Neighborhoods: Are You Where You Live?

D

deleted3782

Guest
Claritas, an international marketing corporation, has developed a series of neighborhood profiles based on demographics research and purchasing trends. Their premise is that people living in the same neighborhoods tend to have similar lifestyles, just like the old adage that "birds of a feather flock together". They help companies like Kellogg's and Vanity Fair determine if your area is the right fit for their mass marketing efforts.

So, if you are where you live, what are you? Do you match your neighborhood?

You can visit their website and type in your neighborhood's zip code to find out the category of your own 'hood (and, in turn, what you are!). Don't forget to plug in the security code they provide.

My 'hood: High Point, NC 27265's most common segments are:
Country Squires
Greenbelt Sports
Middleburg Managers
New Homesteaders
Traditional Times

I'm not sure I am a Country Squire kinda guy. Not very athletic either. The other categories seem to focus on kids and retirees. I guess I'm an anomaly in my own neighborhood. It does explain to me why Starbucks has done so well here...
 

jason_els

<img border="0" src="/images/badges/gold_member.gi
Joined
Dec 16, 2004
Posts
10,228
Media
0
Likes
162
Points
193
Location
Warwick, NY, USA
Sexuality
90% Gay, 10% Straight
Gender
Male
Hmmmm.... Yeah, it's about right but leaves out the still large, if dwindling, population of rural middle and lower middle income people who have lived here since forever:

Big Fish, Small Pond

Older, upper-class, college-educated professionals, the members of Big Fish, Small Pond are often among the leading citizens of their small-town communities. These upscale, empty-nesting couples enjoy the trappings of success, including belonging to country clubs, maintaining large investment portfolios, and spending freely on computer technology.

Country Squires

The wealthiest residents in exurban America live in Country Squires, an oasis for affluent Baby Boomers who've fled the city for the charms of small-town living. In their bucolic communities noted for their recently built homes on sprawling properties, the families of executives live in six-figure comfort. Country Squires enjoy country club sports like golf, tennis, and swimming as well as skiing, boating, and biking.

God's Country

When city dwellers and suburbanites began moving to the country in the 1970s, God's Country emerged as the most affluent of the nation's exurban lifestyles. Today, wealthier communities exist in the hinterlands, but God's Country remains a haven for upscale couples in spacious homes. Typically college educated Baby Boomers, these Americans try to maintain a balanced lifestyle between high power jobs and laid back leisure.

Greenbelt Sports

A segment of upscale exurban couples, Greenbelt Sports is known for its active lifestyle. Most of these middle-aged residents are married, college-educated, and own new homes. And few segments have higher rates for pursuing outdoor activities such as skiing, canoeing, backpacking, boating, and mountain biking.

New Homesteaders


Young, upper-middle-class families seeking to escape suburban sprawl find refuge in New Homesteaders, a collection of small rustic townships filled with new ranches and Cape Cods. With decent-paying jobs in blue-collar industries, these dual-income couples have fashioned comfortable, child-centered lifestyles; their driveways are filled with campers and powerboats, their family rooms with PlayStations and Game Boys.
 

whatireallywant

Sexy Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2007
Posts
3,535
Media
0
Likes
30
Points
183
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Female
Here's mine:

08 Executive Suites
Upper-Mid, Middle Age w/o KidsExecutive Suites consists of upper-middle-class singles and couples typically living just beyond the nation's beltways. Filled with significant numbers of Asian Americans and college graduates--both groups are represented at more than twice the national average--this segment is a haven for white-collar professionals drawn to comfortable homes and apartments within a manageable commute to downtown jobs, restaurants, and entertainment.

19 Home Sweet Home
Upper-Mid, Middle Age w/o KidsWidely scattered across the nation's suburbs, the residents of Home Sweet Home tend to be upper-middle-class married couples living in mid-sized homes with few children. The adults in the segment, mostly under 55, have gone to college and hold professional and white-collar jobs. With their upper-middle-class incomes and small families, these folks have fashioned comfortable lifestyles, filling their homes with toys, TV sets, and pets.

14 New Empty Nests
Upper-Mid, Mature w/o KidsWith their grown-up children recently out of the house, New Empty Nests is composed of upper-middle income older Americans who pursue active--and activist--lifestyles. Nearly three-quarters of residents are over 65 years old, but they show no interest in a rest-home retirement. This is the top-ranked segment for all-inclusive travel packages; the favorite destination is Italy.

15 Pools & Patios
Upper-Mid, Older w/o KidsFormed during the postwar Baby Boom, Pools & Patios has evolved from a segment of young suburban families to one for older, empty-nesting couples. In these stable neighborhoods graced with backyard pools and patios--the highest proportion of homes were built in the 1960s--residents work as white-collar managers and professionals, and are now at the top of their careers.

22 Young Influentials
Midscale, Younger w/o KidsOnce known as the home of the nation's yuppies, Young Influentials reflects the fading glow of acquisitive yuppiedom. Today, the segment is a common address for younger, middle-class singles and couples who are more preoccupied with balancing work and leisure pursuits. Having recently left college dorms, they now live in apartment complexes surrounded by ball fields, health clubs, and casual-dining restaurants.
 

whatireallywant

Sexy Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2007
Posts
3,535
Media
0
Likes
30
Points
183
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Female
^ I don't fit any of mine either. I'm sort of an older Young Influential except that I'm unemployed and now poor. I have several friends who are all in the same boat as I am - mostly with college degrees, and having been gainfully employed in the past, but got laid off or fired or whatever and are now barely making ends meet, or really not making ends meet and having to ask their parents for help.

Lifestyle wise, I'm more like the Executive Suite or the Home Sweet Home than I am the Young Influentials, but I rent rather than own my home and even when I was gainfully employed I wasn't UPPER middle class - but I WAS solidly middle class/midrange.
 

whatireallywant

Sexy Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2007
Posts
3,535
Media
0
Likes
30
Points
183
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Female
OH!!! And I just HAD to enter the zip code for where I grew up! This is very telling, and shows why I wanted OUTTA THERE!!!

58 Back Country Folks
Low Income, Older Mostly w/o KidsStrewn among remote farm communities across the nation, Back Country Folks are a long way away from economic paradise. The residents tend to be poor, over 55 years old, and living in older, modest-sized homes and manufactured housing. Typically, life in this segment is a throwback to an earlier era when farming dominated the American landscape.

33 Big Sky Families
Upper-Mid, Younger w/ KidsScattered in placid towns across the American heartland, Big Sky Families is a segment of younger rural families who have turned high school educations and blue-collar jobs into busy, upper-middle-class lifestyles. Residents enjoy baseball, basketball, and volleyball, as well as fishing, hunting, and horseback riding. To entertain their sprawling families, they buy virtually every piece of sporting equipment on the market.

45 Blue Highways
Lower-Mid, Middle Age w/o KidsOn maps, blue highways are often two-lane roads that wind through remote stretches of the American landscape. Among lifestyles, Blue Highways is the standout for lower-middle-class residents who live in isolated towns and farmsteads. Here, Boomer men like to hunt and fish; the women enjoy sewing and crafts, and everyone looks forward to going out to a country music concert.

37 Mayberry-ville
Upper-Mid, Middle Age w/o KidsLike the old Andy Griffith Show set in a quaint picturesque berg, Mayberry-ville harks back to an old-fashioned way of life. In these small towns, upper-middle-class couples like to fish and hunt during the day, and stay home and watch TV at night. With lucrative blue-collar jobs and moderately priced housing, residents use their discretionary cash to purchase boats, campers, motorcycles, and pickup trucks.

51 Shotguns & Pickups
Lower-Mid, Younger w/ KidsThe segment known as Shotguns & Pickups came by its moniker honestly: it scores near the top of all lifestyles for owning hunting rifles and pickup trucks. These Americans tend to be young, working-class couples with large families--more than half have two or more kids--living in small homes and manufactured housing. Nearly a third of residents live in mobile homes, more than anywhere else in the nation.
 

whatireallywant

Sexy Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2007
Posts
3,535
Media
0
Likes
30
Points
183
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Female
My parents still live in the area where I grew up, and they fit the Blue Highways category, but I never did fit any of the categories of that area.

I'm something of a cross between Young Influentials, Executive Suite and Home Sweet Home.

I also did a search for the area where I lived back in Indianapolis. One category was present both there and here: Executive Suite. But apparently when I lived in Indianapolis, I lived in a neighborhood full of rich people! :eek: (I certainly wasn't rich, and I was renting an insanely cheap apartment there - and it was a nice apartment despite being as cheap as it was!)