More Space or Better Neighbors?

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I plan on moving to a new place once my lease here ends. Preferably I'd like to rent a house or a duplex where I won't be surrounded by noisy people as much but that probably isn't going to happen. So I have two choices: a townhouse that is almost twice as big as my current apartment for only about $150 more or a smaller apartment for the same price. The townhouse looks like its about the same quality as my current apartment which means it will probably have the same type of people (loud vulgar and inconsiderate). The apartment is the same size but costs more than what I'm paying now but the whole complex looks a lot nicer and may have better people as neighbors. What do you guys think? More space or better neighbors?

If I were you I'd spend considerable time in both places. You can't know what your neighbors will be like just by the way the neighborhood looks. Trust me. I was pretty shocked to see how some of these people speak to each other because it's such a quiet, beautiful place that isn't cheap to live in.

I wouldn't bet on the apartment having quieter neighbors. It isn't just the kind of neighbors that determine how loud a place is, but how well insulated the dwelling is and if anyone lives above you.

One place I lived in was a single story building with thick walls and it didn't really matter how loud the neighbors were because the walls were too thick to hear much. There were a few young people who I knew for a fact to be loud as I could hear them walking by, but the sound never made it through the walls to my unit.

Another place was a multi story building and the tenants were all older individuals with full time jobs but the walls were paper thin and everything from TVs to phone conversations to alarm clocks could be heard. Not to mention people walking around upstairs.

I personally value living in a good neighborhood. Those little things like nice smell, no cheap loud music, friendliness of the neighbors and extremely low risk of theft or vandalism make life easier.
I used to live in a bigger house in worse place and it was like hostile grounds between my room and a train station to get away from there.

But I wouldn't take it for granted that the more expensive apartament is indeed in good neighborhood. You need to check it out personally, I guess.

It's not so much the people living around me. My walls right now are decently thick so I can't hear what's going on in the other apartments though admittedly I can sometimes hear the guy walking above me. The big problem is that my front door and windows don't insulate sound nearly as well as my walls do and people love to hang out right outside my apartment and stay there until the early hours in the morning. They'll talk loudly enough that I can hear them from every room in my apartment, and they'll drink and the more they drink the louder they'll get. At least if I love in a two story townhouse maybe I'll be able to retreat to the top floor whenever things get crazy to put some distance between me and them.

Me & my my girlfriend live in a two story townhouse & the walls are real thin. The main problem with noise used to be traffic cuz the place is near the highway. But some new neighbors moved in next door & they make a lot of noise at times. Their daughter used to run around alot which banged & her father would yell at her very loudly & then she'd start crying loudly & he'd yell & curse at her even more. That has gotten better some & a new problem started. They turn the radio on a lot sometimes with really loud bass. The bass goes rite through the walls. I've went over there 3x to ask them to turn it down & they did for the rest of the day/night but started again the next day. I don't go unless it's really loud because my girlfriend grew up in a town where neighbors retaliated for anything they didn't like about them. They stole stuff & vandalized their home rite after any incident where her family would say or do something someone didn't like. There is a noise ordinance but the neighbors don't care about that cuz they leave the radio on all the time sometimes upstairs & downstairs. They also smoke pot in their apartment which is against the rules & the smell goes into our place. I'm NOT saying that the apartment would be the better place because the neighbors there could be just as bad. What I would do is try to find out from a few people how thick the walls are.

That sounds like my kind of apartment building - tall, made of cement, upwards air-pressure. The floors and ceilings and walls are all cement - noise-proof (but not bass sound) and fire-proof. But the doors! All sound comes right in through the doors. This is necessary to allow the upward draft to work in fires. After years of apt living, I choose this kind for maximum peace and quiet.

Also I look for a 10-to-10 rule - no noise between 10pm and 10am. Ask to meet the janitor - that can tell you almost everything you need to know, i.e. if he's a drunken slob etc. It should be a surprise visit, of course, at night. Visit apt once during daytime and once at nighttime - could be different.

Paper-thin walls are out of the question, in my world.

Good luck!