I interviewed my neighbors when I moved into an apartment. I wanted to work for a labor union, and the first person I interviewed was married to a labor union organizer. I felt pretty good about that, so I rented the apartment. A few years later, we bought the house next door to the labor union organizer. His son babysat our kids and our kids absolutely adore the summer camp he is on the board of.
For a long time the block would have a block party on Memorial day and Labor day. Lately there’s been more turnover. We’ve been living there twenty years now, so I guess we count as old timers. It’s still a nice block, but not quite as collective as it used to me. It’s full of doctors and lawyers and professors plus a few grad students, several with kids. There’s one land trust house with two families living in it.
Except for one couple, everyone is pretty liberal and secular. The one couple is Republican, and fairly religious, and they have what is probably the most dysfunctional family on the block. I was amazed one day to see one of the children run out of the house, apparently in anger. He left the front door wide open, and no one came to close it. I don’t know if anyone else was home or not. Haven’t seen him in years, not even at holidays.
I think you can get a feel for the neighborhood in one day—or I could, anyway. I’ve had a lot of experience judging neighborhoods since I had to do it for a job I held for a few years. It helps to watch for longer so you can find out about the sounds and smells and what-not that are regular events in the neighborhood. I am very particular about noise, so I wanted to live on an interior street in the middle of that street—as far away from bus sounds and subway sounds and motorcycle sounds as I could get.
I had a lot of very particular criteria for the attributes I wanted my house to have. Many had to do with the neighborhood—particularly about being with people I would feel comfortable with. I think it’s well worth the effort to do your research on a neighborhood before you buy a house there.