It's simple. Would you want to jump into a 30-year mortgage in an area full of meth-heads, pit bulls, boom-boom music 24/7/365, rapists, car-jackers, murderers, car vandals, and other assorted Democrats?
Real estate critters do not disclose such critical info to potential buyers. The buyer would need to rent in an area to know if it is suitable for humans. Appearances are deceiving.
RE: “Have you lived in the area before?”
In my neck of the woods (i.e. New York City and suburbs ).
Immigrants from a lot of Asian countries (e.g. China, Taiwan, Korea ) are usually familiar with an area even when they’ve just arrived for a few months.
They usually:
1) Look for the area with the best schools.
2) Look for the area where people of similar ethnicity tend to want to buy.