These 10 States Have the Nosiest Neighbors, According to New Survey
When buying or leasing a home, there are so many questions to ask yourself before signing the papers. Probably far at the bottom of the list are questions pertaining to the folks next door. While it may seem like a trivial matter, we urge you to recall the 2014 comedy Neighbors. The plot revolves around a young couple who had just moved to the suburbs to raise their infant daughter. However, things go awry when they learn they are living next to an actual college fraternity house.
Are your neighbors annoying? Are they the type of people you invite over for barbecues? Or are you paranoid that they may be peeking through their blinds and secretly watching you? While you can most definitely find the perfect home with the right research, you can't choose the neighbors that come along with it. And unfortunately, some neighbors might try to pry just a little too much into your personal space and life.
The team at Homes.com created the “The Nosy Neighbor Survey” and polled residents across the country about their neighbors, as well as their own habits. After sifting through the data, they compiled the key findings into this report, which includes the top 10 states with the most and the least nosy neighbors.
Nevada came in first as the state with the nosiest, most intrusive neighbors, followed by South Carolina, South Dakota, and Ohio. As Homes.com notes, southerners are known for their charming and hospitable nature, but for some folks, this friendliness could be interpreted as overbearing. The survey also asked respondents "do you occasionally peek through the blinds to see what your neighbors are up to?" Over two-thirds of South Carolinians who took the survey answered yes to that question.
On the contrary, residents in Kansas mind their own business, followed by Idaho, New York, and Mississippi. Coming in at the sixth state with the least nosy neighbors was Pennsylvania. When respondents in Pennsylvania were asked, “do you know more about your neighbors than you care to admit?” 94% said no.
Next, the team at Homes.com looked into what age groups these snooping neighbors fall into. Overall, the data showed that the younger the residents were, the more intrusive they were, with Gen Z pegged as the most meddlesome. Homes.com referenced a 2018 report about Gen Z from global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, which noted that the 18 to 24-year-old generation “is anchored in its search for truth” and value freedom of expression as well as forging a deep understanding of others, which may explain why this age group appeared to be more involved in their neighbors’ lives than other generations.
Also included in the survey were some questions pertaining to individuals’ own habits that involve the folks next door. Almost three-fourths of residents admit to peeping through their blinds to see what their neighbors were up to. Nearly 45% of respondents admit to listening in on a neighbor’s conversation, and a little bit over 42% admit to listening in on a neighbor’s argument. The data also showed that residents in the state of New York were six times more likely to do all of the above. However, as the team at Homes.com noted, residents of New York did not consider themselves nosy, showing that respondents across the board may have had looser or stricter definitions of what actually classifies as a nosy neighbor.
Finally, the study pulled out some of the oddest behaviors written in by survey respondents. While I probably wouldn’t be bothered in my neighbors starting learning Tik Tok dances in the driveway (in fact, I might join them), I definitely wouldn’t want to live next door to someone who might steal my Amazon package. Yikes!
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