How Do Your Neighbors Affect the Value of your Home?

Here is a bit of context for that old adage that house values are based upon location, location, location: We’ll list 3 ways in which your community, including your neighbors affect the value of your home and how you’re able to turn these factors to your favor.Importance of LocationResearch recently presented by Nabewise.com that quantifies characteristics in the neighborhood for home hunters, discovered that 54 percent of Gen X homeowners stated that the neighborhood and house equally were critical in their decision-making. Home hunters trusted personal observations more than data from an agent, with 79 percent cruising communities to detect ‘fit’; 64 percent researching on the Internet; and 62 percent asking family and friends for input.Lesson: Placing your community on the map may support home values. If your community does not already have a neighborhood website and group, it may be worth your time to set one up. Straightforward, simple data such as maps which display shopping, parks, and schools—and/or calendar of events in the area (that is, block parties)—provide home hunters a peek of what life is like within your locality.Logistics RuleThat same study by Nabewise discovered that consumers are a pragmatic lot. The logistics of daily living and safety outweigh style and aesthetics. The research claimed that consumers ranked those community characteristics as these 5 (in no particular order):

• Public transit
• Cleanliness
• Real estate prices
• Commute
• Safety

  Lesson: Assist buyers in getting a glimpse of daily life in the neighborhood—community activity may be a tip factor. Community watches convey that neighbors look out for one another. Car pools from the block to your train station or an office park might offset the necessity for a second vehicle. Neighborly courtesies fast become a portion of the fabric of daily life, yet buyers cannot value what they do not know about. Take some pains to list these types of amenities on a different sheet for consumers to assess.Impact of Early ForeclosureOne Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta new working paper discovered that the value of houses nearby declines the most (and quickest) just before foreclosure. That is when you are worried that neighbors are not investing in their property, and the entire world can tell. Peeling paint, shaggy landscaping, broken gates—no one wants to be right next door to any of this. On the brighter side, by the time a home down the block is sold, foreclosed, and owner-occupied for one year, the negative effect upon the value of your home will have evaporated.Lesson: If you’re on the way to a sale or refinance, study the exact ownership status of homes in question. Offer the appraiser your assessment to support the case for the value of your home.