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We live about 5 houses away from my parents and I love it!! No negatives. And I really don't see them anymore than I did when we lived further away. I don't have my mom babysit often just because I don't like to impose. But the kids love walking to grandmas house and waving or saying hi. And it's nice if we did have an emergency we could drop the kids off quick. We also sometimes meet up to go for walks. All in all it's great! They even have a key to our house but I've never been worried that they would come over unannounced or anything.

We live about 30 min from each. I wish I lived closer to my parents! Preferably next door

Neither of our parents are overbearing and they both respect boundaries. I'm sure they like their space and privacy just as much as you guys like yours! Besides being great for babysitting, it's also great (in my opinion) that they can see both sets of grandparents a lot.

If everyone respected each other's space, I wouldn't mind. I have several relatives that live within a 5 minute drive or less and I love it.

The one thing I would consider since you say you moved out of state, do your parents have a plan for building a social network? I think living 5 minutes from your parents in the town where you grew up is one thing. Having your parents move to be near you is a different animal. You want to be sure you and your husband/children don't become your parents only social outlet because they don't know anyone else. My parents are considering retiring to where my husband and I live but they are looking at 55+ planned communities that would allow them easy opportunities to meet people and make friends.

I live a 9 minute drive away from my parents, they have a key code to our house. In 4 years they have never shown up unannounced.

I don't think it's weird at all to have your parents in the same development, it just might take some discussion around ground rules.

I wish I lived that close to my parents! We are an hour away and it's too far.

It depends. Could we do it yes. But when we were considering it, DH asked that we not live within walking distance. He wanted enough space that you would have to call and ask to come over.

I'd be fine with it. My in laws lived about a 5 minute walk from us and it was reassuring to know in an emergency they were close by. My mother in law would rarely drop by more likely I'd drop by with kids to her house. We've moved and now my sister in law is less than 5 minutes away. Once again I find it comforting to know family is close by. She does on occasion swing by after work but it's nice to have her stop in. When house hunting we had an opportunity to buy the house directly across the street from her. It wasn't our ideal home and I felt it was a little too close. We'd see every move each other made.

@Truth Bombs: that's a really important point about whether the parents will have other social outlets! My parents have a weird situation where they half live in my hometown (where my brothers family also is) and half in the city where I am now, and it's great because in both places they have social and professional networks (my dad works in my city, my mom in my hometown). So when they're in either place, they're available to help w grandkids but also have their own social lives and commitments. My mil on the other hand doesn't have much of a network and is super passive aggressive about wanting to be included-- she doesn't live near by but if she did it would be really frustrating and tense to have to figure out boundaries since she'd always be available and wouldn't have any other outlet

Define close My ILs are about 1-1.5 hour drive away and it feels too close because they would come every day back and forth if I allowed it. We see them weekly because I arranged that (so that they'd stop asking all the time), but they put up a big fight that it wasn't enough.
They live 15 mins from my BIL and SIL and they're about to have a baby in a month. I (and they) shudder at the thought of how much they'll want to be there.

So for us, my ILs, it would be an absolute no. But my husband would be in agreement.

My parents live a 7 hour drive or 1hour flight away. My sister lives 5 miles from them and they still only see them once a week and that's because my mom babysits the youngest one day a week.
My parents are like yours - they get boundaries and quite honestly they have their own lives/work and hobbies and are homebodies so they aren't thinking about us 24/7 like my MIL (she has stayed at home for 38 years and my husband and his brother have been out of the house for 20 years - so she's pretty damn bored). So I think if we lived near them it would be totally manageable and we'd have very separate lives and we'd see each other when it works and no big deal if a month goes by. If anything I'd probably annoy them more than they'd annoy us. I don't think DH would have a problem with it either, BUT someone above made a good point that if they are relocating to live near you they may be more reliant on you since they don't have a huge friend network.

Also - if your parents want to buy a lot near you I'm not sure how you can tell them no. I mean, they are adults and it's their money so if they want to buy it they can. They don't need your husbands permission. If you told them though that it might be too close for comfort would they understand? Mine would, but again, they get the whole boundaries thing.

given the way you described your parents, i think it sounds amazing! We are a 10 minute drive from my parents, and see them every Sunday for dinner. They are around to babysit when needed - it is great.