House hunters can focus so much on a house they want that they unintentionally slight other aspects of a new location. Your new neighborhood is at least as important as the home itself, according to real estate agents. “Houses can be interchangeable, but a neighborhood, a town, is not,” says Maren Brisson-Kuester, COO and broker with Corcoran HM Properties, serving North and South Carolina. Here’s how to find the right neighborhood for you.
Pinpoint What’s Important and What’s Not
Start by making a list of “what’s most important to you and what you need for your lifestyle. Then narrow it down,” says Michelle Billings, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Realty in Cincinnati, Ohio. “Think about what you like or despise about your current neighborhood.”
The National Association of REALTORS® “2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers” identified factors influencing buyers’ choice of neighborhood. The top three were the quality of the neighborhood (59%), convenient access to friends and family (47%), and the overall affordability of homes (35%). Seven more preferences round out the top 10:
- Convenient access to their job: 31%, declining slightly from 34% in 2024 and significantly from 52% in 2014
- Shopping: 31%
- Design of neighborhood: 26%
- Entertainment and leisure activities: 21%
- Walkability: 21%
- Parks and recreational facilities: 21%
- Health care facilities: 21%
Apart from the NAR profile, buyers express subjective preferences such as proximity to public transportation, a diverse neighborhood, or a low crime rate.
Prepare to Make Tradeoffs
Home buyers have to make tradeoffs in the neighborhood they choose, just as they do for the house. Marcus Privitt and his wife, Caroline Kern, have a toddler and live in Haverhill, Mass., near Boston. They’re weighing their existing “good baby-sitting network and nearness of family” against the desire for a community with more restaurants and an inviting downtown. In addition, they’re thinking ahead about school districts. The median price for a single-family home in the greater Boston area was $925,000 in late 2025, according to the Greater Boston Association of REALTORS®. So, affordability is a big factor for them.
Where to Find the Information You Need
A real estate agent can share data to help you make those tradeoffs based on your criteria. Keep in mind that if your agent is a REALTOR®, a member of the NAR, they must comply with federal fair housing guidelines. That means they can’t discriminate — for example, by saying one neighborhood is safer than another. But they can use NAR tools, such as RPR.com (Realtor Property Resource), to gather reports to help you do your research.
Get to Know the Neighborhood in Person
Nothing beats spending time in the neighborhoods you’re interested in. Walk the streets at various times of day. Experiencing a neighborhood on foot is different than driving through. Eat at different restaurants. Talk to neighbors who are out and about. Drive your commute during rush hour.
If you have the time, rent an Airbnb. One of Brisson-Kuester’s clients spent a three-day weekend in an Airbnb in a neighborhood she was considering. “Ultimately, she didn’t like the public access area in the shopping center. She didn’t feel safe,” Brisson-Kuester says.
Use Online Resources
You may want to do online research to supplement data from your real estate agent and your in-person observations. Here are some resources to consider:
- AARP.org Livability Index
Platform — Get scores for neighborhoods and communities in categories such as housing, transportation, security, environment, health, civic engagement, and job availability. - BestPlaces.net — Input a ZIP code for basic information about a particular town, the cost of living, crime statistics, and annual income needed to live there.
- National Transportation Noise Map — View heat maps showing noise exposure levels if you’re concerned about noise pollution from roadways, railroads, or airplanes. You might also find out if a nearby airport has expansion plans.
- NextDoor.com — Ask questions and get real-time alerts from residents from this neighborhood network covering 345,000 neighborhoods.
Other online research options include joining a neighborhood Facebook page, asking questions on an area-specific Reddit thread, or finding local meetup groups.
Don’t hesitate to contact your real estate agent with your questions, says Brisson-Kuester. “They will ferret out the answers if they don’t already know.”
Stacey Freed writes about the built environment, lifestyle issues, education, and pets. Her work has been published in “The New York Times,” “Real Simple,” and “USA Today,” as well as at AARP.com and Forbes.com. She sits on the board of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
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