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Would you walk away? House near busy road. PIP
We have a contract on a new construction near a busy road, but we can still walk away and only lose our 500 dollar deposit. I will say upfront that the traffic near the house does NOT bother us. We are only concerned for resale.
Between our house and the busy road is our fence that is on our property, a quiet neighborhood road, and the neighborhood's sound/privacy fence. Then you have the 4 lane road. The speed limit is 45 mph and there are no stop signs or traffic lights, just the turn lane into our neighborhood.
Inside the house with the windows closed you cannot hear the road noise unless a loud motorcycle drives by. Outside you can hear it pretty well, but it isn't loud enough to make conversation difficult by any means. 3 out of the 4 times that we have visited the house have been during rush hour, so we have heard it at it its worst. The house is a corner lot as well.
Like I said, the noise does not bother us at all and we plan to be in the house 5+ years. WWYD? We are getting a great deal on the home, but not because of the location...the builder has all the homes throughout the neighborhood on sale, we just love this paticular floorplan and the finishes they've put in throughout the house.
Here is a photo to show a diagram of our house location. Sorry for the horrible sketch. :-)
Re: Would you walk away? House near busy road. PIP
I would walk away but I grew up on 8 acres of woods so this would be culture shock for me.
The first thing I would be concerned about is resale value. The proximity of the house to the busy road might deter people from buying the home if you should decide to sell in the future.
Just something to think about.
Busy roads are a huge no-no for me, even without children. If it's resale value you're asking about, it would be a negative for a lot of people, even with a house and "buffer" road in between.
Also, that unused country lane looks like a very handy way for the city/county/state to expand the highway later, which would put a six-lane road even closer to your house.
Thank you for your input! The unfinished road is going to be used by the neighborhood developer to expand the neighborhood. There will be houses along the road, so the main 4 lane road will definitely not be expanded. It has actually been expanded within the last 4 years or so. Before it was a one lane road. I don't see it getting any bigger.
We did not look for houses near major roads (which I consider a 4 lane hwy to be). We did not want acerage, but we did want to be in a neighborhood--not on the main road and preferably in a cul-de-sac. Unlike the pp implies, that does not mean we are off a dirt access road nor are we deep into the neighborhood with tons of acerage. We are less than 5 miles from a major interstate and less than 2 miles from any kind of shopping imaginable. We aren't in the sticks, but our house is tucked into the neighborhood and that was important to us.
I want my children to be able to ride their bikes one day and for me to feel safe about then being in our front yard and not have every car in the neighborhood have to pass by my house all day long. I want to be able to sit on my deck and not hear the drone of traffic. That being said, some people don't have these same ideals in a home so what ultimately matters is how much you love the house. Bottom line, there will be a "deal breaker" for someone in every single home so finding the "perfect" house for resale is a futile act.
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I used to live in apartment right off a major highway. there was a barrier between the highway and the apartment complex. i could not really hear the highway when the windows were closed unless there was a crash (crazy to hear that!) and/or emergency vehicles came through (ugh so often!). of course i was on the 4th floor which probably didn't help the sound issue since the barrier doesn't go that high. we had a balcony and i sat out there once to read but it was just too noisy. also being so close to a major highway resulted in lots of irritating traffic. it really didn't seem that big of a deal when i was checking out the community but the end of the 2 years there i was over it.
while my story isn't quite the same given the fact that involves a high up apartment and a large highway... it has caused me to never want to live that close to a major road again.
also i second the poster that talks about the possibility of the road being expanded as something to consider.
but if you simply LOVE the house... go with it.
yep. If it's not that big of a deal for you, I'd keep your contract. It may take a bit longer on the market (Assuming its a buyers market when you want to sell), but I'm sure like-minded people will come around eventually.
And as pp said, there is always someone on the 'outside' of a community. With the wall and road between you... it's probably fine.
(I'm saying this, but I also know that DH would have NEVER gone for this setup. I'm encouraging you to stick with it - because it doesn't bother you guys).
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We've owned houses that backed up to 70 MPH interstate and 55 MPH state highways and it doesn't bother us and the rest of our neighbors. You can't hear anything when you're inside and you only hear something outside when a tractor trailer goes by and uses the engine brake. For both houses, there's been a large area of vegetation to screen the view.
There will always be people who don't want to live near roads and likewise people who don't particularly care.
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If it doesn't bother you, I don't see much point in walking away. You're going to be there 5+ years, so your house should appreciate value either way. There's several fences + another road between you and the busy road, so it's not like you're actually on it.
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If you love the house I feel like you could make it work, but that is up to you and how you feel about resale down the road.
We have been in our current house for 7 years...and the situation is similar. The front faces a regular residential street but our back has an alley, an area of grass, and then beyond that a busy 4 lane avenue. The speed limit is 40mph but people go way faster. We went with it anyways because we do have a decent back yard, and beyond the busy road is a decent view of a Lake Superior Harbor. Two years ago we fenced in our back yard so we have more privacy when out playing with the kids. There is significant noise, but I guess I am used to it now (and I grew up in the country 3 miles from the nearest town which was still only 600 people...so I grew up with complete peace and quiet!). If I can get used to it, anyone can - but still it is a decision only you can make.
My concern is more about your 5 year timeline than it's location. Recommendations is today's housing market is a minimum of 7 years - just to recoup the buying and selling costs - that includes NO appreciation in value beyond that. Of course all markets are local and no one has a truth telling crystal ball.
Can you add tress to the left of your house? That would help with sound if needed.
Were you not able to build the same house in a lot in another location in the development?
I would walk away.
This is because we currently live right behind a 4 way road and absolutely hate the sound. We are moving to an area that is very much away from any major roads.
Like previous posters have said, if you're not bothered by the noise, don't walk away. You did mention that you would hear it if an emergency vehicle or something of that nature passed by. Just imagine hearing that whiz by your house in the middle of the night when you're fast asleep. From experience, it's not a good time.
We will be in the house longer than 5 years. I just put that to let everyone know that we were not planning on living there for a short amount of time.
We can add trees and would most definitely do so. I agree that it would help. We would be able to build the house in a different location in the neighborhood, but we would not have gotten the great price that we did. The builder had all of their "almost finished" new constructions that hadn't sold yet reduced greatly with added upgrades. Also, the only other location backed up to unbuilt land, and we have no idea what would be built there.
It wouldn't bother me that much either.
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is the area up and coming? how much bigger is the neighborhood going to get? plans for new shopping centers down the road?
i ask because you might want to consider the possibility in increased traffic. you're ok with the traffic on that road now, but what about in 4 years? in 5+ years when you go to sell?
I don't think that location would bother me. With a street, two fences, and potentially trees between you and the highway, I would not be concerned about kids or pets running into the road, cars crashing into your yard, etc. If you don't mind the noise outside at rush hour and can't hear it from inside, it doesn't seem that bad.
My only concern would be traffic - both increased traffic as the area gets built up, like a PP mentioned, as well as the convenience of getting in and out of your neighborhood. If you have to turn onto this busy road to get out of there, or cross four lanes of traffic to get home, it could be a pain.