i live at the bottom of my map, the "ramp" to the beach is in front of my house and there's a bend of river right behind it, the only thing on the other side of the river is villager houses & Re-Tail, leaving town hall, campfire etc on the same chunk as my house, which is just my preference.
I've always kept my house at the top of the map because I liked how it was in ACPG and also because I find it to be much more convenient in the long run! Houses near the beach are cool too though