Back in July I posted about my needs and wants for buying a house. At the time I listed being near Bethlehem as a want. In the comments of the post Tammy suggested that I move it to a need. At the time I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but the more I think about it, the more I realize she was right.
I’ve been scouting out neighborhoods in an attempt to try to get a better feel for areas I’d like to live, because as anyone knows, different parts of a town, or even a ZIP Code can be drastically different. My searches haven’t been anything very targeted, usually just taking a different turn while out running errands, or taking a long way home from work, but it seemed like when I would find a neighborhood that seemed pretty nice I’d pull up to a stop sign and realize just how far away some of those places are to the things I enjoy doing.
That’s not to say that I couldn’t travel to do things, I do it all the time, but when I think about where I want to put down roots, shouldn’t that be in the place I enjoy spending my time? I was initially looking at living a little further away due to the lower cost of houses, but the more I think about it, it doesn’t make sense to me to buy a house somewhere that I don’t live. I don’t mean a vacation home at the beach, I mean live in the sense of where I spend a majority of my time. If all I do is sleep there, then what’s the point?
No town is perfect, and considering how critical I can be, I’m not looking at any area through rose colored glasses, but every time I look at where I want to live, I keep coming back to Bethlehem. I could probably devote an entire post just to reasons I think it’s the place for me (hey, that’s a good idea!) but now I’ve taken another step in my home search. Instead of the thirty mile radius I’d previously set up, it’s gotten a lot smaller.
Unlike on an episode of Property Virgins I don’t have a neat map of Toronto (Toronto, weren’t you just talking about Bethlehem?) showing me the different neighborhoods. Now that I’ve narrowed things down to the “Greater Bethlehem Area” I’ve got a new set of research to pursue, learning about the different parts of town. I’m not sure what my best resource will be just yet, but I’m hoping some of you will be able to give me your insight.