from Playborhood Palo Alto / Menlo Park

Guerilla Playborhood Hunting Techniques II: Research Neighborhood Reputations

Posted: 04/21/08 12:01 PM

[NOTE:  This the second in a series of four articles on Guerilla Playborhood Hunting Techniques.  The first article is an introduction to the topic, the third article is about researching neighbors online, and the fourth article discusses what to look for and do when visiting a neighborhood around a home for sale.]

Why is researching neighborhood reputations a “guerilla Playborhood hunting technique?” Isn’t this something everyone does?

Well, as it turns out, accurate neighborhood reputations are not easy to find, so doing a good job of this requires some active research.  In The Hubris of Neighborhood Profiles I wrote last year about how neighborhood guides, or at least the one for Palo Alto compiled by the Palo Alto Weekly, are not critical enough.  Every neighborhood gets a great review.

I also find that realtors’ pronouncements about neighborhoods are too uniformly rosy.  Some good realtors will give you some useful critical information, but on the whole, realtors will oversell neighborhoods even more than they oversell houses. 

In addition, I’ve found that parents’ casual comments about the quality of kids’ lives in a neighborhood aren’t very useful.  They almost always say wherever they live is “great” for their kids.  In order to get a useful information, you need to ask very specific questions.

Continued on Playborhood Palo Alto / Menlo Park…

by Mike Lanza

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