You can narrow your search by using demographics to find your next home.  If you have not purchased a home in the last few years, you may be surprised at how much information is available to help you narrow down the community and even the block that your next home is located on.

Buying a home is not just looking at a home with great curb appeal. You should consider other factors that you believe are important such as population density, education etc. While most buyers rarely have the opportunity to meet their prospective neighbors, they can do some basic research and determine some measure of future compatibility.

The U.S. Census Bureau produces a large selection of demographic categories.  The following explain about some of these categories.  Listed at the bottom, are links for each of the three Gulf Coast Counties to the most current demographic data available from the U.S. Census Bureau.  Some counties and even cities update the most recent census by using local data e.g. property tax roles etc.  This means that the U.S. Census data may not be as current as the local estimates but it is a good place to start your search.

Median Income – This number may be important to you and not to others.  If you would like to live in a neighborhood where your neighbors earn about what you earn, this may be a good number to look at.  If you move to a neighborhood with significantly higher or lower median income, you may be uncomfortable or not.

Education – Generally studies track the percent of residents with college degrees or perhaps have graduated from high school.  If you have a college degree, perhaps you may have more in common with your neighbors if there is a high percentage of college degrees in the area.  Also, the level of parents education may have some bearing on how well their children will do in school.

Married or Not – This is a statistic that some people are interested in if they have children.  A high percent of married couples to single people may mean more children. Although there are other demographics that indicate data about children.  You may not want to live in a largely single, party area if you are raising children.

Median cost of a home – This factor can be a starting point by using your budget and narrowing the community to one with the median price per home to fit your budget.   As an example, the data provided below indicate that the median price of a home in Jackson County, MS is $125,000. The median price of a home in Ocean Springs which is located in Jackson County is $158,000. What does this mean? It indicates that homes in the City of Ocean Springs cost more than homes in the remainder of the country.

While searching for a home, if cost is the most important factor perhaps a search of the are surrounding Ocean Springs may yield lower priced homes. Demand controls price so there may be good reasons to pay more to live in Ocean Springs rather than a more rural area in Jackson County.

Age – If you are over for example 55, you may want to look for an age qualified community.  There are federal guidelines here as well. While you may use age as a factor, most properties are allowed to have children as long as the buyer or principal is over 55.

You may have children and you want to a community with a high percentage of children age 5 and younger or under 18 years. This data is available to you.

Population per square mile – If you wish to live in a population dense area, this will help you.  The same is true if you wish to live in a small city with a lower number of people per square mile. In the data included in this post, Ocean Springs indicates a population density of 1,513 persons per square mile. Using the same data, we looked at the City of Huntington Beach, CA which is located on the California coast as Ocean Springs is located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The data indicate that the density in Huntington Beach is 7,103 per square mile.

If you are looking for a home in a less crowded city, clearly Ocean Springs is your next home (or another MS Gulf Coast community). Huntington Beach is 4.69 times more crowded than Ocean Springs.

Persons living in a household – This is somewhat similar to the population per square mile.  Some communities were not designed for high numbers of people living in homes. For example most of the homes in an area may be 3 bedroom and the number of persons is 5 per household.  Compare this to an area with the national average of about 2.5.

Owner occupied housing is another number to look at. Some areas have a high percentage of owner occupied housing and others have lower numbers. This means that there may be a high percentage of renters in one city vs another. The data indicate that 58.3% of homes in Huntington Beach are occupied by owners. 71% of homes in Ocean Springs are occupied by owners. This difference will mean something to some buyers and nothing to others.

All of the above data and more is available from numerous web sites.  There are sites what allow you to compare two communities by selecting the demographic points you are interested in.  

Using demographics to find your next home does help to narrow the geography when searching for that perfect house.  The last census was in 2010 and data after that point is generally estimated. The next census is in 2020 and the data will not be available until about 2021.  Just remember that the data used is a bit dated unless recent estimates are indicated.If you are looking to buy new construction, some demographics will be useful and some will not because the area may have been created during the past ten years.  The estimates that are used to keep the statistics updated are generally good but even those numbers are dated.

In addition to statistics provided by the U.S. Census Bureau or third parties who use their data, there is information available about schools.  A rating system exists on a 1-10 scale for schools. The data is available at several websites. There are actually schools out there that are rated 1 and schools that are rated a 10.  

As a rule of thumb, the higher the school rating, the higher the property values are.  The difference in price for a house where the school is rated example 6 and one at 9 can be thousands of dollars. As an example of school ratings, click on this Great Schools website. The Ocean Springs zip code will come up showing schools in that area. You can use their site to enter the area you interested in to see the school ratings there.

Note:

Some of the demographic information although provided by the U.S. Government, cannot be provided by real estate agents nor can real estate agents discuss some demographic data as it may impact “protected classes” based upon various federal and state laws.  The information above is provided for our clients without comment.

DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

Jackson County

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/jacksoncountymississippi

Harrison County

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/harrisoncountymississippi

Hancock County

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/hancockcountymississippi

Data is available for some Cities as well as counties. The following is an example of data for Ocean Springs:

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/oceanspringscitymississippi

If you would like to see demographics for other Mississippi Gulf Coast cities (or other cities in other states), paste the link for Ocean Springs into your browser and type in place of “oceanspringscity” the name of another city e.g. “biloxicity”. If you want to compare with another city and state, just replace the name of the city and state then run your search again.