>(with one exception, but that exception being some strange hippie commune or something, we have never quite determined the nature of their arrangement, nice place lots of nice people, with a large garden and barn type animals)

Have you considered "The Family" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fellowship_(Christian_organ...?

Two years ago, we moved into a neighborhood that is at the late stages of gentrification. Most of the people that have owned houses more than 20 years are black, and many of the black homeowners have had the house for more than one generation. Homes for sale are disproportionately sold by the black residents, and bought by whites. I don't know enough about my neighbors yet to draw any deep conclusions, however. There is a large Elks club in our neighborhood that is pretty interesting. Its membership is mostly older black men, but on the weekends, they have music, and lots of young white people come there to hang out. New and old residents seem to mesh pretty well.

My wife is Chinese, and we have joked that at least we aren't both white. As different cultures do do things differently, I would prefer to live in a neighborhood with diversity rather than a homogeneous one. It is more interesting to me. I think our neighborhood is going to become less diverse over time, however.

We have very little crime in our neighborhood.