I can find one of those little libraries most everywhere these days. I may be wrong but when I see one I always think that the area they are in is a good place to live. Community gardens get the same kind of reaction.
There are many things I notice when I drive by a home that is sale. I pay attention to what the house next door and across the street look like. If I see play sets in the backyards I know that there may be small children living in the houses.
In the neighborhoods near the local colleges I see bikes locked to railings and fences which might mean that college students live in the houses.
When I see house after house with the signs from alarm companies I wonder if the homes contain a lot of valuable items or if the area was targeted by alarm companies and they set their sales people on it or if crime is unusually high in the neighborhood. The neighborhoods with the most and least expensive houses tend to have the highest number of alarm company signs.
