How do you welcome new people to your neighborhood?

What, lol? No. I live in Brooklyn, NY. Okay, it’s not as bad as it sounds. When someone moved into a house where an old friend of mine used to live (he died), I did say hello and that I lived ‘over yonder’. I haven’t seen the occupants since.

I just had 5 20-something fratish boys move next door about two weeks ago. I welcomed them by asking them to help rake their 4 trees’ leaves that had blown onto my yard. The shared work was great- gave us a common ground to start with.
I also met my other neighbor when he had a bonfire, and I went over to ask if my daughter could roast a few marshmallows. They’ve invited us to almost all their bonfires since.
I live in a very small town of 23K people—so this isn’t weird where we live, I don’t think.

Our homes are few and far between and change hands every decade or so. Over the past twenty years I have knocked on the doors of three different sets of newcomers and given them a traditional gift of bread and salt.

I gained one really close friendship with a gay male couple, one amiable acquaintanceship with a married couple and one failure with a couple who turned out to be serious alcoholics.

I don’t. I say hi to the people that move into my house, but otherwise, I don’t welcome them (hell, I don’t even know they move in). I live downtown in a city, where half the point is to not have this culture of having to be friends with your neighbors.

I really doubt it was more common to welcome people in this area once. Just in a two block radius, someone’s always moving in and out of an apartment. You welcome everyone, you spend half your time just welcoming people, and that’s more time than you spend sleeping.

I say hi and at some points in the past I’ve baked cookies for them. It depends on how busy I am.

”baked cookies”

@tranquilsea: So, ah…any houses for sale in your neighborhood? :^)

Anywho… In sixteen years, of the five houses that surround ours, we’ve had new folks move into three of them.

One of them I chatted with over the fence a bit. Nice guy. His wife too.

Another we met during Halloween. They trick or treated my house and introduced themselves.

The other guy I thought was new and welcomed him over the fence only to be told he moved in ten years ago. Well seeing as how that was five years newer than me, I sheepishly said, “Well, nice to have you anyway” and slinked away. Then (it gets better), he comes to my house just last month to ask me a favor. I (having no memory) asked him when he moved in and welcomed him to the neighborhood. He says, “Dude, we met last year after I had lived next to you for a decade”.

So, I’m not really good at this neighbor thing.

I don’t. I live in a fairly nice surburb, but the people here are very private and “to each his own.” In other words, preppy and cold. When my family and I moved into this neighbourhood several years ago, no one welcomed us. As a matter of fact, I was the one who initiated contact first. I remember going over to my neighbour next door, with a gift in my hand, and the guy just took it, thanked me coldly and closed the door!! Erg!

It’s not something I would go out of my to do, besides people tend to keep themselves to themselves in my neck of the woods…… the last two, three families that have moved in nearby in recent years I’ve hardly seen out & about anyway… I live on a private housing estate, some of the properties are rented out by their owners, these ones seem to have quite a turnover of people moving in & out, mainly foreigners who speak little or no English at all, eastern Europeans, Asians usually. These people tend not to socialise with anyone but their own & from what I hear from various neighbours don’t encourage contact, communication simply by just ignoring peoples hospitality, that’s what I hear :-/

We don’t; the people in this neighborhood keep to themselves… until they decide to call the cops because you’re having a birthday party for your kid, and there are more than two cars parked out front.

Seriously. My bitchy neighbor called the police to interrupt my daughter’s 5th birthday party, because there were about five cars here. I’d love to TP her house and watch her clean it all up, saying, “No ma’am, I didn’t see anything unusual last night.”

Urban. Yeah, I usually just say high and leave it in their hands as to whether they want further communications in the future. Sometimes my husband will help them move a few things if he sees its someone working alone to move in.

Neighbors very close to me, within a few houses away, I introduce myself if I see them outside, hopefully chat for a few minutes. Tell them which house I live in, maybe give my phone number. If they are new to the area let them know if they have any questions to let me know if I can help them.

I live in a suburb, although this particular suburb is a little more rural than where I have lived previously. I have always basically behaved the same as a neighbor whether I am in a densely popuated area or a little more distance between neighbors. I have friends from almost every place I have ever lived, still stay in touch. Usually one set of neighbors we really bonded with.

I live in a small (1,250 people) town in a rural area.
I always wave and or say hi to my neighbors. When someone new moves into the neighborhood, I try to fine a convenient time to introduce myself. Usually during a walk or while they are doing yard work, etc.
I have taken gifts of homemade muffins, homemade jam or cookies, although I don’t always take a gift. I don’t expect new folks to become my best friends or hang out with me. I just want them to feel welcomed and like they know someone. You never know when you might need a friendly face.

I don’t know if it is more common now that it once was, but it seems a bit more common where I live, than where some of you do.
So sorry they were rude @MRSHINYSHOES

When my neighbors across the street moved in about 6 months ago, I went right over there and introduced myself and had a nice little chat about how long my family had lived in the neighborhood and whether or not they had pets (they do and so do we) and then I told them that most of the folks on our block have pets too. Just a nice little chat. Then I told the wife that I would come back over, in the next day or 2 with a little chart of her immediate neighbors (about 10 houses) with the names of the folks who lived there, because I know it’s often hard to remember everyone’s name, even if they’ve introduced themselves to you (I have a really hard time remembering people’s names). My new friend was so pleased to receive that chart. I also baked her and her husband a banana bread and brought that over. These neighbors have become really good friends of ours, and I think they really appreciated the fact that we made the first move to go over there and greet them. Most of our other neighbors are really friendly too, but some of them are elderly and couldn’t even walk over there at a moment’s notice, like I did. So everybody’s gotten to know one another, partly because of my chart (the new neighbor’s themselves, went across the street to introduce themselves to the elderly folks and they were able to use the opening line, “I just met Kardamom and she said you guys were terrific neighbors so we decided to come on over.”)

I think I am a natural ice breaker, and I like socializing with my neighbors. Although I realize that it’s often harder for older folks who have a hard time walking, or shyer folks for whom introducing themselves, first, is often difficult. But once everybody got to know each other, we’ve become a big, neighborly family. I feel very happy and blessed to have neighbors like these.

I think back in the old days, way back in the 60’s and before it used to be much more common for people to make a point to introduce themselves to new neighbors and to try to make them feel welcome. When I lived at my old neighborhood, in the 80’s, most of my neighbors stayed holed up in their homes and you rarely saw them. I don’t think any of them would have even noticed if our house had gone up in flames. They certainly would never have dropped by to welcome us or just to say hello. That fact, always made me a little sad and a little bit nervous, thinking that if we ever had a crisis, not only would they not come to help, they wouldn’t even know who we were, if they had to pick us out in a line up.

The neighbors we have now, would not only come over to help, we all borrow tools and stuff from each other. All the men in our neighborhood know my Dad, because he has one of those nifty extension ladders, and just about every one of our neighbors (about 10 houses) has borrowed it. We also have a power washer that’s been fairly popular. I love to cook and the new neighbors across the street love to eat, but the wife doesn’t really know how to cook and her husband is a pilot so he travels a lot. So I’m always trying out new recipes on her and she’s thrilled. I even brought some cookies over to their house when I knew her mother was going to be visiting for a week and I brought her some hot and sour soup when I knew she was sick.

Oh yeah, we live in the suburbs, if that matters.

It’s not clear to me who lives where any more. I don’t always see when people move in and I’m not the type to walk over with a cake or something. I’m not very outgoing with people I don’t know.

We used to have block parties where everyone would hang out and we’d get to know the new neighbors, but for some reason that stopped.