Do Democrats make better neighbors?

We’re all about surveys lately—and are finding the results pretty interesting! Our most recent survey with Harris Interactive came in just in time for tomorrow’s first caucus of the 2008 election. We asked folks which presidential candidate would they most like to live next door to, and it turns out democrats may make better neighbors than republicans. For the full details, check out our press release. It’s pretty interesting stuff, especially when you start slicing and dicing between age and gender.

While we were looking at candidates’ neighbor appeal, I started thinking what it might be like to actually live near some of the top-voted candidates and started looking into some of their neighborhoods. .

Across all survey respondents, no matter their political affiliation, Barack Obama came in as the most desirable neighbor for the coming year, with 13% of the votes. According to our new neighborhood pages, Kenwood, IL where the Obama’s currently resides, has a Zindex of $239k, just below the national average of $244k. If you do plan on moving into the neighborhood however, you’ll likely have to settle for a condo, as less than 20% of homes in the area are single-family homes.

Next up was Hillary Clinton, with 12% most wanting her as a neighbor. It’s not clear if Hillary is the draw, or if folks out there are itching to hear Bill practice the sax on rainy afternoons. Chappaqua, NY does seem like a pretty great place to live, with a Zindex of $1.1 million, outpacing the US average quite significantly. The area also has one of the highest-incomes levels in the US, coming in 42nd overall. Perhaps moving into the White House wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for Mrs. Clinton.

On the republican side of things, Fred Thompson is the neighbor of choice. No huge surprise here- he seems like a pretty personable guy, and who wouldn’t want to pick him brain on the gossip behind the scenes on Law & Order? With a Zestimate of just $74k Lawrenceburg, TN is a bit more affordable than many of the other areas noted, as well as smaller. The area has a population of just over 10,000 with almost 97% of the homes being single-family.

And then there is Rudy Giuliani, coming in 4th for most desired neighbor. Hailing from the Upper East Side in New York, you’d think more people would want to live in one of the most well-known areas of any of these candidates. But you might want to think twice if you have a family, as over 80% of those living in the area don’t have kids. The Upper East Side has some of the more interesting neighbors in addition to Giuliani, including Michael Bloomberg, Barbara Walters and even Carrie Bradshaw at one point.

And for the record, we’re not the only ones thinking about the homes of candidates. Both the January issues of Money magazine and Newsweek.com have featured the homes of many candidates and used Zillow as a source for their reporting.

To see if the readers of this blog have similar thoughts to what our outside poll found, check out the poll to the left and vote! If you need more information before making a decision, be sure to check out the neighborhood pages to get the goods on these ‘hoods.