If you moved from somewhere else, how did you choose your neighborhood?

I would like to know what your needs were (schools, space, house size, whatever), and then how you pulled that together to select a neighborhood (or neighborhoods) to look in. Then what kinds of neighborhoods did you look in?

Were the politics of your neighbors a concern? Were the hobbies of your neighbors something you cared about? Did you want to live with people like yourself, or did you not care about who your neighbors were—you just wanted the right house in the area you chose?

There are many neighborhoods I probably wouldn’t want to set foot in, much less live in. Safety, of course, is a concern. But I’m not into living in areas with lots of loud barking dogs chained in pens, or lots of dead cars up on cement blocks, or where a lot of students are partying all the time.

I won’t live on a corner, because the noise of the traffic is too loud. I want people who share my politics and attitudes about life, so I’ll feel comfortable with them. I want a friendly community, etc, etc.

What are your criteria? How much do you even thing about that? How hard did you look for what you wanted? Did you have to settle for a lot less?