For me, B or D.

Brand-new neighborhoods tend, in my experience, to have the most restrictive HOAs, and there is more of a "keeping up with the Joneses" attitude prevalent, from my experience. Plus, there are rarely large, mature trees unless the lots are wooded.

For option B, I'd be moving into a settled, mature neighborhood where most residents likely have lived for a while, and are a bit more relaxed about how they view things.

Option D is similar, but I could feel a little bit like the "rich guy" on the street, haha.

A. A brand-new or newer (We chose a brand new neighborhood. It is a small neighborhood of only 15 house on a cul de sac that can't not be extended in the future with addt'l house because of the things surround it. This was ideal for us as we have never built before and wanted a new house and we like the small feel of only 15 houses. One of the drawbacks was no mature trees but one thing that did go in our favor was that we have the only lot in the whole neighborhood with some existing mature trees (3).

The only drawback I have from a brand new neighborhood is that you don't really get a feel for your neighbors and you don't know how the neighborhood is going to evolve over time. I guess no one ever knows that so you just hope for the best or move in 5 yrs! :)

The major regret I have was not doing a septic evaluation before we selected the lot to build on. If that would have been the case I would have known before hand that the septic was lower than the sewer. With prior knowledge I would have asked for the house to be built up higher or even paid additonal for a crawlspace so we wouldn't have to have a grinder pump in our front yard!

We should be closing in the next week or two and there should be some pics of the neighborhood below and in the build thread as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: oour home sell/build log

Another thing about trees is that they can be damaged during a build, especially with a careless crew. I always felt that, unless it's wooded and WAY back from the homesite, that I'd rather just plant my own trees and let them grow!

We chose a brand new neighborhood. It was established in 06 with 15 out of 22 lots having houses on them. I chose it because it is in the best school district in GA and voted best place to live in GA. THAT WAS MY FIRST PRIORITY.

The lot was cheap because it is an odd shape and has septic issues kinda. But really nothing major. We also like that the majority of the lot is wooded and therefore less maintenance.

We are the second to smallest house. The rest are at least 1000 sq ft over mine, but the styles are not my taste. My house will be a bit of a departure from the rest. More New England than Southern.

Alot of people build on alot of acreage but I have no desire for that. My lot is a little over an acre and the part that is not wooded is enough maintenance for me. I am not a country girl in the least bit and prefer cities.

I see this house as the place my kids will grow up, but plan to buy a beach house and city condo once they are grown. Preferably in the Hamptons...lol.

E is what I have and E is the closest to what I would want from that list. Ideally, there would only be nice homes/farms in a rural area (not quite what happens in real life, oh well.) :) My biggest criteria is a sense of privacy and space, as well as maintaining and increasing my home value...

I guess I don't fit into any of those categories. I've always preferred a bit of space. I am a fan of HOAs, and as long as they are enforced properly they do provide a good service. If HOAs are not enforced, they become illegal in my opinion. I would never choose a location/neighborhood where every third house is the same, just a different color. We currently live in a custom neighborhood, outside the city limits, yet close enough that we can walk to just about anything. We can see the golf course from our house (I'm not a golfer though), and the pool is a quick walk. Only 3 houses on our street, so very quiet. Great neighbors, big quiet home sites, lots of trees...what more could I ask for. We do have a few covenants pertaining to home size, etc, but nothing drastic.

B

We purchased a lot in a neighborhood developed 20 years ago. For some reason the owner never built on it. The landscaping is mature and it felt more like home like. The new developments was like a desert, and with the way the economy is going i might not have neighbors for 20 years.

I think when you are thinking larger acreage (horse property - but still a subdivision) it can get weird. We sold our house (25 acres) a year ago to a couple that had just sold a 4 acre lot with horses in a beautiful subdivision that allowed horses however they required them to build a brick barn ($100,000 +) and then would not enforce things like no fireworks at july 4th etc which killed one of the horses.

We are currently building on: B. An established neighborhood where the majority of homes are more than 10 years old, but are mostly similar in appeal to your own. Our home is one of three similar homes being built on a large tear-down lot. (Our lot is 0.55 acres.)

Because my husband works in downtown Minneapolis, we weren't able to choose our true dream home site (a rural landscape with no signs of other humans as far as the eye can see, similar to where I grew up in rural North Dakota).

Either B or C...we're not the cheapest house in the neighborhood but there are some that are significantly larger/more extravagant/ pricier than ours. The neighborhood began development about 20 years ago. The original builder is completing the development.

We actually chose the neighborhood before we decided to build. We chose it for the school system (best in the city), location (very close commute to work, shopping, highway, etc), and the overall feel. When we walked around while shopping for houses, other people stopped us to introduce themselves and tell us how much they liked their house, neighborhood, and the builder. We also ran into about 7 different acquaintances that all lived there!

We looked at another development that is newer but the houses all backed up to each other so the backyards were not private. That was a deal breaker for us.

We couldn't find a house in our price range to buy in our chosen neighborhood, so we bought the last lot and are currently builder. So far, relatively smooth sailing.

I can't imagine building a home in a neighborhood over 10 years old. There aren't many options for that around here. Most developments get built more quickly around here.

We selected a neighborhood that was just in phase 1 out of 4 phases. We selected it because it is an HOA community with sidewalks for the kids, but the lots are all at least .75ac and there are lots of trees and dedicated green space. We have 3 young kids and we're hoping they will have friends in the neighborhood. If it were just me and DH's desires, we would have built on many many acres of woods and very secluded.

We are A. We bought a lot in a small neighorhood of custom homes. A custom home builder developed the lots, and they build all of the homes. We were very fortunate to have sold our previous house in the summer of '10, and take advantage of the fact that things were *very* quiet for our builder during that time, we got a phenominal deal on our lot. There is a minimum square footage for homes, which we are not much over. Our lot is wooded and flat, about 1/2 acre. We feel so happy...the homes in our hood are all custom designed, so every one looks different. Mostly, though, we feel blessed to get our dream home at a rock-bottom price. Our builder is currently building 3 other homes and told my dh that the prices have gone up considerably...suppliers are charging more.

Where we live is almost completely built out (SF bay area). The only remaining empty lots are usually in less desirable areas or require a significant investment. Thus it is commonplace to buy an existing 40-60 year old house and tear it down or significantly modify it. That is what we are doing. Our neighborhood was mostly built in the late 60s-early 70s.

The up side is that everything looks more established and less antiseptic, local schools have proven track records, property values are very stable etc. The down side is that it is very expensive compared to taking a bet on a new subdivision farther afield.

To @Mom23Es who said: "I can't imagine building a home in a neighborhood over 10 years old. There aren't many options for that around here. Most developments get built more quickly around here."

That's true here. Most people who are able to do this are either building on tear-down lots (tear down an older home) or in a new development where the building process has stalled out for a long time.

Building on a lake with a 28,000 SF lot....beautiful. It is in a HOA, but all are over 55 years of age...quiet, peaceful and just what I want at my age. Some of the homes are probably older than 10 years, but very well kept . My house will be modest, but nice (or at least, that is the plan). It is only me and it will hopefully suit my semi-handicapped stage of life.

I suspect age dictates this answer. The families with young kids choose a new neighborhood. Not always but I know it was our main issue - buy in a new neighborhood to get young kids. That is the reality around here but this is probably very regional - ie SF bay area is totally different.