Check out the vicinity with Google Earth. Look for businesses in the neighborhood that may cause fumes, noise, high traffic, etc.
Use Zillow.com (a great real estate reference, as noted by at least one other poster above) to look at other homes for sale in the neighborhood. You can also check out recent trends in valuation (going back a few years) and you can research the “fluidity” of some properties. (For example, I’ve owned my current home for just over ten years now, and I’m in a neighborhood of nearest neighbors where I’m the newcomer. Yet just up the road from me is a house that has been sold and resold every year since I’ve been here, I think. I have no idea why that is, and if I were looking to buy that home it’s something I would consider a lot.
See if you can actually meet some of the neighbors socially before you commit. You’ll get a good idea of whether you want to stay or not.
In temperate areas where snow is a concern, check out the location of sidewalks, fire hydrants, and whether your street is on a “normal and expedited” plow route. Sometimes when it snows people in cul-de-sacs can wait a long time (a day or more in the case of a heavy snow) to be plowed out. Sidewalks running in front of one’s own house must be cleared by the homeowner (or his agent, of course).