if your new neighbors have cars on blocks in their front yard, look elsewhere.
seriously, the one thing that we didn't focus on enough when we bought oh so long ago was the schools. We didn't have kids at the time, so it was mentioned but not appreciated. We are located in a large much criticized ISD, if we had bought in a desireable ISD our home appreciation would have been much higher. left some money on the table....
the best thing we did was go with a 15 year mortgage. the overall savings are substantial.