Wandering the Web — New In Town?

Column Editor: Lesley Rice Montgomery, MLIS (Catalog Librarian, Tulane University Libraries’ Technical Services Department) <lesleylrmontgomery@gmail.com>

About the Column Editor: My husband and I moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, a city we have visited at least a dozen times over the years, so I could start my Catalog Librarian career at Tulane University Libraries’ Technical Services Department in November 2022. I earned my MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in May 2022, with a focus on information organization and reference services. I also have over a decade of experience working at large university libraries, so I am happy to have the opportunity to catalog various resources in an academic setting. In my spare time, I enjoy fiber arts (knitting, crochet, sewing), landscape watercolor painting, and hunting in quaint antique shops for treasures to use in mixed media art pieces.

“So, you’re new in town?” A Review of Online Sites that Can Help People Who Are Moving Within the U.S.

Due to job promotions, my husband and I have moved several times over the years within the United States. We always consider the demographics of a new city before we relocate. This includes examining the overall cost of living and finding out whether a particular area has a thriving cultural community, sponsors music festivals, and has one or more art museums, city or county parks or other sightseeing or leisure activity venues. Such searches also can include browsing through reviews of local restaurants and seeing if the town or city has adequate hardware stores or other amenities. Some areas offer online sites that rate local hospitals and smaller medical facilities. I always check out the ratings of veterinary clinics and house sitters for cats or dogs. Smaller towns might not have a well-developed pet care system, so it’s crucial to find out this information before you relocate. Most importantly, it is extremely helpful to house hunt well in advance, taking advantage of the numerous Multiple Listing Services (MLS) that provide an easy way to quickly scan the housing market and assemble a “wish list” that you can give to your realtor. Some MLSs will note additional information on the real estate maps like flood zones, locations of gas stations and grocery stores, and some will show noise levels throughout the city by indicating sites of local commuter or international airports, for example. Using real estate aggregators will save time in the long run by allowing the professionals involved in helping you find a place to live to narrow the scope of your house search. The following sites are a sampling of online resources you can use to take some of the guesswork out of your move, to help you to become a well-informed consumer, and to help you to relocate with confidence, knowing you have thoroughly investigated your new community ahead of time.

Niche — Learn the demographics before you move. https:// www.niche.com

Niche.com is my go-to online resource for quickly finding the overall demographical information for cities around the U.S. If you type niche in your favorite search engine’s search box, you most likely will find that the Niche website will appear first in line. The popular site never fails to retrieve information about cities in the U.S. and it’s sometimes embarrassing to look at the “grades” that the demographic researchers at Niche will assign to your favorite town or city for the quality of public schools, housing, whether the area is good for families, crime and safety levels, nightlife, and diversity. The Overall Niche Grade is enclosed in a green circle, a data source is provided for how these grades are calculated, and the photograph at the top that is customized for the specific city notes additional information, such as an additional ranking for Best Cities for Young Professionals in America or Best Places to Live in America. Personalized reviews that give 1-5 star ratings are listed at the top of each city’s page. These are real-world assessments by people who have lived in the area.

Clicking on links within each page of your chosen town or city will help you to access detailed statistical data. An impressive number of facets are provided so you can conduct an advanced search of Area Type (city, city neighborhood, suburbs, towns); the grade for public schools; information about the cost of living in a particular area; how important is walkability to you; are most citizens homeowners or not, and so on. The search choices are extensive, an interactive map is available for each city, and Niche even links to Movoto.com by OJO (https://www.movoto. com/), which is a real estate site that helps you do a deep dive into the nearby home market.

Nextdoor — https://nextdoor.com

Get to know others in your new neighborhood, find out about local events, situations to look out for, like property theft, and other activities both negative and positive that are occurring in your neighborhood. Out of interest, I tried to find out whether Nextdoor is considered social media or is an app or a website, and if members can chat on Nextdoor. According to their website, Nextdoor is “an app for neighborhoods where you can get local tips, buy and sell items, and more.” You can, in fact, chat with a neighbor. When looking at their personal profile, click the Message link below the neighbor’s name, enter a subject title, and send the message by clicking Send. Folks build camaraderie by interacting on this local site that provides much useful information. You can buy all kinds of things, from empty moving boxes — which I have to admit we gave away after unpacking from our recent move — to used furniture. Neighbors will broadcast information about local criminal activities, which is helpful when petty theft of packages off front porches is not being covered by the city’s standard news channels. Recently on the New Orleans Nextdoor site, my husband and I found out about a large alligator couple that had wandered into a bayou near City Park that is used by kayakers! These kinds of recommendations, advice, classifieds, and important alerts are invaluable.

Only in Your State — https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/ OnlyInYourState — Discover What’s in Your Own Backyard is an attractive and colorful website that is extremely easy to use. According to Comscore, “an American-based global media measurement and analytics company” (“Comscore,” 2023), OnlyInYourState is ranked as being the second largest travel and information site on the web, with millions of social media fans and newsletter subscribers. (I think Tripadvisor officially is the world’s largest travel website, or at least that’s what they contend on their homepage at https://www.tripadvisor.com/.)

A dropdown menu along the top of the viewing screen includes seamless access points to information about all 50 U.S. states, to major cities, to a Get Featured link that concisely explains how OnlyInYourState works, and to a Subscribe page where you simply check the little boxes next to as many states as you like so you will automatically receive timely articles in your area. There is also a Nominate page where you can submit an attraction. Telling OnlyInYourState about your favorite places helps the site to “cover the country’s best hidden gems, unique attractions, and little-known destinations.” The nomination page allows you to describe why you love the state or city and upload photos if you like. Lastly, like all good reference websites, there is a handy search box where you enter keywords. I searched New Orleans where I just moved, and within 0.26 seconds, the OnlyInYourState search retrieved 144,000 results, including links to relevant websites that advertise or discuss tours and excursions, activities and things to do, and links to local attractions’ and restaurants’ online sites. Enticing fullcolor photos and map graphics on the home page encourage you to browse the Bucket List featured attractions, the Latest Articles and What’s Popular around the U.S.

Multiple Listing Services (MLS)

Save time when house hunting by browsing Multiple Listing Services (MLS). Here is an excellent article that explains the concept of enormous home listing databases: https://www. realtor.com/advice/buy/what-is-the-mls-multiple-listingservice/ As the article (referenced below) points out, the term “multiple listing” along with its underlying principles first appeared in 1907, when real estate agents would congregate to share information that could help them to connect with potential buyers (Ericson, 2022). Personal interactions at offices or conferences evolved into today’s online system that is searchable by many parameters, including neighborhood trends, home features, and of course, price. The overarching national database is composed of hundreds of regional databases that generally answer to local realtors and their listings. Realtor.com (https:// www.realtor.com/) truly is the most extensive, “with 99% of all MLS-listed ‘for sale’ properties in the U.S.” (Ericson, 2022). Searching for a new domicile can be daunting, and the MLS can help with the arduous task by providing full-color photos of each room in a house for sale, maps of the neighborhood, property history, environmental risk such as flood zones, room sizes, whether the house has a garage and/or fenced yard, and many other bits of important information.

Searching for Quiet Neighborhoods

When peace and quiet are a must, you can find out what local areas are considered to be noisy or potentially unsafe by browsing through two of the real estate aggregators’ articles: https://www.zillow.com/research/noisy-neighborhoods-25839/ and https://www.realtor.com/advice/buy/is-your-new-home-ina-safe-neighborhood-how-to-find-out The Zillow.com research article takes a hard look at the environment in terms of what factors tend to increase local noise levels. Highways, hospitals and stadiums bring on the volume levels, and this trade article doesn’t pull any punches regarding the noisiest neighborhoods in the U.S. by making use of the U.S. Park Service’s maps of noise (Garcia, 2019).

The Realtor.com article on neighborhood safety levels rightfully points out that your real estate agent is not legally allowed to answer the delicate question of neighborhood safety, due to the Fair Housing Act (Runkle, 2022). This article not only points you in the right direction to conduct your own online research; it also adds links to online tools, such as AreaVibes (https://www.areavibes.com/). (Both articles reviewed in this section are fully referenced below.)

Family Health Care

Find out the location of reputable doctors and hospitals for yourself and your family ahead of moving. https://www. healthgrades.com/find-a-hospital and https://comradeweb. com/blog/17-best-hospital-healthcare-medical-websites/ Healthgrades.com Find a Hospital allows you to search hospitals by name and location; ascertain specialties, Healthgrades Award Recipient Hospitals, and other hospital awards and ratings; and look up patient safety track records. Comradeweb.com is a short read kept updated by a digital marketing company that maintains the website lists of best hospital, healthcare, and medical websites. While it would be easy to get lost reviewing the many links, it would be well worth the effort to become familiar with the healthcare system that is available in your new hometown.

Pet Sitters

Looking for a reputable pet sitter and/or dog walker? Check out Rover.com (https://www.rover.com/), which advertises Loving pet care in your neighborhood. The site allows you to book trusted sitters and dog walkers. Search facets feature simple check boxes for Dog and/or Cat; you can ask for boarding, house sitting, doggy day care information; and scheduling is set up like a hotel booking with zip code or address information, drop off and pick up days, and the size of your dog (small at 0 to 5 pounds up to giant dogs at 101+ pounds). There are other pet sitting sites on the Internet. This is just one of the sites that will allow you to relax while at work or on vacation, knowing your beloved pet is in good hands. An additional bonus is you can connect anywhere with the Rover app.

Finding the Right Vet for Your Beloved Pet

Finding the right vet for your beloved pet is yet another stressor when you are planning a move. The site at https://pets. webmd.com/finding-right-vet-pet is a sort of one-stop shopping site for maintaining pet health. Pets.webmd.com has links to a Healthy Dogs Center, with articles on diet and nutrition, puppy care, preventive care, common conditions, and behavior and training. Similarly, the Healthy Cats Center link provides updated information on preventive care, common conditions, cat behavior, diet and nutrition, and kitten care. All links are accompanied by full-color photographs of charming pets. Care essentials include quizzes, slideshows, and so many helpful and informative articles.

Stressed Out But Moving On…

There are many websites and online articles on the Internet that discuss how stressful it is to move or how to handle the stress of life changing events in general, but I won’t go down that rabbit hole since I am not a professional counselor. I will, however, round out this article by offering a couple of interesting and well-written articles that provide helpful suggestions on this topic. Please see the References below for the full citations to these articles.

Why Moving is So Stressful (And 3 Things You Can Do About It) discusses how “moving to a new location can be exhilarating for some people, but it can be overwhelming for others” (Stevens, 2021). The VP of Marketing at Bellhops Inc. wisely points out the many reasons, including anxiety over a pending job, a new culture or location, and even an unfamiliar home layout, not to mention the stresses brought on by moving costs. Mr. Stevens describes signs of excessive stress, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms of stress and depression, and goes on to give useful advice to combat the stress of moving. The article combines what could be considered pop psychology with sound ideas, and Mr. Stevens is careful not to overstep his boundaries, emphasizing the need to seek medical and professional psychological assistance for severe mental health issues. Overall, the information is accessible and interesting, as well as useful.

Dealing with Moving Stress: Tips to Cope & Manage Anxiety is an excellent blog entry that specifically covers the topic of moving. The coauthors discuss how “a big move can be stressful for a number of reasons” and provide “some simple ways to deal with moving stress to keep you and your family happy during the big transition” (Malkowski & DiMillo, 2023). Tips include helping your child cope with moving anxiety, moving with a disability, moving a senior, and moving resources for seniors and people with disabilities. Timely, streamlined, and bulleted information cover many issues and take DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusivity) factors into consideration. This is not your usual article on how to pack or find a mover, and it’s well worth your time to browse the fairly long article that features photographs and a carefully curated reference list of similar articles on topics associated with moving, including data links that indicate how many times each article has been shared online.

References

Comscore. (2023, February 12). In Wikipedia. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comscore

Ericson, C. (2022, October 4). What is the MLS? The Multiple Listing Service, Explained [Trade article]. https://www.realtor. com/advice/buy/what-is-the-mls-multiple-listing-service/

Garcia, M. (2019, October 24). Calm Down About Noisy Neighbors: Highways, Hospitals and Stadiums Bring the Volume [Trade article]. https://www.zillow.com/research/noisyneighborhoods-25839/

Malkowski, E., & DiMillo, R. (2023, January 11). Dealing with Moving Stress: Tips to Cope & Manage Anxiety [Blog]. https://www.lifestorage.com/blog/moving/moving-stressand-anxiety/#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20according%20to%20 a,most%20stressful%20event%20in%20life

Runkle, L. (2022, May 9). Is Your New Home in a Safe Neighborhood? How to Find Out [Trade article]. https:// www.realtor.com/advice/buy/is-your-new-home-in-a-safeneighborhood-how-to-find-out/

Stevens, H. (2021, December 7). Why Moving is So Stressful (And 3 Things You Can Do About It). Bellhop. https://www. getbellhops.com/blog/moving-stress/#:~:text=Emotional%20 Symptoms%20of%20Stress%20when%20 Moving&text=Moving%20to%20an%20unfamiliar%20 area,and%20be%20quick%20to%20anger