Your neighbors’ home maintenance and home improvements can make a big impact — negative or positive — on your local property values and even your dream home design.
Home Gnome surveyed over 1,000 U.S. homeowners about their pet peeves and opinions about their neighborhood and the folks living next door.
Our respondents’ top 5 pet peeves:
- Garbage (27.4%)
- Landscaping and lawn care (22.6%)
- Home maintenance (21.9%)
- Noise (19.4%)
- Pets (16.5%)
Explore these 5 biggest pet peeves (some have led to disagreements) and other neighborly insights below, including demographic insights such as age and education.
In This Article
- Infographic: Neighborhood Pet Peeve Report
- Survey Key Insights
- Demographic Insights
- Behind the Survey
- Spark Gratitude (or Envy) With a Home Upgrade
Infographic: Neighborhood Maintenance Pet Peeves Report
Survey Key Insights
All in the Neighborhood
- Frequent tension from home or property maintenance issues is reported by 1 in 10 respondents. Meanwhile, 3 in 10 report never feeling any neighborhood tension from poor residential upkeep.
- Neighborhood friendliness has led to sharing equipment (35.3%), a dinner invite (25.8%), and help with chores (23.8%) for some lucky homeowners.
Sharing a Fence
- Nearly half of respondents claim they haven’t disagreed about anything with their neighbor (46.7%).
- We all have annoyances that make us glare and grumble, but which issues do homeowners actually complain to their neighbors about?
Building a Sanctuary
Keeping Up With the Joneses?
- Some respondents — 3.4% — have considered moving due to their relationship with their neighbors.
- “Unhinged” neighbors have peeved off 1 in 10 survey respondents.
Demographic Insights
Annoyances can vary depending on factors like age and education.
Age
- Nearly a quarter of homeowners ages 18 to 24 are dissatisfied with their neighborhood aesthetics.
- 23.4% of respondents aged 65 and up are dissatisfied with their neighborhood’s public transit.
- 17.1% of respondents ages 18 to 24 are dissatisfied with their neighborhood’s waste management. Surveys show community composting is popular with this demographic.
- About 61% of younger respondents (18 to 24) have 10 feet or less between their home and the neighbors’ house. 22% of respondents from this age group listed lack of privacy as one of their top 3 pet peeves.
Education
- 24.63% (nearly a quarter) of respondents with advanced degrees report frequent tension in their neighborhood due to home or property maintenance issues.
- 35.38% of those with advanced degrees say their neighbors’ choices are mostly increasing the local property values, while 1 in 10 with no schooling completed say their neighbors’ choices are somewhat decreasing the neighborhood property values.
- Respondents with advanced degrees (47.69%) and college degrees (36.21%) are most satisfied with their neighborhood’s aesthetics.
- Respondents with advanced degrees are the biggest proponents of noise ordinances (20%), traffic management (15.38%), and outdoor lighting restrictions (7.69%).
- People with advanced degrees have the highest reports of short-term rental drama (7.59%).
- A quarter of homeowners with no schooling completed would describe their neighbors as unhinged.
Behind the Survey
Home Gnome collected survey responses from a random sample of 1,060 U.S. homeowners aged 18 or older via Alchemer and Cint on February 5, 2025.
Each response was anonymized using a unique user ID generated and assigned by Cint.
Note: All survey questions and additional insights are available for the media upon request.
Spark Gratitude (or Envy) With a Home Upgrade
You don’t need to keep up with trends like the color of the year to have a stunning home.
- Keep your windows clean and promptly replace broken panes.
- Repair your fence or upgrade to a privacy fence for enhanced home security.
- Hire a pro to pressure wash your siding, porch, or driveway.
- Power wash your hardscaping, decks, and fencing for a deeper clean.
- Unclog and clean your gutters at least twice a year or replace them if damaged.
- Add some personality to your home by staining old concrete.
- Keep an eye out for signs of mold and remove it from walls promptly.
- Change the look of your home with some new windows.
- Have your roof inspected for damage and schedule a repair if necessary.
- Invite neighbors over for a drink around an outdoor fire pit or fireplace.
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Media Resources
Main Photo Credit:Samuel Peter / Pexels / License
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