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Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marino760
I'm curious because I see so many people that say buying a house on a corner lot would be a deal breaker and I'm left wondering why. Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture and negatives about a corner lot. I spent part of my teen years in a house that was situated on a corner. It wasn't a busy street, but it wasn't an isolated little road either. I know i was a kid at the time, but I can't remember anything negative about the house being located on a corner. In fact, when I think back now, it did have a little larger than most front yards and one less neighbor living next door so it was actually more private IMO. If buying a house on a corner lot is a deal breaker for you, please tell me why. Thank you.
Because one gets sick and tired of shoveling all that snow. I had 178 feet of it with my last house; never again.
I bought on a corner lot and built my house. My "neighborhood" is a small pocket neighborhood of 16 homes all on approximately 1 acre lots. My reasons were simple. The corner lot was slightly bigger than the other lots. The corner lot was cheaper than the other lots due to the side street traffic. The corner lot was the most regularly shaped lot and it gave the ability to build the house I wanted to build. The corner lot allows for a future additional detached garage or RV storage that can enter off the side street which is much wider and thus easier to turn from pulling a trailer or in a RV....That is a long term wish that will probably never materialize though.
Also the corner lot is the only one permitted to build a brick fence, which I wanted, even though I cant afford it yet.
The drawback is the traffic noise...which is not bad, but it is noticeable during peak hours...usually from about 7:30 to 8:30 am and again from 6-7. After that everyone is home, and its just occasional traffic.
My side street is a speed limit 20 street, and I am no where near a stop sign other than the one on my small street of 16 homes. I think the biggest draw back to many corner lots is acceleration noise when the corner is a 2 or 4 way stop.....I don't have that issue b/c my street is so small, but these days many of the cars/trucks are LOUD when they accelerate...A deal breaker would have been close proximity to a busy intersection b/c of acceleration noise. The other draw back is you usually have additional right of way to mow/maintain. Mine is about 200' long by 20 feet wide, but a riding mower mows it in about 3 minutes.
I do not regret my current lot. I have more usable yard than any other neighbor (except the one behind me who has the same lot) and it gives my kids alot of area to play. We also do not have sidewalks on my street....and we are in Texas where it never snows...if I had to run the weed eater over 2 sidewalks and shovel snow, that could be a deal breaker....fortunately I do not have either issue. The sidewalk on the side street is on the other side of the road only.
It depends on the location, size of lot, and neighborhood.
To me, corner lots feel more "exposed", busier-have more traffic (on 2 sides instead of 1), and the lots are usually smaller and not the size/shape I need for my dogs. And as someone else mentioned, fence restrictions may apply.
Even in my quiet little city neighborhood I wouldn't want a corner lot. I prefer being tucked away mid-block. I like my privacy and quiet.
I not only have a corner lot, I'm at one of the entrances to our subdivision. We've lived here for 14 years and the corner lot is no big deal. It is a larger lot than normal which means more upkeep, so if you hate yard work, think about that. As said above, I have one less neighbor to worry about, although I'm not sure that's even a thing. We chose the property for the house first, then we liked the extra large back yard (we had small kids at the time).
But you know what? We live in the house a lot more than we use the yard. Therefore, my suggestion is not to exclude corner lots but to focus on the house first. Does it meet your needs? Are you in love with it? If so, then look at the lot.
I'm curious because I see so many people that say buying a house on a corner lot would be a deal breaker and I'm left wondering why. Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture and negatives about a corner lot. I spent part of my teen years in a house that was situated on a corner. It wasn't a busy street, but it wasn't an isolated little road either. I know i was a kid at the time, but I can't remember anything negative about the house being located on a corner. In fact, when I think back now, it did have a little larger than most front yards and one less neighbor living next door so it was actually more private IMO. If buying a house on a corner lot is a deal breaker for you, please tell me why. Thank you.
Well, apparently you were a coddled youth, in that you weren't made to cut the grass or shovel snow. Otherwise, the main downsides would have been obvious.
That said, I now live on a corner lot--but only because the things that were needed (already-fenced back yard for dogs, etc.) at the time outweighed the negatives. I will look forward to the days when I can have a middle-of-the-block, or end-of-cul-de-sac lot again.
Well, apparently you were a coddled youth, in that you weren't made to cut the grass or shovel snow. Otherwise, the main downsides would have been obvious.
That said, I now live on a corner lot--but only because the things that were needed (already-fenced back yard for dogs, etc.) at the time outweighed the negatives. I will look forward to the days when I can have a middle-of-the-block, or end-of-cul-de-sac lot again.
Obviously, you don't know anything about my youth. I did all the yard work, all of it every week. No it didn't snow where I live but I don't think that qualifies as having a "coddled" childhood. The main "downsides" were not obvious because as I have already stated, it wasn't a busy street, there was no sidewalk, it was very private with fencing, and there were not bus stops near there.
Too bad you hate where you live but don't blame it on me.
Again, it depends on the neighborhood. A carefully chosen corner lot is a great benefit. It just requires research before buying. We have no traffic except for a 15-20 minute period morning and afternoon when the nearby school starts and ends, and even then only 10-15 cars.
We have no sidewalks and on the rare day that is snows, no one shovels, it usually melts the next day.
In 22 years we have never had a dog leave us a present.
No one can cut the corner onto our property with big trees and shrubs along the whole side and to the driveway in front.
There are no school buses running near us, the elementary is only a few blocks away, and the nearest bus stop for the older kids is two blocks away.
There is only one upstairs window on the house behind us that would be able to view our back yard, but it's a frosted bathroom window and never open. No windows from any other homes can see our front yard. It's very private.
When we bought, it was not a busy street. Ten years later, it was due to the four-lane street half a mile away becoming more congested and more local traffic taking to side streets throughout the city.
Can't always predict the future of a neighborhood. Glad it worked for you.
We looked at a house when we were house-hunting 10 years ago and loved the size of the lot. What we did not love was the fact that the entire backyard (which was HUGE) was on display for anyone walking or driving by, since it was a corner lot. In the end, we bought a house down the street on a smaller lot and with a private backyard.
Now I kind of wish we had that lot, since our Christmas display gets bigger every year and I'm running out of space in the front yard. It would be nice to have that visible backyard as a Christmas display playground!
Given enough time and money, you can solve the privacy issue with a tall hedge which will also knock down the noise quite a bit. You don't get the immediate gratification unless you hurl huge money at large plants but, a decade later, the problem is solved.
Mostly it is a lack of privacy and more traffic. But for the right person they can view it as a very "prominent" position in the neighborhood and with good landscaping you can have a great backyard - you probably just have to put more effort into it.
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