Because at the end of the day, you are looking for a place you can call ‘home.’ Your home must be as comfortable as it can be for you, meaning it’s still within your budget without sacrificing your personal needs and lifestyle. 

Whether moving somewhere far away or just in the neighborhood, you must consider factors according to personal lifestyle and preferences to be comfortable in your new home. 

This will guide you on what to consider before moving. Remember, it should be your home that matches your needs and not the other way around. So, discover the best way to find your ideal place to live. 

Why should you research your ideal place to live?

Looking for your ideal place is no small matter; it requires a lot of research and planning. 

All in all, your new place should fit your personality and needs. Research in Oslo, Norway, concludes that three factors are linked to its residents’ subjective well-being: neighborhood activity level, commute level, and house quality. 

Subjective well-being is how each individual perceives their life and satisfaction. Meanwhile, livability is the quality of the person’s relationship with their environment. This includes how the environmental facilities fulfill residential needs and expectations. 

So, you should prioritize places that can accommodate all your needs.

Also, remember that more expensive places don’t always equate to a better quality of life. When choosing where to live, it’s best to prioritize your needs in new living areas instead of merely basing your decision on the price tag. Knowing exactly what you need is not an easy task, more so sorting it out by priority. 

After all, there is no truly perfect place. Something will always stand in the way, whether budget or condition of the place. Therefore, you should consider several key factors beforehand.

Read more: The Move That Moves You: Examining the Stress of Changing Homes

Key factors to consider in choosing your ideal place

Moving to a new place costs significant money and energy. Because of that, you must conduct proper research before any decisions are made. Moving recklessly might make you move away again, wasting lots of money and energy.

Besides material matters, dissatisfaction with your living space causes more psychological strain than necessary.

Moving to a new place, also called residential mobility, has short-term and long-term consequences. Short-term consequences include feelings like anxiety, loneliness, and excitement. Long-term consequences include higher subjective well-being and higher mortality risk.

Constant moving could lead to higher levels of behavioral and emotional problems, including depression, especially if you have children. 

Therefore, it’s important to choose wisely, based on how the new place can provide your lifestyle requirements. Below are some important factors you could consider before moving to a new place:

Proximity to work and essential amenities

If you are moving for a job, calculate the distance between your workplace and your potential new home. 

Research on workers in China finds that long commuting hours lead to lower satisfaction in life and work, and even cause health damage due to the long time spent on the road. Choose a place nearer to minimize travel time.

You must also consider the availability of grocery stores, healthcare facilities, and recreational options. Easy access to these places is self-explanatory, enabling you to fulfill your physiological needs for food, health issues, and exercise. 

For example, if the grocery stores are far from your home. You need to do heavy shopping to save up on commute hours. In the same case, if you live far away from the nearest healthcare facilities, your access to immediate care will be very limited. 

Quality of schools

If you are moving with children or planning to have children, look up schools in the nearby area. 

Research nearby local schools’ quality with their respective programs and facilities according to your children’s interests. For example, if your children are interested in soccer, look up the ones that offer soccer as a competitive team sport or extracurricular.

However, while your children’s interests should be considered when choosing a school, the quality of education should be the top priority. If your children are interested in academic subjects, consider looking up places around nearby competitive schools that could accommodate you and your children.

Transportation options and accessibility

The quality of public transportation is another critical factor when choosing a new place. Big cities often offer more public transportation options than rural areas. This is especially important if you rely on public transportation to get around. 

If you move to rural areas, it’s more practical to get other means of transportation that could make your life easier. On the other hand, It’s also important to understand the quality and traffic of the roads if you rely on private transportation such as cars, bikes, etc. 

Neighborhood safety

Because you can never be too safe, it’s also important to assess the neighborhood’s safety and crime rate. Since you won’t be familiar with the new place, it’s best to ask locals about the frequency of minor and major crimes that have happened before.

Areas like gated suburbs and residencies often have lower crime rates due to the availability of a standby security officer or neighborhood watch programs. Meanwhile, non-gated places often rely on self-safety measures installed in the door for protection. 

But this is not the main thing you should worry about. Research in China concluded that gated communities aren’t always safer than non-gated communities. 

Whether gated or not, the safest communities are ones with stronger informal relationships, whether with neighbors or the local community. They function as natural surveillance systems. Look out for friendly and informative neighborhoods and communities while installing self-safety measures for your safety. 

Environment and lifestyle fit

Certain places often have a set of norms and rules that locals abide by. Consider researching existing traditions and norms; this could help you determine whether the local lifestyle fits your current lifestyle.

Besides the existing rules and traditions, certain details of your lifestyle, such as your activity level, noise level, recreational choices, hobbies, etc., should be heavily considered, too. For example, if you love outdoor exercise, consider places near a public park or a known jogging trail to mingle with the locals. 

Noise levels are very important to consider, especially if you are sensitive to noise. A home in the suburbs or gated community is preferable for anyone who wants a quieter living environment.

How to research your ideal place to live

Deciding on places to move is not easy; you should consider several key factors beforehand. It’s important to always weigh your pros and cons before making any decisions. Here are some ways you can figure out how to decide where to live:

Create a checklist

Checklists are one way to list your needs in your new place. List down personal needs and preferences, then decide whether they could be negotiable to some extent. 

First, you can ask yourself: “What is my ideal living environment?” or “What do I want in my new home?”. Some things you can write down on your list are:

• Easy access to the grocery store, schools, health facilities, or workplace
• Easy-to-understand and reliable public transportation
• Road quality
• Parks or availability of nearby recreational facilities
• Neighborhood watch associations or other local communities you can join
• Noise and air pollution
• Local customs and traditions

Explore neighborhoods

After creating a checklist and weighing down negotiable or non-negotiable items, you could also visit the places to understand how the community lived and whether this is the ideal place to live for you. 

Explore the surrounding area and note its characteristics. If you are considering moving far away, such as to another province or country, you could use technology to survey your potential new places. Technology such as Google Street View and Maps is very beneficial for these tasks. 

Also, consider contacting a local citizen through social media to understand their personal POV and survey local news about the places.  

Use online tools

With the advancement of technology, you can also survey your choices through websites to provide nuances of your preferences. Here are some websites that you can use:

• Trulia. This website provides a look for on-sale homes and apartments, with additional look-ins in the neighborhood, allowing you to get a feel for the neighborhood without a direct visit. 
• AreaVibes. This website provides livability scores out of 100 points for various areas in the United States and Canada. The score is based on nine categories: nearby amenities, commute, cost of living, crime rates, employment, health and safety, schools, housing, and user ratings. 
• StreetAdvisor. These websites provide filters for which streets, neighborhoods, or cities are suitable for you based on your search criteria and filter to your unique needs. This website also provides ratings and reviews from locals in the area. 

Work with a real estate agent

If you are clueless about the area, enlist the help of a local real estate agent to sort the available places. A real estate agent could help you locate the available houses or apartments. They also legally have to disclose all information regarding the house, so you know you’re not missing anything. 

Before contacting the local real estate agent, prepare a list of your requirements. This will help the agent identify the correct house or places they can recommend based on your preferences. 

With the real estate agent as a guide, you can also ask around the neighborhood without getting lost. 

Read more: Wealth Disparity and Real Estate: A Global Perspective.

Seek local advice

Whether you get help from a real estate agent or explore independently, it’s always best to converse with the locals about the neighborhood situation, dynamics, quality of living, celebrations, etc.

Here are some creative ways you can do this, even if you might not be in the area.

• Utilize social media. Seek out the local activity on social media using hashtags and location tags about your targeted places. You can also reach out to locals through chat to get an idea about the place.
• Utilize the internet. Look out for residence ratings in online forums. For example, you can use Google Maps reviews to help you understand the housing problems and conditions.
• Sign up for a local event. If possible, you can try to sign up for a local event to meet with locals to get the vibe around the neighborhood. For example, sign up for local marathons or public festivities.

In conclusion 

Moving to a new place is a taxing process. It requires you to be aware of your needs and preferences while still being able to negotiate according to your budget limits. If you do it right, you can find a home that could improve your subjective well-being.

Whether you are moving for work or a new vibe, thorough planning about your priorities is an absolute must. An uncomfortable home is not a home, as it could just create further problems down the road. Therefore, make a checklist of the must-have requirements for your ideal place. 

With a checklist prepared, you can also utilize various physical and online sources to learn about the neighborhood and housing situation. With enough knowledge, you can make the right decision without sacrificing your needs and finances.

If you would like to see more resources on living location, check out the Personal Science Labs. The lab uses the research of the Institute for Life Management Science to produce courses, certifications, podcasts, videos, and other tools. Visit the Personal Science Labs today.

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