household Size (ppl) 2.71
Households w/ Children 39%
HOUSING STABILITY
Annual Residential Turnover 8%
5+ Years in Residency 52%
Median Year in Residency 5.59
There are 786 households here, 2156 folks and they have a median age of just under 38. Hey, most folks that I see are old farts like me. Where are all these young folks?
January temperature average highs and lows are 30 & 11 degrees; cold, but liveable. In July, they are 80 and 59, which means good sleeping at night, no need for air conditioning. In a conversation with some buyers from Houston, we figured out that our heating/cooling costs per year are the same. More heating here, but no cooling expense. In Houston, the heating was not much, but the high cooling costs completely off-set that.
Weather risks factors are significantly lower than the national average, except for wind, where we are about 130% of average. Hurricane is about 29% of average, earthquake 60%, tornado 20%, and hail 24%. Not bad. I'll take wind over the others any time. It seems to mostly come during the cold weather when we are inside anyhow.
Education of the populace - this could be better... or worse. Only 2.9% have not attended High School. 42% graduated. 11.6% have an associates degree, 8% a bachelors, and 7.5% a graduate degree. How they know this I have no idea. No one ever asked me what my education was. Anyway 82% of them are blue collar workers, and the remainder white collar. My own collar color varies every day, as I change clothes daily. Our average income is $41340. But does this include children? Is it by household, or per capita? My guess is that it is per household.
On crime, we shine: We are 18% BELOW national average on all crimes measured. This breaks down: 29% below personal crime averge, 8% of murder average (not even one a year here), 72% rape (what we apparently do best, but still not up to par), 13% robbery, 23% assault, 18% property crimes, 19% burlgary, 29% larceny, and 5% motor vehicle theft (which is why we can leave our keys in our cars - we only have reason to lock our cars during the summer. If we don't, we may return to find it full of zucchinis!). On the other hand, to judge from what I read in the papers, we are pretty good about driving with a suspended license, or while imbibing, or carrying around illicit substances, but I have no idea how these stack up to national averages.
The big crime in our area occurred a few years ago. It seems a son was living with his mother and both were surviving off her social security. She dies naturally, he dices her up and puts her in the freezer, and continues to cash the checks. But the neighbor knows what is going on and blackmails him. The neighbor gets caught when the son dies. He got off scott-free. Crimes solved.
However, the best part is that our homes sell way below the national average, as does bare land. Homes in the country sell slightly higher than those in villages, but they also have more land with them. You will find that we do not segregate between rich and poor like you may have been accustomed to see. There are no developments, no gated communities, no condos