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Maybe no or yes. The buyer would look for a lower price, the seller would expect a lower price. The appreciation of the property would be expected to lag other areas. But it could be a property that would never sell at any price.
Heck, no! I wouldn't be able to enjoy the outdoor space I paid for. You'd also hear the traffic indoors. The house is priced well because of the highway. It's much harder to sell a house next to a highway than one 3 blocks from a highway. You also take a nosedive on price.
What's to stop the city/state from widening the road in the future? I saw this happen in Augusta, GA. Lovely older homes were a block or two from an interstate and you couldn't hear it because of all the mature trees and landscaping. State decided to widen the interstate out by several lanes. HUGE brick and stone walls went up to help with the new noise and horrendous view. Those walls didn't do a damn thing! It sounded like rush hour all day and night. Those houses are now worth slightly more than they cost brand new in the 60's and 70's.
I would consider a house that backs to a road, so long as there is no noise inside the house. Will it hurt resale value--yes, but that is why you are expecting the exact same discount when you buy it. It should be a great deal for everything else because the presence of the road has lowered the price. When she goes to sell it, the same exact factors should be in place.
The mindset of "Don't ever buy something with a negative for resale value" represents a very thin way of thinking about the issue. Simply demand the same discount you would expect to give upon resale. Clearly, if the property was up for a dollar, almost all of us would be smart enough to buy it. It's really a price issue, if she can get the same discount going in that she gives up coming out, then she pays less in interest and taxes while she owns the house.
I live out in the suburbs. The same house in the city would cost more. However, we based our offers on comparable properties in the same neighborhood and the one next to it. So the discount we got from having to drive farther is similar to the one we would expect to give up, though as a property investor I'm not convinced that we will actually be selling this property within the next few decades.
Heck, no! I wouldn't be able to enjoy the outdoor space I paid for. You'd also hear the traffic indoors. The house is priced well because of the highway. It's much harder to sell a house next to a highway than one 3 blocks from a highway. You also take a nosedive on price.
She stated that the traffic could not be heard indoors. I'm assuming the OP is telling the truth. If they are not telling the truth, it would be very difficult for them to receive meaningful feedback. Let's assume the traffic can not be heard indoors.
Maybe no or yes. The buyer would look for a lower price, the seller would expect a lower price. The appreciation of the property would be expected to lag other areas. But it could be a property that would never sell at any price.
Economically and statistically, this last one is only a viable option if the property is exposed to dangerous chemicals, for instance, if it was used as a meth lab. Backing to the road would never make an entire house and lot worth less than a cent.
I think I'm going to leave this thread before I face-palm myself into oblivion.
I personally wouldn't buy it with the pollution from cars. And while you might not hear cars, you might hear garbage trucks/semi's, cars with loud bass music etc. And what if you want to open the windows? Not to mention hanging out in the yard as well, forget peaceful bbq's etc.
And as others said, resale as well. The price on this home will always be lower the nearby selling homes due to the proximity of the roads.
Only way I could possibly think about it is if it was in a top notch school district AND the house was selling for a hefty discount. Such as if nearby homes are selling steadily in the 300K range, I would consider it a deal at $250K. And I would research the area carefully to see if there were any drops to the 250K range such as foreclosures and if so, I would ask for a bigger discount.
When we were both living in Hawaii my cousin bought a house that backed onto the ONLY road, a curvy one. Sure enough after a few months someone smashed into the fence and came within a foot of hitting the house. She replaced the fence with a rock wall (big bucks) and before she moved back to the mainland, two more wrecks had happened. Did not appear to affect the resale price. Busy roads are bad news.
If she plans on this being her forever home, and isn't concerned about reselling it in the future (I'm imagining a house backing onto a busy road would be a tougher sell), if the price is right and reflects the huge negative of backing onto a busy road, then I say go for it. However, she should spend some time in the back yard of the house or inside the house around rush hour in the evening to see if the traffic noise is something she could tolerate long term.
Good luck to her!
If it were me, personally, I would not be inclined to do it because I know that the traffic noise outside would start bothering me really quickly, especially when I wanted to be out in the yard.
We passed on a house that had one back/corner backed up to a "double yellow" road. The house was otherwise perfect for us - but my husband couldn't get past the noise and view of the cars. You could hear the cars from the house when the windows were closed, I could only imagine with them open. That plus he was concerned we'd get burned when we would try to sell in the future.
As a background - my husband grew up in a house in NJ that was not on a "double yellow" but it was still a very heavily traveled road. We went there for Thanksgiving and it was very evident, hearing the street noise, all day AND all night long. So he probably took that into consideration. (BTW the place we bought is so quiet, it's eery.)
If you are talking about backing up to something like a highway? Forget about it.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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As a kid my aunt's home backed up to a major highway. As long as we stayed close to the house in the patio it wasn't too bad, but you have to beware that when traffic gets too bad they will often widen the road and add lanes. She lost a good 20' across the back to eminent domain including the privacy/sound hedges. Even with the new wooden fence they put up, you couldn't hear another person talking in the back yard at all. It doomed them to staying indoors and they took a huge loss in value.
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