Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
would you buy a home 0.4 miles from a new super-walmart etc?
So we just bought in a beautiful, quiet neighborhood 3 miles from downtown, but on the edge of our small city. Our community is know for limiting development and has a variety of ordinances prohibiting things like big box stores, drive-throughs, etc.It also has high levels of income and residents who are accustomed to driving to other communities to shop. Walmart and other national retailers have been trying to find an "in" for years.
Well, they just found one. Plans were approved today for a Walmart to be built in the county just south of us, on a piece of land less than 0.4 miles from our house.
Other than an increase in traffic, what else might happen because of this new development? We're not on the main street (in fact our neighborhood has only two roads in for access), but our main access to downtown, dh's work, dd's preschool etc goes right through the intersection that's going to be the new walmart's access road.
Does this kind of growth help or hurt property values? And is there stuff that we should be preparing for?
Would you buy in a quiet residential neighborhood with excellent schools and easy access to downtown and a super-walmart on the corner? or would you see it as a dealbreaker?
Re: would you buy a home 0.4 miles from a new super-walmart etc?
Around here the higher end communities with the best schools would never allow a Walmart in their village limits but it sounds like it's not your town but one close by. My rule of thumb would be I wouldn't buy a house if I could see a Walmart (or any major shopping center) from my house and I wouldn't buy if I could see lights from the facility in the background.
So it comes down to if you can be everywhere on your property and have no idea that a Walmart is located .4 miles from you I would be ok. However, if there is any indication that there is a Walmart near you I would suspect property values would dip a bit.
You property value may dip because of it but it depends on how it is done. If the county/city is being proactive and planning correctly with regards to the roads and utilites it shouldn't cause too big of an issue but what generally happens is the road development comes after traffic is a nightmare. This can cause property values to decline since you have no choice but to sit through awful traffic everyday. This unfortunantely happened to a friend of mine.
Once the WalMart went in a grocery store went it and then Home Depot, Lowes, etc. It is now a nightmare to get to his house. Hopefully they don't do that in your neighborhood.
This is always a risk though. You can't predict the future when buying a house.
This is actually happening near us and township residents have hired experts who have proven (somehow) that in other HCOL areas, crime rates have risen. We do not have local police, we are covered by State Police, in barracks about a half hour away. That is NOT ACCEPTABLE at all. The last time our home alarm went off and I wanted the police to check it out, it took a half hour for them to come. Not exactly a fast deterrant for criminals.
In our case though, the major increase in traffic is the most concerning thing. They want to build right off of the one major road that goes into our town (for reference, from the major highway exit to our house, it's about 5 miles. In bad weather it can take over 2 hours to get to my house from the major highway exit, without even considering the increased traffic from the store!) They widened a small part of it to 2 lanes on each side with a turning lane (about 1/3 of a mile stretch right near the store, totally worthless IMO) but I dont think it will do anything to help.
Are you united with the CCOKCs?
Me either, we wouldn't even consider it.
Potential concerns:
~resale (like pp, that is too close for my taste)
~traffic
~use of land around Walmart--once it goes up, fast food, gas, banks, and other stores, etc. tend to pop up around it since Walmart is a huge draw.
~Increase of big trucks on the road near my house (they have to deliver the stuff!)
Don't get me wrong--I'm not a Walmart hater by any means (heading there after work in fact), but ANY big store has the same pitfalls. I'd feel the same about a Super Target, a Kohls, etc.
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
I think as long as I couldn't actually see Walmart from my property it might be ok.
On a side note, a family friend had a Walmart go in near them and they had to have a company come and dig a deeper well b/c Walmart used so much of the ground water supply. You're probably not on well water but it's an interesting spin on what can happen.
A lot of these "No way" answers are really surprising to me! I agree that I wouldn't want to be able to see the Walmart or the lights from my home.. that *would* be a dealbreaker for me.
However, we are 1.5 miles away from a Super Walmart and 1.8 miles away from a huge shopping center that has a Super Target, Academy, Movie Theater, etc.
We looked at it as a plus that we have all those things so close to us. Where we live (Austin, Texas) it's pretty rare to not have a grocery store of some sort within a mile. Everything here is so populated and built up you have to go out to the Hill Country/Lakeway area if you want to be a bit "out there" and honestly traffic there is even worse because everyone commutes.
Cortlandt Place - My house blog
IMO there is a HUGE difference between 1.5-1.8 miles and less than half a mile. After a mile, you won't see as big of a traffic impact, the lights, noise, etc.
With less than half a mile, you most likely will see the lights, the traffic will have a direct impact on you and you have the potential to hear lots of noise--Walmart is VERY busy in the middle of the night with truck shipments, etc.
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)