Choosing A Neighborhood To Live In

1. Check The Crime Rate
2. Education
3. Public Services And Amenities
4. Commute
5. Public Transportation

Out of all the many, many decisions, you will have to make during the moving process, perhaps none is more important than choosing where to move you and your family too. The neighborhood you relocate to will play a big part in your job performance, social life, and overall life satisfaction. Follow these tips when you are early in the moving process and you are still deciding what neighborhood to settle down in:

Check the Crime Rate

Thanks to the internet, there are many ways to find out what the crime rate and severity of crimes committed are in your potential new neighborhood. Check out neighborhoodscout.com to search crime rates by area. You can also visit the U.S. Department of Justice’s website to search for any registered sex offenders in or near the potential neighborhood

Education

Even if you don’t have children, learning about the schools and educational facilities within a certain neighborhood can also tell you about the area in general. Neighborhoods with more schools tend to be cleaner and have a lower crime rate.

If you do have kids, you will, of course, want to find an appropriate school to move them to. The National Center for Education Statistics can help you find a good public school in your area. You can also try using search and review engine sites, such as yelp.com, to read honest reviews about local schools and get more information about each of the schools, from their website to their hours and contact information.

Public Services and Amenities

You are also going to want to be able to know the locations of such services as:

• Hospitals
• Doctor’s offices
• Libraries
• Hotels
• Banks
• Supermarkets and retail stores

Gathering this kind of information will help inform you of what life will be like living in that particular neighborhood.

Commute

Chances are high that the main reason you are moving is due to your job having relocated you, Or, maybe you got hired at a new company far away from your current home. Regardless, you are going to want to live in a neighborhood that is not too far away from your office, or from a school, if you have children. Before you move, use sites such as sigalert.com for incredibly accurate and detailed traffic maps of the area you will be moving to. You will be able to see which neighborhoods have more congested routes, and which neighborhoods are closer or farther away to freeways.

Public Transportation

If you do not have a car, public transportation is the way you will get around to your job and all of your chores. Even if you do have a car, you might find that using public transportation to get to your office will save you time (there might be a shorter commute for underground transportation), and money (no parking fees to worry about when you don’t drive your car into work). Check to see what kind of public transportation or carpool services the neighborhood offers.