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Why not give the street name that is busy and town so we can offer an educated opinion. I can tell you from a friend whose backyard is off the main line RR tracks, arborvitae are wonderful buffers. While it does not totally kill the train noise it helps and they got a wonderful House for a song as compared to what they would have spent if not on the train line. It is all a trade off. Don't get me wrong it is still noisy but not as bad as it was when they first moved in.
On the flip side my friend's home is on the opposite side of the street from the LIRR PJ Line. There is another house and plantings between her house and the LIRR. Sitting in her backyard (even further away and behind a two story house) one can hear the train barreling past. To make matters worse, there's a grade crossing not far. I guess she's used to it, but every time I am there when it passes it is loud. (Her house is for sale over a year now -- I bet the train hasn't helped.)
BUT
I would think a steady drone of cars/trucks is far less intrusive than to have peace and quiet interrupted by a loud train and subsequent horn.
We lived on a busy corner for 8 years. We did not mind the noise (too much) but with a 3 year old now we realized they had nowhere to play outside on a bike or whatnot unless we drive them to a parking lot.
Also, not sure if you intend to live there for life or not, but selling the house down the road will be MUCH harder. Ours was on the market for an entire year before we sold and dropped $50k...and the house was impeccable.
Thanks everyone- actually we realized that there is a LIPA power plant RIGHT across the street on the other side of Plainview Road- I'm sure it gives off some radiation (even our realtor said it does). So, onto the next....!
we looked at a house near Plainview Road... right across from that bowling alley actually. Every time we went to a house like that (also another backing Old Country Rd less than a mile away), we just couldn't deal with it. I grew up in a house on Central Park Road as a kid - I didn't mind, but going back there to live for a while I realized how bad it actually was - very undesirable as an adult... safety, convenience, resale, etc.
Right now we live on an inner-most street of a neighborhood where the only cars travelling through here actually live on the block. So much nicer... until those landscapers come of course.
Proximity to the following things will dramatically decrease you ability to sell your house and/or the overall value of the house relative to others in the neighborhood:
-High tension wires
-train tracks
-streets with double yellow lines
-neighbors with broken down cars in their front yards.
Think long and hard about it before buying.
Having a busy road that your house backs to is not as bad as it being in your front yard, but it's still a turn off to many buyers.
Proximity to the following things will dramatically decrease you ability to sell your house and/or the overall value of the house relative to others in the neighborhood:
-High tension wires
-train tracks
-streets with double yellow lines
-neighbors with broken down cars in their front yards.
Think long and hard about it before buying.
Having a busy road that your house backs to is not as bad as it being in your front yard, but it's still a turn off to many buyers.
By now the sellers must be aware that this seriously impacts their property value. What they may not realize is that the current glut of houses on the market means that their house's location is even less desireable (by comparison) and therefore the busy road is a greater negative (proportionally) then it was seven or more years ago. The sellers shoud be further educated that location influences the potential buyer's future resale value. Sometimes busy roads become busier and sometimes they are widened. Taken together this means that if an identical house across the street (and not backing the busy road) sells for 550K, this might only sell for 400K. Or at least this is the line of reasoning justifying a lower price offer.
Finally, property backing (and to a lesser extent fronting) busier roads is not properly accounted for in the Nassau tax assessments.
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