How to find the new home community that best meets your lifestyle

Choosing the place that best meets your lifestyle is one of the most important steps in selecting a new home community.

Not only do you want to pay attention to the architectural style of the home and the reputation of the builder, but you should make sure it accommodates your family's needs and reflects who you are.

First, it's important to understand the components of a community. There is the overall development, which is a parcel of land owned or purchased by one or more parties known as developers. Those developers will segment the land to organize the construction of homes, parks, roads and other features. Housing segments, neighborhoods or subdivisions may be designed for a specific demographic or housing type — for example, one targeting people aged 55 and over. The developer will typically select the builders for constructing those components.

Pro tip: Many communities are built in phases; you'll want to know what is being built when and how your neighborhood might change over time.

“You have to very carefully think about where you’re purchasing and why you’re purchasing,” said Kris Maher, senior vice president of community development at Rancho Mission Viejo, a master-planned development community in Orange County, California. “You want to make sure it meets your needs on a lot of different levels. A lot goes into that — especially for first-time buyers.”

You don't want to purchase a home in a community and later realize that it doesn’t offer everything you want. Putting it back on the market will cost you time, money and patience. As such, it’s important to be intentional while evaluating communities and the neighborhoods within them. Here’s how to go about it:

Are you an outdoor person who loves to swim, bike, play tennis and jog or are you bookish and love libraries? Do you love to shop and walk to nearby restaurants? Are you very sociable or do you like to be left alone? Do you have little children or teens? Are you an empty nester? Your new home community should reflect your interests.

“Someone in their 20s or 30s will want to live somewhere more urban or coastal because of the proximity to things like nightlife and restaurants,” said Jessica Vance, a San Diego real estate agent, investor and mortgage broker with Anchor Funding. “It seems to be more grouped around community and friends at that point in life.”

Certain communities may have amenities that meet your lifestyle, or perhaps they are planned to come in some future phase of the development.

“We have a community organization called Ranch Life that puts together a robust calendar of events and activities year-round,” said Amaya Genaro, vice president of community services at Rancho Mission Viejo. “We have things for all ages, but for new first-time homebuyers, they might be singles or newly married or maybe just having their first child. So, if it's for the little kids, we have some of the little mud kitchen mornings."

Visualization might help you in your search. Jot down a description of your current lifestyle, then create a list of your goals. Creating both lists simultaneously helps you establish a mental pathway between where you are now and where you want to be.

According to Homes.com research and commentary from experts, there are several other factors you should consider when evaluating a new-home community and its neighborhoods:

Newcomers will ask: How can I research safety and crime rates in a specific area? Why is this important? For one, community and neighborhood safety is the first and most important factor that a homebuyer must consider. According to a Homes.com/YouGov survey conducted in May, 80% of the respondents — people who have purchased new homes in the past two years and those who intend to do so in the next two — prioritized safety as a community feature. If your environment is unsafe, your lifestyle may suffer because of it and the subsequent priorities won’t matter as much. The best way to evaluate a community’s safety is by employing a two-pronged strategy:

Conduct online research

You can review a community’s safety track record online by locating publicly available crime data. Visit the county or city's official website and navigate to the sheriff or police department page. There, you’ll likely find a crime dashboard, snapshot or a similar tool that outlines the most common crimes committed, their frequency and other reported information. Other useful websites for crime include CrimeReports.com, SpotCrime.com or the National Sex Offender Public Website.

Facebook or Reddit groups are also useful for researching a neighborhood. You can ask current and former residents questions about the area and factor their responses into your decision making. Some Homes.com listings also feature crime score ratings.

One common mistake buyers make is overlooking research in the zoning and planning office. It's important to know if there are plans to construct a landfill or freeway near your community within the next decade.

Visit the area

Online research can take you only so far. The best way to evaluate a community’s safety accurately is by visiting it during the day and at night. During your daytime visit, you can check the community's vibe, how the residents interact with one another and the noise level.

“You want to see if there's people out walking their dogs, if there's kids on the playground,” Maher said. “You want to know: Are there neighborhood watch programs established? Are people hanging out on the street talking to each other? It's important to make sure that there's a sense of community, because that really is what provides the safety factor — when you know your neighbors, when you feel comfortable, when you're all watching out for each other, too.”

Visiting at night also offers valuable information. “If your internal barometer says I feel safe or I don't feel safe, that would be my No. 1 starting place for anyone,” Vance said. “I have turned down incredible properties because of that — not feeling safe. And then, I've also been pleasantly surprised in other areas.”

Many new communities have homeowner associations to manage common spaces and maintain neighborhood standards. These HOAs often post their rules and regulations online. They are sometimes known as codes, covenants and restrictions. General covenants provide rules on things like lawn maintenance and exterior paint color, but you may find regulations about whether you can park a recreational vehicle in your driveway. And some maintain quiet hours.

Pro tip: Ask for a copy of the rules before you buy. It's important to know whether you'd be restricted from painting your front door purple or growing natural vegetation in your yard instead of grass.

When a community is under construction, the developer will typically maintain majority control over the homeowners' association. “We, as the master developer, still control the HOA board. There are two resident members on the board, but we have four representatives from the master developer on the board, as well,” Maher said. “It's set up that way because we're still the majority landowner.”

As a buyer, make sure there is a strong resident presence on the HOA board. It certainly can have an impact. “We carefully started inserting residents, and we have a terrific guy right now on the board. It has made a difference in some of the HOA meetings,” Maher said. “People don't always totally trust the master developer." More residents on the board translates to better communication between your neighborhood and the powers that be.

Residents will eventually gain majority control over the HOA.

“When the community's completed and sold out, the control of the homeowners' association is handed over,” said Lance Williams, developer and chief executive officer of Williams Homes in Santa Clara, California. “I've seen associations add amenities, then they'll vote for it. They'll have a board of directors. A board of directors will listen to the community.”

Each community will have varying arrays of amenities depending on its size and funding. Master-planned communities often have more amenities because of their large size and more diverse community needs.

"We have a very long-term development of about 14,000 homes,” Maher said. “And so, we can, as we're building new phases and new villages, add more amenities so that they're within the neighborhoods for the people that are moving in.”

Conversely, an infill development of around 100 to 200 homes will have fewer amenities for residents. “You might get a pool. You might not get anything, but there might be city infrastructure around to support you,” Maher added.

If you want control over your amenities, you’ll need to understand what community type you want and who it's built for — just like a developer.

Developers often conduct focus groups early on to determine what local residents want in terms of amenities and other factors. You should adopt a similar mindset and figure out who your future neighbors are and what they’re likely to gravitate toward. This will help you determine what your community’s amenities may look like in the future. Knocking on doors might not be the best approach but striking up a conversation with someone at a local park, restaurant or a community may garner your insight.

School districts are often one of the most important considerations for homebuyers. “If you're starting a family, then one of the most important amenities is going to be the school district,” Williams said.

Highly rated school districts can boost home values. But test scores and per-pupil spending may not tell the whole story. Look at what the school offers and what your child needs and wants. For instance, can the school accommodate your child with special needs? Does the school offer coursework for your teen interested in performing arts?

“If you're getting a brand-new school that's coming in or certain things that you wouldn't have otherwise that are beneficial to you and your family, then it can absolutely be important in your cost-benefit analysis of a new home,” Vance said.

However, understand new schools could mean higher payments.

The local municipality — the city, county or state — in which your community sits will often lend your developer funding to build schools to a certain standard. In California, this occurs under a law known as Mello-Roos, which facilitates the construction of Community Improvement Districts — areas designated for new infrastructural elements. Outside California, these areas are commonly called Special Improvement Districts.

Common mistakes: Having access to a new school is great for your family, but since the developer borrows CID or SID funds from the local municipality, you might pay a special tax in addition to your property taxes. Be sure to ask your community sales representative whether there are any special taxes associated with schools or other amenities.

And living near a certain school doesn't mean that your child will be enrolled there. School districts have various ways of assigning students to schools, and assignments made one year can sometimes change the next.

Closeness to public transportation and commute times may rank high on your hierarchy of must-haves in a new-home community. Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I close enough to freeways?
• Can I access public transportation options?
• What are the costs associated with this commute: tolls, fares, etc.

For example, if your home is in suburban Maryland and you work in the heart of downtown Washington, D.C., you'd need to be close enough to a freeway to reach your office on time. But given traffic congestion, the cost of gas and tolls, taking a train may be more economical — if you're within walking or a short driving distance of a station. Make sure that your community has the transportation and freeway options you need, and be sure to test the morning and evening commutes before you buy. Some communities may offer private transportation options to residents, as well. “That's really been woven into our land plan from the trails to our multimode transportation,” Genaro said. “We have a shuttle service called Ranch Ride, which provides opportunities to shuttle people not only within the community, but out to the wider community. That provides residents with private charters for birthday parties to high school football games to Sofi Stadium for concerts and then also around town to local beaches."
Pro tip: Carlo Ratti, an urban planning professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recommends that buyers ask these questions when visiting a prospective neighborhood:

• Do people linger — because there is shade, seating and something to do — or do they simply pass through?
• Can you reach daily needs on foot within 15 minutes (so familiar faces become neighbors)?
• Are traffic speeds naturally low enough that crossing with a child feels safe?

“Leave the car, take a slow walk and listen to yourself: Do you feel comfortable, at ease, at home?” Ratti said.