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To me a half acre already sounds like a A LOT! That's just unheard of in my area. So I voted for better neighborhood. I wouldn't want to be isolated like the farm house you described.

Neither I guess? To me being within short walking distance to our downtown (in a suburb) is the biggest priority. We are 2 blocks to a park and the library and have a dozen restaurants in easy walking distance. However we live on a busy street so T will never be able to just bike out front. DH travels a lot so I have zero interest in property since upkeep would be up to me. If we were to move my preference on proximity to amenities would be #1. Last night us girls walked to dinner then to get flowers at the farmers market-nothing better than doing that when DH is gone and never having to step in a car.

We just moved from living on nearly an acre to a neighborhood. I liked the house on an acre because of the privacy and space. Our kids played in the front yard and driveway. But as they got older we realized they needed an area where they could ride bikes, take walks, go trick or treating, etc. I love our new neighborhood.

Depends on the farm...I wouldn't want to be down wind from crop spraying, for example. Also, three times as much land isn't really less to take care of, unless you're going to let most of it go wild. (Which is cool with me, but might not be with your neighbors.) But if those things were acceptable, I'd pick the extra land. I'm assuming this move reduces any commutes, too. Otherwise, I'd stay put.

Neighborhood as long as it has some kind of yard. The kids need a place to play but not an acre plus who knows what'll happen to that acre in the future, unless it comes with the house in which case no way I'd want to take care of that.

@Ms. RV: yard!

I do love our neighborhood but I would love to have a big yard like you describe! If its flat they can ride their bikes in the grass or down the driveway. As far as playing with friends in the neighborhood - my kids mostly play with kids outside the neighborhood so that factor wouldn't bother me at all - I use to LOVE taking my friends bus home in middle school and staying at her house for the night.

Neighborhood, hands down, for me. I love seeing our neighbors playing outside and going out to play with them, and just taking the kids for a walk in the neighborhood. They get bored and I get bored just playing in the yard by ourselves. But our yard isn't super toddler friendly- not fenced, and slopes with retaining walls. It's pretty but the neighborhood is what sold me.

Neighborhood. We just moved from a house with about 1.5 acres of land to a city home with a small, walled garden. I love being able to let the kids play in the backyard without having to follow them. I also love being able to amenities and houses of friends. We've done far more entertaining in the six months we've been here than the seven years in our house!

I voted yard bc I grew up on a farm and I LOVED having so much space and freedom. However, now that I have a family and moved away we bought a house in the neighborhood. I love it and all but I still long for the open, quiet, secluded space I grew up with. My kids will never have that most likely....

I actually have both (and a small house so maybe you should check out my neighborhood lol) and it's really tough to choose one to get rid of. Even in an awesome neighborhood it's nice having some space from your neighbors to romp around and for privacy plus you can't choose your neighbors so it's a crapshoot. It is a lot of upkeep having a big yard though.. and landscaping is expensive and constantly needs to be done. But I really love the social aspect of my neighborhood and my kids already have a ton of friends within walking distance. So at this stage in our lives I would choose neighborhood.

We chose yard over neighborhood for our first house, which we just bought in the fall, but we kept in mind that our daughter is still so young (I was pregnant when we moved) that she/we wouldn't really be utilizing a neighborhood for several years. We wanted the yard for our dog and gardening, etc. We looked at an amazing house (I still fantasize about it hehe) in a neighborhood but there was virtually no yard and we just couldn't see it being a good option with the dog.

However, we know this current house is our starter home and so in 5ish years, when DD is school age, we will probably reevaluate our priorities and maybe compromise on a decent-ish size yard and a neighborhood rather than a large yard.

I grew up in a rural area amongst farmland and hated it. I wanted so badly to live in town near my friends. My parents were good about driving me when they could, but I really resented that it always required planning/coordination to hang out. I felt left out a lot and it definitely had an impact on my social skills that I notice to this day. My parents have a huge yard and I'm sure I enjoyed playing out there as a young kid, but when I got older I couldn't have cared less. So personally, it was super important to me to live in a neighborhood where my DD could have a more spontaneous social life than I did.