Finding a Neighborhood If You’re Starting a Family

Where your kids will go to school is one of the biggest decisions for many parents when making a move. You’ll get an A-plus for research when you use Trulia Maps to learn more about each school district. Choose your city and use the schools layer to find ratings. Once you spot an area you like, visit the neighborhoods that feed into that school. School ratings are a good starting point but aren’t the only factor families use to determine the right district for them.

Visit the school in person as well if you can. “In some areas, the most popular and high-performing schools are oversubscribed and overcrowded,” says Alina Adams, author of Getting Into NYC Kindergarten. “Don’t just ask if the schools are good; ask if they usually have room for all the students who want in.”

From the moment you become a parent, your job is to keep your child safe. You babyproof the home, maintain regular doctor visits, and keep your child out of harm’s way. Searching for a neighborhood with a low crime rate ranks right up there. You might assume that a rural area is safer than the suburbs, which is safer than the city. But that isn’t always the case.

You can check out the crime risk of any neighborhood by using the crime layer in Trulia Maps. Here, you can explore the safety of an area, down to the street level. Joan Kagan, a real estate sales manager in New York, NY, used the crime layer to find neighborhoods with her family in mind. “You want to feel safe in your neighborhood, especially when you have children,” says Kagan, who raised three boys on the city’s Upper West Side. “In addition, once your children are teenagers, it is great for them to be able to explore the city. You want to feel safe with them leaving your apartment on their own.”

Of course you’ll keep your childless friends, but let’s face it: Your interests as a parent are sometimes a bit different. While you want to discuss how to get your kid to sleep through the night, they want to is stay out all night (and sleep in the next morning!). So you’ll likely want to build another network for yourself and for your children.

If this tops your list of priorities, look for evidence of other families while you’re on the house hunt. Are children playing on the sidewalks? Bikes or wagons in the front yard? Families out together for a walk? All of these signs point to a thriving neighborhood for families—and lots of potential friends for you and your kids.

Pay attention to the kinds of streets in each neighborhood. If an area has lots of long streets that drivers can use as shortcuts during rush hour, your peaceful neighborhood could resemble a NASCAR track twice a day. To avoid that, look for streets that are horseshoe-shaped or are cul-de-sacs. “Kids love to play outside in the street with other kids. They can’t do that if cars are barreling through the neighborhood at high speed,” says Brent Shedd, who recently moved to a family-friendly neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. “Finding a neighborhood that’s off a high-traffic route, especially one with curves that will slow cars down, is always going to be a better option for kids.”

Don’t discount the unassuming sidewalk, an important family-friendly neighborhood feature. “When we first started our family in Chicago, the sidewalk saved my sanity,” says Ali Wenzke, moving expert and blogger at The Art of Happy Moving. “The ability to stroll the baby around the neighborhood at a moment’s notice can’t be overstated. As the kids grew up, we used the sidewalk for learning how to ride a bike or showing off our artistic talents with sidewalk chalk.”

When you’re looking for a family-friendly neighborhood, you want to actually see families out and about. If there aren’t any neighborhood parks or playgrounds, that might be challenging. “When you are starting a family, parks provide the perfect place to get to know other families in the area,” says Wenzke. “Park playdates need not be scheduled, as you’ll inevitably run into someone you know at the neighborhood park.” And when the kids get older, they’re the perfect venue for burning energy and socializing.