How Do You Know if a Neighborhood is Right for You?

How do you know if a neighborhood is right for you? That’s a question many people ask – and while there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, we can give you a few tips that may help you choose the perfect place to call home.

 

When you’re searching for a home, the best step you can take is to find a real estate agent who knows all the communities in Scottsdale. That way, you can tell your agent what you want from a neighborhood – whether it’s a quiet place with very little traffic, a busy community with kids playing outside every day, or something in-between – and your agent can recommend areas that may be a good place to begin searching.

 

 

After you’ve narrowed your search to a handful of communities, you can use the following list to help you decide what’s best. Ideally, you’ll be able to rank amenities in the order of their importance to you. Then, you can cross-check your list with each neighborhood you’re interested in.

 

• Clubhouse
• Commute time to work
• Friendly neighbors
• Gated entrance
• Gated, guarded entrance
• Nearby grocery stores
• Nearby hospitals
• Nearby pharmacies
• Nearby restaurants
• Parks
• Pet-friendliness
• Playgrounds
• Privacy
• Proximity to neighbors
• Proximity to schools
• Safety
• Sidewalks
• Walking trails
• Water features

After you’ve done that, it’s time to put your boots on the ground. Drive through neighborhoods that interest you at various times of day. That way, you’ll be able to check out morning and evening traffic (including how busy the neighborhood streets get), whether kids are out playing after school and how many people walk their dogs, stop to say hello to each other (and to you), and more. Don’t forget to drive through in the evening, too – you want to see if the neighborhood comes to life when the sun goes down or it settles in for the night.

 

 

There’s no reason you shouldn’t stop and talk to the people who live in the neighborhood if you’re genuinely curious about what it’s like to live there. You can even ask people questions that help you get a good feel for whether the community is right for you, such as:

 

• If you had to do it again, would you choose to live here?
• What’s special about this neighborhood?
• Are there any hidden gems nearby?
• How do your children feel about this neighborhood?
• Do you feel safe living here?
• How is this neighborhood in the summer/fall/winter/spring?
• Is there a lot of traffic in the mornings or evenings?
• Do you think this neighborhood is quiet or more active?
• Do you know a lot of your neighbors?

You can also talk to your real estate agent about other people they’ve helped to buy or sell homes in the neighborhood. Though your real estate agent can’t tell you whether the schools are “good” or whether there’s a specific amount of crime in a neighborhood, those are both things you can look up on your own. (You can look up schools’ “report cards” here.)