Ed 
I keep thinking about this idea I picked up from @Heyneighborhub on TikTok. He calls it neighborhood maxing. The premise is simple. Instead of driving all over town to see friends, you go deep with the 200 or so people who live closest to you. Walk to dinner. Walk to coffee. Walk home after a few drinks without thinking about it. The COVID pod era proved this works, and then most of us just let it dissolve the second we could drive again.
I think we gave up something real when we did that. The friendships that hold up over decades are usually the ones with the lowest friction. If hanging out requires a 30 minute drive and a babysitter, you do it twice a year. If it requires walking three doors down, you do it on a Tuesday. Repetition is what builds the actual relationship, and proximity is what makes repetition easy. Most people in Austin have a social life built around their phone, not their street.
The honest pitch for buying a home in a real neighborhood, not a subdivision off the highway, is right here. You are not buying square footage. You are buying the chance to know the people around you well enough that your kid can ride a bike to a friends house and you can text the neighbor when you run out of eggs. That is worth more than another bedroom.
