The WMU KRPH Neighborhood Is Kalamazoo’s Most Expensive

The WMU KRPH neighborhood is a neighborhood in central Kalamazoo and part of West Kalamazoo that consists of mainly small to medium-sized apartment complexes and single-family homes.

The average cost of a home is $266,020 and the average rent price is $1,084, which is more expensive than 66.8% of the houses and 85.1% of renters in other Michigan neighborhoods. So, what is it about this neighborhood that makes it so expensive?

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Stealthy Structure

Ironically, this is one of the older neighborhoods in the city and is mostly empty and maybe those go hand in hand. This neighborhood sits at a vacancy rate of 22.6% which is higher than 88.7% of neighborhoods around the country, and this may be due to the drastic difference in age.

A large number of residences were built from 1940 to 1969 while the remaining have been built post-2000, leaving a large discrepancy between the buildings. Some of these buildings have a modern look on the outside and are fitted with outdated appliances were others are the opposite. With so many of them laying dormant, I would imagine that has jacked prices up as well.

Working Way

44.4% of the working the WMU KRPH neighborhood population is employed in sales and service jobs, up next are the clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 25.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (22.5%), and 7.0% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.

44.1% of the neighborhood population has a car and uses this as their daily transportation for work, while another 28.3% have the luxury of living close enough to walk out of their door and keep on going until they get to work. While the remaining population rides the public bus or uses some other form of transportation.

People Packing

A mixed community is the best community as all of the cultures and ethnicities mix together to create a unique way of living. With residents reporting in as 8.6% German,  6.6% Irish, 5.0% Polish, 3.2% Italian, and 2.8% Sub-Saharan African ancestry residents, the rest are unknown.

This means that many different holidays, celebrations, and cultures are celebrated and made known within this one space. The primary language spoken is English but there are some rumblings of Polish and Spanish-speaking families within the area as well.

Although there are a lot of different kinds of people in this area, a large majority of them are college students. As 83.6% of the neighborhood is currently enrolled in college which means a few things. This neighborhood is much quieter in the summer and has a rotating pool of residents by year.

Safety Scores

Even with rotating residents, the proximity to both the college campus and downtown, the parties, and other factors crime rates are relatively low. The neighborhood ranks above average in safety categories and towards the highest in the city.

From the sounds of it, the WMU KRPH neighborhood is the most expensive due to its location, low crime rates, variance in occupation, age, and price of living. How do you feel about this ranking? Is It accurate? Should things be changed?