A home is more than a house.

It’s a place in a community, determining everything from the quality of your kids’ education to the length of your daily commute.

Not only does a neighborhood shape your lifestyle, it impacts your finances, too.

Given the well-known real estate mantra “Location, Location, Location” it’s not surprising that a host of neighborhood amenities, like crime rates or proximity to shopping, have been shown to influence home prices.

But some surprising factors, like a jump in gas prices, have been linked with dropping values in far-flung locales, explains Kerry Vandell, director of the Center for Real Estate at the University of California-Irvine.

Location can even impact owners’ ability to pay the mortgage, according to a recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which showed residents with high transportation costs were more likely to fall into foreclosure.

And, a neighborhood’s desirability tends to be so linked with the school district it’s attached to that childless buyers who worry about how well a home’s value is likely to hold up should pay attention to school ratings, notes David Figlio, a professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University.

Although he’s still collecting data on prices during the recent downturn, Figlio says it looks like sought-after districts help insulate homes from steep price declines.

Get The Scoop
As important as neighborhood is, however, homebuyers can’t always look to their real estate agent to provide opinions or information.

Agents must be mindful of the Fair Housing law, explains REALTOR@ Greg Herb, a 2010 regional vice president of the National Association of REALTORS®. The law forbids discriminating against or discouraging buyers from purchasing in any area. “If someone asks me if a parochial school is within walking distance or whether an area is dangerous I won’t offer the information ... We direct them to the information, like I will tell them to check with a police department if they are worried about the danger of crime.”

Of course, a tried and true way to garner the local angle is to talk to residents and walk the streets.

Luckily, the Internet now provides a virtual view of neighborhood life, allowing you to uncover tidbits you might not have found out until you move in an area.

Here, a sampling of sites for getting the local scoop:

View the Report Card
Most states provide rankings for schools based upon test scores and other factors, says Figlio, and these ratings fuel district reputations.

Parents should probably look beyond ratings, however, and visit schools to see whether the overall environment is right for the family. Sometimes, says Figlio, paying a premium for a home in a popular district may not benefit a child as much as buying into a lower-priced area and using funds for other educational purposes.

Two sites where you can start your “homework” investigating school scores and other factors are SchoolMatters.com and GreatSchools.net.

Take a Tour
You can study maps, but unless you’re living in a place, it’s hard to know whether you can comfortably pick up groceries or catch a train without getting into a car. The site WalkScore.com provides a rating on how easy it is to hoof it to any number of places, from schools to bars and coffee houses.

Get Local
Sites like OutsideIn.com and StreetAdvisor.com provide news and commentary about lots of neighborhoods, providing prospective buyers with a better view of what life would be like at a particular address.

Heed the Hazard Warnings
The federal Environmental Protection Agency runs “Envirofacts,” a database searchable by ZIP code that provides information on any EPA concerns in the immediate area. To check it out, visit www.epa.gov/enviro.