THIS! ^^^ Besides, how do you know you have nothing in common if you never speak to them?
Not yet!
This.
They may not have a bed or refrigerator…but they do have a dog. (OP says he hears barking.)
Maybe the dog is the one going outside, doing the surveillance? Watching over the neighborhood with a camera on his collar? 
There is absolutely nothing in the OP’s account that would make suspicious. In fact, the description—minus one or two things—might describe me. I’d be freaked out if a new. Sigh or had so many expectations regarding how o would behave.
(To get my bins to the curb requires me to drag them down steep steps. I will never bring them up unless the city threatens me.)
This detail has been bothering me. Mrs. L and I are planning our move, and it could be that we’ll move in some things and be gone a bit etc. I can see where you might have a car in a drive but nobody’s home…but a dog? We have 2 and have to plan accordingly.
Could it be they have a doggie door? And these could take care of feeding and watering.
I, too, suspect the dog is there to protect the as-yet-unoccupied house. The kitchen light being on all the time might also be a safety measure, as would the cars sitting in the driveway, especially since one has no plates.
But damn, it’s cruel to leave a dog alone for long periods of time, even with a doggy door, food, and water.
OP’s new neighbors will have to go out for groceries sooner or later?
They seemed to have something Saturday night. The parents’ SUV was there, as were a few other cars. Just, fercrissakes, don’t park so close to my driveway, and across the street–I’ve gotta navigate a 16’ truck out of my driveway, and it is so much easier if I don’t have to back-and-forth, back-and-forth, because your tiny compact is overlapping my driveway, and your other guests are parked across the street. Just put your compact in front of my house, instead of right by the edge of my driveway. Drive it forward–walking three extra steps won’t kill you.
There has been movement, as I implied. A car, previously in the driveway, has been moved from the driveway to across the street, to be replaced by a car with Montana plates. Given that I am in Alberta, Canada, that’s odd. Maybe it really is the FBI–who, as has been noted, would be well out of their jurisdiction.
Meh. I’m going with the “young people today can’t really relate in person, and are more comfortable online” sentiment.
That being said, I will note that this is a nice, middle-class neighbourhood, and is typically quiet. Neighbours tend to know one another, even if only on a waving hello basis. The fact that these new neighbours seem to have no interest, makes me wonder.
We’ve got one older couple across the street and 2 doors down - I’m looking at their house as I type. Several other neighbors call him “the cranky guy.” Guy WILL NOT look or say a word to you. Basically only see him as he drives his car in/out, or as he gets his paper/puts trashcans to/from the curb. Curtains are ALWAYS closed.
The house next to them is essentially vacant. As I understand it from other neighbors, the owners moved a couple of states over (or died and their adult kids live elsewhere). They keep the house solely as their private B&B - which they use maybe 1-2 nights every 2 months or so.
People are weird. My sole concern is that they keep the outside of their house looking OK. Both homes have lawn/snow service.
I’ve been here 8 years, and that is ALL I know about the residents of 2 houses I can see from my front window. Each of these houses is worth at least $500k.
If this happens again, I’d go talk to them about it. They may not realize that you have to maneuver a truck out of the driveway; or, even if they realize it, they may know nothing about maneuvering trucks, and may not realize that they’re giving you a problem.
There you go - they’re in a witness protection program. Now you need to look out for guys in long overcoats and fedoras who are surveilling the property.
Indeed it is extremely weird, nearly impossible to imagine, seeing a car at your neighbor’s house with license plates from a US state sharing a border with the province you live in. This mystery grows deeper each day.
Cue dramatic chords.
My brother and SIL live in a very tight-knit community. At one point, a house near theirs sold, and neighbors like you describe moved in.
My brother and another neighbor knocked to welcome the newbies and say “Hi.”
AIUI, the reception was lukewarm, but certainly not antisocial. The new neighbors never played in all the old neighbors’ reindeer games – get-togethers, beers, pot lucks, plowing each others’ driveways, etc.
When my brother complained to me about the newbies, I told him my perspective: they don’t owe you close friendship. If they owe you anything, it’s common courtesy and mutual respect.
My brother’s response ? “That’s not how it works in this neighborhood.”
A year or so later, another new family moved in on the block. They had an autistic child who, apparently, had some behavioral issues that frightened the natives.
The close-knit community went torch and pitchfork and tried to ostracize the special needs child and his family by association.
Except – bless them – for my brother and SIL who sided firmly with the new family and the special needs child, offered to help them in any way, and grew closer to them (before the family with the special needs child eventually had enough and moved out).
My brother and SIL lost every other neighborhood friend in the process.
Nobody – AFAIK – ever openly retaliated against my brother and SIL but the degree to which they were no longer in the ingroup, I’m told, was shocking and palpable. They became prisoners in their own lovely home.
Give me a quiet, respectful, courteous neighbor who’ll watch my house and I’ll watch theirs … over a little cult that could turn on you in a heartbeat … any day.
I’m beginning to feel that my “existing in a house in a neighborhood” is as subject to scathing social judgement as “how I raise my kids” and “how I treat my dog”.
Could it be a recording of a dog barking?
The curtains were drawn but the furniture was real.
I agree with Si Kahn
“For each of us has secrets
That we keep on the backroom shelves
Keep them hidden from our neighbors
And often from ourselves
But everybody’s got the right
To be the way they are
If you’re not hurting someone else
Then you’ve not gone to far”
I considered it more along the lines of an observation than a judgment…
In my mind, I would tend to be far more judgmental about how I observed you to raise your kids or treat your dog.