[jcdavis]

Cannot emphasize this enough. There has been a lot of discussion of the decline of the "third place", but I know a lot of folks who aren't really involved in anything outside of home/work, so their friend circles (largely built up from school/early working years) slowly whittle away as people move, while not doing anything to create new ones.

Beyond just neighbors - regardless of what activity/hobby you like, chances are there is some group/community near you. Getting involved and showing up on a regular basis will do wonders for cultivating new friendships IME, and you're likely to have a lot more in common with those folks than a random subset of people that you happen to live next to.