So what is going on in the neighborhood?This is one of the many things that a Real Estate Professional studies when considering a Market Evaluation of your home because the value of your home is directly affected by what is going on in the surrounding neighborhood.
What makes up “The Neighborhood”
The people who live in a neighborhood actually determine or predict the nature and character of a particular subdivision or area of town. It is the residents that give an area a particular character so obviously, any changes to the economic, political, social values, resources and world view of the residents definitely have an effect on the physical appearance and overall flavor of the neighborhood.
It is also important to consider and define the physical boundaries of an area, so that we use comparable sales that are influenced by the same factors as your home. These boundaries could be physical like streams, mountains and ravines
or political boundaries, such as where Barrie borders on to the surrounding Springwater Township
and finally man-made boundaries such as railway tracks and highways.
Trends in a Neighborhood
Trends in a neighborhood change over time and this will have significant influence on your home, depending on how your home conforms to the surrounding homes in the neighborhood.
Some trends could be:
- hardwood flooring as opposed to carpeted floors
- Open plan layout as opposed to a separate living, kitchen and dining area.
- smaller families make smaller homes more popular.
- An aging population makes the lock up and go lifestyle of townhouses or condos more popular.
Neighborhoods are like Butterflies 
They also go through life cycles, which are made up of various phases. All Neighborhoods will eventually go through each phase. Briefly, these are Growth Phase, Stability Phase,Declining Phase and the Renewal Phase.
In some Neighborhoods, it will be more obvious than others and easier to pinpoint the stage(phase) of the Lifecycle that the neighborhood is currently experiencing. A Professional Real Estate Sales Representative who lives and works in the area will have a thorough insider knowledge of the neighborhood and will be aware of where it is in the Life Cycle.
Conformity
When considering the Market Value of a particular home in a neighborhood, it is necessary to look at the surrounding neighborhood to see if that are it has a certain level of conformity in terms of type, quality and size of homes. In other words, how does your home compare to the other homes closeby in terms of type, quality and size. Your Real Estate Professional will be able to advise you as to whether your particular home is positively or negatively impacted by these factors in your specific Neighborhood. For example if your home is the only two-storey home in an area of predominantly Bungalows, inhabited mostly by seniors, then it is most likely that the market value your home will be negatively impacted.
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