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Hi, I have been looking at houses, and several have popped up that are corner houses. I'm a light sleeper, so I am trying to avoid noisy situations.
In the image below, the red circled houses at the corner of a traffic light intersection is a definite no, given the constant noise from accelerating from a stop, in addition to the pollution.
But what has your experience been with the blue circled houses? They are on a corner, but it is a generally less busy street assuming mostly only the people who live in the area will be driving there, the traffic speed limit should be residential, it is not a through street unless they make several turns to reach the other side of the block.
Ultimately, I will have to take a look myself, but since it is not constant traffic it would be hard to tell during the day how the noise is.
One last caveat, at least in this example, is that this area surrounds an elementary school. Has that ever cause noise problems? It's only the morning rush and afternoon after school ends that would cause traffic, I suppose.
Thank you for any insight you can give me. I have been avoiding any corner houses in residential areas, but am not wondering if it is not that bad.
I've lived in a house on the corner of two residential streets for more than 30 years. Due to circumstances, my two streets aren't as quiet as others, but then I'm not a light sleeper...or I just got used to it. As for lights from cars - I installed some blackout curtains in the bedroom most affected by passing vehicle headlights.
The other downsides to a corner lot that I've found are multiple.
My neighborhood has sidewalks on both sides of the streets and we have snow in the winter. I have to clear said snow from about 200 feet of sidewalk.
Being on the corner means that I don't really have a back yard - it's more like two front yards. I've been meaning to get a privacy fence put up, but it will be expensive. And the fence still won't block out noisy neighbors out for a walk.
There's a middle school about a block west of my house. Every school day, there's two 30-minute-long parades of kids and parents going along the sidewalk on the side of my house, one at 8:00 AM and another at 3:00 PM. I can live with it, but it means that I can't take my dogs for their walks during those times.
I live in a corner house at the end of a relatively quiet dead end street that also happens to have a school and church at the dead end. The church is a smaller one that has the standard array of Sunday services and a few other weekly events. There is the traffic issue djmilf mentioned and you generally just have to time things so you aren’t trying to go anywhere right as school gets out. In my neighborhood, most of the corner homes are set up to have driveways/detached garages on the side street, so that does make it easier. The passing kids really aren’t that noisy.
The main noise issue in my neighborhood is that there is a hospital and fire station across the street from the school/church. Naturally, both of those generate a lot of sirens, but I don’t find it that distracting. It’s also one block from a larger road, which can be noisy as well. A few months ago I was salting my sidewalks and heard an accident on the main road and then saw the person at fault speeding by on the side street with her bumper hanging off. The corner shoveling is also annoying, but my lot is large enough that I also have a backyard.
Location: Sarasota/ Bradenton - University Pkwy area
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I too lived in a house on a corner lot for about 20 years and we finally moved away from that location to an "inside" lot far from either street corner.
Corner lots do have the advantage that they are often larger than the other lots on the block.
However, for us the negatives exceeded the positives. As someone else has said, living on a corner lot means you don't really have a private back yard, unless you can put up a large privacy fence as cars/people going by can see into your back yard from at least 2 sides.
Frequently drivers turning the corner would clip the edge of our lawn, running over some plants there to the point we had to just remove that landscaping bed altogether and leave it as lawn so the car tires didn't do so much damage.
Our location was just blocks from an elementary school and every morning and afternoon the school buses and parents dropping off/picking up students would travel down our road, creating a lot of noise.
You'd also be surprised at how many people have brakes that squeal as they stop at the corner (one street has stop signs) and how much noise their vehicles make as they accelerate away.
For all of the above reasons, we opted to move to a middle of the block home and I have never regretted that decision.
Every situation is different. Perhaps the lot the OP is looking at has less traffic. Perhaps privacy is not a concern. Perhaps the price of the property outweighs the potential negatives..... at least for now. I guess the big question is knowing the potential issues of living on a corner lot, is that something you can tolerate year and year?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I agree about the situations being different, things like window locations, house layout, and lot size. We are on a corner lot, just one long block from an elementary school. We are about a mile from the nearest main arterial, so we have no traffic noise except for about 10-15 minutes on weekday mornings when school is on, as a small percentage of parents and one bus go by our house. On the side street, the garage blocks any noise from the family room, where we spend most time, and on the front street the den and living room block it. There is no noise ever if we are in the kitchen/family room or in the back yard. We also have no noise from the school, even f the kids are outside at recess, due to the school being .4 miles and about 150' lower elevation away. The only neighbor house that can see into our yard or house is the one behind us, but that's only one of there bedroom windows and a frosted bathroom window. On the one side is a street, on the other we have no windows, on the front the house across the street has no windows facing us. There is only one negative, and that could be fixed by removing a tree:
When leaving the house and turning left out of the driveway it's hard to see if someone is coming and turning into our street as I turn left. In 29 years here, that has never caused any more than 2-3 close calls.
I can't answer your first question. I have some opinions on living near an elementary school. I always thought it would be great. My current neighborhood does not have enough parking at the school. Parents park in the street at night or when there are programs... during school and sometimes at night. Parents who want to walk their kids into school are parking in some areas near houses and causing a nuisance because there is not enough parking near the school and so they block traffic for people trying to get into their streets and sometimes even their driveways.
We have a school zone with flashing lights two blocks from my house. It sometimes makes it hard to pull out onto the main street because of the steady stream of pedestrians. You can hear the kids outside at recess and whatever their bullhorn/intercom system is. Doesn't bother me, but I am good at blocking noises.
If there is an elementary school in the neighborhood, chances are you have a lot of kids in the neighborhood. They are going to be outside doing their kid thing when school is not in session until 8 at night. There will be kid noises and balls over the fence. It doesn't bother me usually, but I'm a mom. You need to decide if that will be too loud for you.
In as tightly built a neighborhood as you show...
being on any of the corners available won't make a noticeable noise difference.
otoh ... headlights washing over the house by turning cars? That's another matter.
I planted 3 Cypress to block that light (hit all 3 bedrooms)
Quote:
Originally Posted by djmilf
My neighborhood has sidewalks on both sides of the streets and we have snow in the winter. I have to clear said snow from about 200 feet of sidewalk.
Being on the corner means that I don't really have a back yard - it's more like two front yards. I've been meaning to get a privacy fence put up, but it will be expensive. And the fence still won't block out noisy neighbors out for a walk.
There's a middle school about a block west of my house. Every school day, there's two 30-minute-long parades of kids and parents going along the sidewalk on the side of my house, one at 8:00 AM and another at 3:00 PM. I can live with it, but it means that I can't take my dogs for their walks during those times.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunshine Rules
I too lived in a house on a corner lot for about 20 years and we finally moved away from that location to an "inside" lot far from either street corner.
Corner lots do have the advantage that they are often larger than the other lots on the block.
However, for us the negatives exceeded the positives. As someone else has said, living on a corner lot means you don't really have a private back yard, unless you can put up a large privacy fence as cars/people going by can see into your back yard from at least 2 sides.
Our location was just blocks from an elementary school and every morning and afternoon the school buses and parents dropping off/picking up students would travel down our road, creating a lot of noise.
You'd also be surprised at how many people have brakes that squeal as they stop at the corner (one street has stop signs) and how much noise their vehicles make as they accelerate away.
Thanks, everyone. Good points for me to keep in mind. Never thought about the lights problem, but I can also imagine it being an issue you live in a house directly across from a T-intersection. Aren't bedrooms usually behind the front of the house, away from the lights? Or is it just a nuisance seeings bright lights streaming in during the middle of the night?
I do prefer a more private backyard, though in most houses I have looked at online, they have everything fenced/walled off. But will pay attention to a smaller backyard size on corner houses.
Image below is another example. Marked house is on a corner but it is not a corner with a stop. Whereas the house immediately south of it is at a T-intersection where most would slow down or stop to check cross-traffic, though it is not a hard stop.
In as tightly built a neighborhood as you show...
being on any of the corners available won't make a noticeable noise difference.
otoh ... headlights washing over the house by turning cars? That's another matter.
I planted 3 Cypress to block that light (hit all 3 bedrooms)
I grew up in a corner house, so I found the question curious because it was nothing, but as you pointed out, this neighborhood looks more congested and built out than where I lived.
One small issue was that at one time people would make the turn, cut the corner short, and leave tire tracks on the lawn. My dad finally put three large rocks on the corner about four feet in from the yard's edge and painted them white. A couple weeks later, some woman came banging on the door angry because the rocks had scraped the door of her car. My father pointed out that for that to have happened, she had to be off the road and on the lawn.
She ranted a bit and finally got down to the real problem for her distress--"What do I tell my husband? He is going to be mad when he sees the scrapes on the car!"
I wouldn't think that there would be traffic issues at the house on Lecrest Lane. Nor headlight problems because coming from either direction, lights will shine on the houses across the street.
The other houses, I would go and park in front of the house and take a book and sit and listen. Check when people get off work and check during school hours and when school lets out.
With some houses a barking neighborhood dog will be a bigger nuisance, so that is another thing to listen for.
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