If you’re in the planning stage of buying your new home, the neighborhood you choose can be just as important as the choice of home.
Even if you have a general area in mind, it can be tough to narrow down exactly where you’d like to buy a home. Costs, amenities, and local community guidelines can fluctuate from neighborhood to neighborhood, impacting everything from daily life to property value. Here are several factors that should figure prominently in your thinking.
Neighborhood Safety - you can always browse publicly available information to get the idea where you are at: information on local crime rates are commonly available from your local police department and other public websites as well as real estate sites like Realtor.com aggregate data from several sources to provide their own reporting.
Property Values - prices vary greatly by location. Before making a decision, find out what are pricing trends for real estate in desired neighborhood are currently valued at, then talk to the real estate agent how that compares with the average value five and 10 years earlier. How much has the property increased/decreased?
Convenience - how close are: hospital, pharmacy, grocery stores, schools, cafes, restaurants and public transportation? It is also important to determine the proximity of major expressways and highways. This will help to identify commute to work length, who wants to spend significant part of life traveling to/from work? Beyond essentials, though, there are probably some other things you’d like to have convenient from a home. Do you want to be near water? Do you want to be able to do outdoor activities like skiing, biking, or kayaking at different times of the year?
Schools - finding the best schools for your children, depending on their needs and where you’re moving, can be a grueling process. You not only want them to go somewhere they will enjoy, but you also want to be sure your child receives an education that sets them up for future success. It is now relatively easy to explore different schools, school districts, test scores and ranking data online. Different sites (like greatschools.com) offer handful information to develop an opinion of the schools and school districts you’re considering.
Everyone deserves to find their dream home. Start from getting your finances to the most predictable and measurable place they can be. Use these important factors as points of consideration in order to find your perfect fit.
