How do I decide where to move?

[Nimbus]

This might go in Talk Amongst Yourselves, but I thought I'd give it a shot here, since it's specifically home related...

We are planning on moving in about a year. We bought our first home about three years ago and would like to move to a neighborhood that's more family friendly and walkable. We are considering moving to a nicer area of town or moving to a different town about 20 minutes away.

When you've moved in the past, how did you research the areas you were considering? Lots of driving around, walking around, talking to people in the area, checking out the town/city/neighborhood websites... What else can I do to get a good feel for what it's like to live there?

[Kaitnbugsmom]

i am currently researching. I use the calculators at cnn money, the forums at city-data and of course the search function here at mothering among many other things too expansive to put in one post.