A Graphic Portrait of Rent Zones in Healdsburg

Healdsburg's quaint downtown and idyllic surroundings make it a great town to find a place to rent - if you can afford it.

But rent costs vary somewhat, depending on where you chose to put down roots, whether close to a school, walking distance to downtown or near the shopping center. Now you can see how rents compare neighborhood-by-neighborhood, anywhere in the country. 

A new data-based website, Rich Blocks, Poor Blocks uses U.S. census information compiled from the 2007-2011 American Community Survey to show median household income and monthly rents by census tract.

The median rent in neighborhoods on the west side of Healdsburg run $1,051 a month in 2011 dollars, according to Census data. It's slightly higher on the east side of town, where rents average $1,096 a month.

Between Eastside Road and Old Redwood Highway south of city limits, the rents spike to about $1,578 a month.

See more on the map above. The lighter the color, the cheaper the rent.

Are you surprised by the local data? Tell us in the Comments section.

Don't expect it to get any cheaper to live here, but it could be worse. A recent MSN Real Estate article named the 10 cities where rents will rise most this year. That's one list we're glad we're not on.

In San Francisco, the effective rent at end of 2012 was $1,970, a 5.7 percent increase from the year prior. The forecasted effective rent growth in 2013 is 5.2 percent, to $2,072, among the 10 highest in the country.

The average rent in California is $1,185 a month according to the 2007-2011 American Community Survey. Statewide middle rental-range is $996.00 to $1,193.00. Averages are gross figures, they do not factor in size of rental or other distinctions.

To see the data mapped out census tract by census tract, visit the Rich Block, Poor Blocks website and enter your own home town. You can move the map around, zoom in or out, and even change the search to "Income."

Now that's an interesting portrait.

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