Things You Need to Look for in a Neighborhood Before You Move


 

It's not enough to pick the right home to move into. You also want to choose the right neighborhood. After all, you'll probably be there for awhile. You might want to raise your kids there. Consider these tips before moving so that you can choose the right place to live.

School Ratings

School ratings are one of the best indicators of whether a neighborhood would be a nice place to live. Higher school ratings often mean that everyone is on board with achievement, following rules, taking care of their yards, raising friendly children and is usually an indication of lower crime rates.

Nice Yards

Even if you don't look up school ratings, you want to see that people are taking care of their yards. A front yard indicates how a person feels toward their house and how they feel about life. You don't need to know, necessarily, that your neighbor likes their house, but how they take care of their yard indicates whether they follow rules, if they'll be courteous to you and other polite behaviors you want in a neighbor.

Nice Houses

You want neighbors who will take care of their yards, but you also want to know that they take care of their houses. You don't want a neighbor that encourages a termite or other pest infestation from rotting wood. Also, houses that are in disrepair can encourage theft and other types of crime in the area. The broken windows theory explains that a house that is not kept in good condition encourages theft because it appears that the homeowner doesn't care about their home or belongings. Look for homes that have nice glass front doors and fresh painted exterior walls

Nearby Stores

You might not want to live in the middle of the city, but you'll want to be close enough that weekly shopping and regular getting out and about won't be such a chore. This means you need to live within 15 miles of a major city. You'll need grocery stores, places to pay bills, a bank, a place to rent movies, go out to eat and fun things to do, in general.

Close to Work

If you work outside of the home, you need to make sure your commute is as easy as it can be. This can be tricky, depending upon where you work. Big cities can mean big traffic, so you need to make your home as close to work as possible. You also want to be home as much as possible, and it can be hard getting home if you live far away.

Sidewalks

Sidewalks can seem like a minor thing, but they're not. If you have children, enjoy exercise or have a dog, you will want to live in a neighborhood where there are sidewalks. It's nice to take walks around the neighborhood, go to a nearby park, skate with the kids, ride bikes and do other activities that call for a sidewalk.

Location

Apart from being relatively close to work, you want to be able to access the freeway quickly. If you don't like to get out frequently, this may not be extremely important to you. However, you can get to airports and other destinations more quickly from the freeway. Make sure you're close enough to one that you can get out and travel when you want to.

Community

You'll want to live in a friendly neighborhood. It seems like this would be hard to discover on the surface since you don't yet know your neighbors. You can ask around about regular community events. If there is an HOA or a library nearby, they will have this information for you.

 

It might seem hard to choose the right neighborhood, but it's well worth the extra time it takes to find the right one. That last thing you want is to move into the perfect home and discover you don't like the neighborhood it's in.

 

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