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Old 06-11-2014, 11:05 AM
 
Location: Northern panhandle WV
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I bought our retirement house for the size and cost, It is a corner lot and in some ways I like that because it means I only have neighbor on one side, and we like him. My house is on a lot not much bigger than the house so no big yard anywhere. There is more public sidewalk that I now find is our responsibilty to maintain, never heard of that before anywhere I have lived. Also it is that corner that is a bus stop and one that teens and kids like to hang out on, mostly on our front steps or stone retaining wall. They tend to leave trash there too, at least now.
See we don't live in the house currently, but I find these things to be true when we do go there.

Since houses are so close together there I think even with the Cons, I still prefer it to be the corner lot.
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Old 06-11-2014, 11:07 AM
 
Location: Kansas City North
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Depending on the lot and how the house is set on it, you may have a very shallow back yard.

If there are a lot of kids and bikes, they might like to cut across the corner of your yard. At least that's what we did in the 1960s

Also, as previously mentioned, school bus stop possibilities.
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Old 06-11-2014, 12:46 PM
 
28,599 posts, read 18,634,196 times
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Ordinarily I wouldn't covet a corner lot, but down here in Dallas a lot of areas are built with rear-entrance garages accessed by narrow one-lane alleys. Getting to your garage is always a matter of playiing chicken with other residents to see who is going to back up first.

For a mid-block house, that's a matter of driving all the way around the block, then halfway back down the block through that narrow alley. But if you have a corner lot, it's just a mere turn and you're in your garage.
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Old 06-11-2014, 02:23 PM
 
4,538 posts, read 6,420,804 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by staywarm2 View Post
We are looking at a house on a corner lot (side faces a street that has mild traffic). What do you think are the pro's and cons of a corner lot?

Do you think the corner lot lowers the value (or sales price) of the house?

I grew up on a corner lot and liked the fact it had more privacy as I did not have neighbors on both sides and had a few extra feet of property. I also liked fact when we had company my guests could park on side of house too and not in front of neighbor's house.

There are Three drawbacks.

1) if you have to replace sidewalks very expensive
2) in winter snow shoveling in a pain in the butt
3) if you want a pool there are a lot of crazy rules with trying to get a pool in as you also add in it has to be a certain distance from street etc.
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Old 06-11-2014, 02:25 PM
 
Location: SLC, UT
1,571 posts, read 2,808,096 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SandyJet View Post
I grew up on a corner lot and liked the fact it had more privacy as I did not have neighbors on both sides and had a few extra feet of property. I also liked fact when we had company my guests could park on side of house too and not in front of neighbor's house.

There are Three drawbacks.

1) if you have to replace sidewalks very expensive
2) in winter snow shoveling in a pain in the butt
3) if you want a pool there are a lot of crazy rules with trying to get a pool in as you also add in it has to be a certain distance from street etc.
I'd add a fourth drawback: Depending on the roads on both sides, it could be twice as noisy as it would be if you weren't on a corner lot. For some people this doesn't matter (like me), for other people, it's annoying enough that they move (like my aunt).
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Old 06-11-2014, 03:18 PM
 
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Interesting people mention loss of privacy. Around here, there are many neighborhoods where homes are quite dense -- often only a driveway width between adjacent homes, i.e., 35-40' frontage, more than 70' frontage quite rare. I've always figured in a corner lot, at least you have one side without neighbors right up against you.
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Old 06-11-2014, 03:27 PM
 
Location: Southern New Hampshire
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My former house (which I still own but rent out) is on a corner lot, and was larger than many because of it. Both streets are quiet so noise was never an issue. There WERE some odd setback rules for corner lots -- e.g., IIRC my right-side yard actually "counted" as my back yard so I had to meet the back yard setback rules instead of the side yard rules. Also, because it's a corner, I could not have built an addition that would have encroached on a certain area -- I can't remember exactly how it was calculated, but if you think of a right-angle as a street corner, I could not have encroached upon some of the area where the 2 streets intersect. (The purpose was safety -- i.e., people turning from the corner needed to have a full view of the perpendicular street.) Since I never would have built that way anyway, it didn't matter to me.
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Old 06-11-2014, 05:02 PM
 
Location: Saint Paul, MN
1,365 posts, read 1,877,294 times
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I have a corner lot, and I am neutral to mildly positive about that fact. The issues that pertain to my personal situation, some of which have been mentioned before:

PROS:
-Increased privacy. I live in a dense urban neighborhood, and the house directly to the west of mine is no more than 15-20 feet at the maximum from my side entrance. On the side that faces the road, I have about the same width, then a sidewalk, then 6-ish feet of grassy boulevard, then a 2-lane neighborhood street, and then the same grass-sidewalk-setback on the other corner house.
-More sun in my yard means more gardening success. Without houses looming on both sides, there is less shade in my back yard. I can also more easily take delivery on landscape supplies like dirt and mulch since there are not buildings in the way that would prevent truck access.
-It is easier for guests to find close parking spots with the increased road frontage
-There is at least a slightly decreased risk of break-ins due to the increased visibility of the house. I’m not particularly concerned about this perk, since I live in a very safe neighborhood, but it is nice to know that thieves would be more likely to be observed if they tried to mess with anything.
-Garage access. This is a big one. As a previous poster stated, garages that empty onto narrow alleys can be a major pain to navigate. Only one car can drive in the alley at a time. When it snows, you are at the mercy of the plowing company before you can even think about leaving. My garage empties directly onto the (relatively quiet) street, which is much more convenient. Also, most of the mid-block houses only have a foot or two of “driveway” between the alley proper and their garage doors. I, on the other hand, have an actual driveway that is long enough to park a compact car in.

CONS:
-SNOW REMOVAL! I would estimate that I have about 4 times as much sidewalk to clear as interior neighbors, since the lots are much deeper than they are wide. Plus I have to clear the aforementioned driveway, which is not something my neighbors have to worry about. It is a major annoyance here in Minnesota.
-The grassy area between the sidewalk and the street is also up to me to maintain. It’s not really usable space, since it is cut off from my actual yard, but I still have to mow and fertilize and look after the grass there. Just like clearing the sidewalks, this is a much bigger deal for a corner lot with more street frontage. I have seen some lovely gardens planted in that space, but that requires even more effort to maintain than grass.

Things that could be problematic but have not been an issue for me:
-Loitering/vandalism/miscreants. It is a very active neighborhood with lots of people walking their dogs, or just taking walks/jogs around the area. I like seeing them, and they don’t linger or cause problems.
-Street noise. Neither of my streets is busy, and even if they were I doubt the small lots would offer much in the way of a noise buffer even for houses in the center of the block.
-Lack of privacy. I find it to be the opposite, as described above
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Old 06-11-2014, 05:10 PM
 
Location: Heart of Dixie
12,441 posts, read 14,796,824 times
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I have a house on a corner lot...

It's the lot where most of the dogs decide to squat.
It's the lot that has the most sidewalk to edge.
It's the lot with the most yard to keep cut.
It's the lot that gets the most scrutiny by the HOA - two sides of the house face the street.
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Old 06-11-2014, 05:24 PM
 
Location: Saint Paul, MN
1,365 posts, read 1,877,294 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dirt Grinder View Post
It's the lot that gets the most scrutiny by the HOA - two sides of the house face the street.
That is one I forgot to mention. I don't live in a HOA--thank god!--but I do get more than my share of fuddy-duddies who seem to get filled with neighborly concern any time the grass is over about 2 inches tall or they think my flower beds are not structured enough. There are plenty of nice people too, but there is no denying that the higher degree of visibility ups the ire from busybodies.
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