Hi,
We have looked at at least 25 houses in this neighbourhood, we
really like the area, The house we are really interested in is around
200 yards from an interstate(E-470, denver,colorado). Right now the
area at the back of the house is empty but they are building a
preschool and a day care right behind our prospect house.
But there is a section of the backyard from where you can
see a bit of the freeway. I am going to go and check on the noise
levels tonight and see how noisy does it get. Do people have
experience with this? I have a feeling I will not have a problem
living there, but I am really concerned about the RESALE of the house.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Regards,
Rakesh

Rakesh said:

Hi,
We have looked at at least 25 houses in this neighbourhood, we
really like the area, The house we are really interested in is around
200 yards from an interstate(E-470, denver,colorado). Right now the
area at the back of the house is empty but they are building a
preschool and a day care right behind our prospect house.

I live slightly more than 200 yard from a freeway (I-275). There are other
houses closer. The freeway has a noise wall and green space near it.

We don't have high turnover in the neighborhood. Of our nearby houses,
only one has changed hands more than once in the last 8 years. A couple
have changed hands twice in 14 years. And many of the rest are still owned
by the people who owned them more than 14 years ago. (Some of the turnover
in the neighborhood involves people aging out of home ownership.)

But there is a section of the backyard from where you can
see a bit of the freeway. I am going to go and check on the noise
levels tonight and see how noisy does it get. Do people have
experience with this? I have a feeling I will not have a problem
living there, but I am really concerned about the RESALE of the house.

Outdoors in the daytime, during the spring and summer, the noise is present,
but more sort of a 'white noise' mix and very tolerable -- even rather pleasant,
compared to leaf blowers, lawnmowers, and the fellow who runs up and down
with the motorbike (sounds you'd run into even in areas not near the freeway) .
It's a bit louder when the trees are bare but my house is well insulated and
(especially since the new windows were put in) very quiet inside.

I would investigate the neighborhood turnover rate and how the traffic sounds
affect *you.* I would even point out that a constantly noisy freeway can be a
better neighbor than some people. (Easy enough to find 'neighbor from hell'
stories.) So don't neglect to eyeball the neighbors when you listen to the
freeway.

--
Pat K. ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

(Pat Kiewicz) wrote in message ...
Rakesh said:

Hi,
We have looked at at least 25 houses in this neighbourhood, we
really like the area, The house we are really interested in is around
200 yards from an interstate(E-470, denver,colorado). Right now the
area at the back of the house is empty but they are building a
preschool and a day care right behind our prospect house.

I live slightly more than 200 yard from a freeway (I-275). There are other
houses closer. The freeway has a noise wall and green space near it.

We don't have high turnover in the neighborhood. Of our nearby houses,
only one has changed hands more than once in the last 8 years. A couple
have changed hands twice in 14 years. And many of the rest are still owned
by the people who owned them more than 14 years ago. (Some of the turnover
in the neighborhood involves people aging out of home ownership.)

But there is a section of the backyard from where you can
see a bit of the freeway. I am going to go and check on the noise
levels tonight and see how noisy does it get. Do people have
experience with this? I have a feeling I will not have a problem
living there, but I am really concerned about the RESALE of the house.

Outdoors in the daytime, during the spring and summer, the noise is present,
but more sort of a 'white noise' mix and very tolerable -- even rather pleasant,
compared to leaf blowers, lawnmowers, and the fellow who runs up and down
with the motorbike (sounds you'd run into even in areas not near the freeway) .
It's a bit louder when the trees are bare but my house is well insulated and
(especially since the new windows were put in) very quiet inside.

I would investigate the neighborhood turnover rate and how the traffic sounds
affect *you.* I would even point out that a constantly noisy freeway can be a
better neighbor than some people. (Easy enough to find 'neighbor from hell'
stories.) So don't neglect to eyeball the neighbors when you listen to the
freeway.


Thanks everybody for their insight into the issue. I still haven't
decided about it, I gotta tell you, we have looked at a lot of houses,
till now there hasn't been a house in which we felt like we felt in
this house, we(me and my wife) tend to disagree a lot in what we want
in a house ,This was one we both went, what do we do to buy
this(first reaction) we cud have a built a new house,(but its a little
out of our budget right now), i did a lot of reseach, talked to
neighbours around this house(everybody said they are not bothered by
the noise), went at 5 different times of the day(weekend and weekday)
to figure out, howz the noise, weekend is heaven, you can hear the
freaking crickets, the bad time is the rush hour(it's not that bad),
there is a humming sound, anyways we are looking at a few more houses,
will let everybody know what I decide, thanks once again for
everybody's input...Rakesh

(Rakesh) wrote in message news:
Thanks everybody for their insight into the issue. I still haven't
decided about it, I gotta tell you, we have looked at a lot of houses,
till now there hasn't been a house in which we felt like we felt in
this house, we(me and my wife) tend to disagree a lot in what we want
in a house ,This was one we both went, what do we do to buy
this(first reaction) we cud have a built a new house,(but its a little
out of our budget right now), i did a lot of reseach, talked to
neighbours around this house(everybody said they are not bothered by
the noise), went at 5 different times of the day(weekend and weekday)
to figure out, howz the noise, weekend is heaven, you can hear the
freaking crickets, the bad time is the rush hour(it's not that bad),
there is a humming sound, anyways we are looking at a few more houses,
will let everybody know what I decide, thanks once again for
everybody's input...Rakesh

More input...

I used to live about 400 yards from I-40 in Durham. The noise was
always there and it was louder in the winter and seemingly at night.
It wasn't too bad, but 200 yards closer and you'd definitely notice it
as a constant dull roar.

A few thoughts that I haven't seen:

(1) You'd probably get used to the noise, but you'd always notice it
if you were outside a lot. The noise wasn't as bad when we had woods
between us and the highway. It got much worse when they leveled the
woods for a shopping center and apartment complex.

(2) I currently live in New Jersey, close to NYC, and houses are right
next to highways everywhere. Traffic also tends to move slower
because the roads are smaller, older, and narrower--rush hour is
generally 60-65 mph if it's not crawling. In Durham I-40 moved at 75+
mph at rush hour. That makes a big difference in the tractor-trailer
noise. I suppose Colorado is similar to Durham.

(3) I-40 in Durham was only 2 lanes in each direction when I lived
there. It's being widened now. That would only increase the noise.
That doesn't happen much any more in the northeast but will probably
happen some day where you live.

(4) I was also 400 yards from the I-40 interchange, a nice
convenience. If you're going to live that close to a highway you
might as well get some convenience out of it.

(5) You should definitely get a cut in the housing price. People have
written how houses are next to highways (and railroads) in dense urban
areas and it isn't a disadvantage, but where you are, all someone has
to do is build a new house farther away from the highway.

My advice? If you don't spend much time outside, you absolutely love
the house and will stay in it forever, and get a great deal on the
house, it'll be fine. Otherwise move on.

Dennis

(Dennis Kuo) wrote in message . com...
(Rakesh) wrote in message news:
Thanks everybody for their insight into the issue. I still haven't
decided about it, I gotta tell you, we have looked at a lot of houses,
till now there hasn't been a house in which we felt like we felt in
this house, we(me and my wife) tend to disagree a lot in what we want
in a house ,This was one we both went, what do we do to buy
this(first reaction) we cud have a built a new house,(but its a little
out of our budget right now), i did a lot of reseach, talked to
neighbours around this house(everybody said they are not bothered by
the noise), went at 5 different times of the day(weekend and weekday)
to figure out, howz the noise, weekend is heaven, you can hear the
freaking crickets, the bad time is the rush hour(it's not that bad),
there is a humming sound, anyways we are looking at a few more houses,
will let everybody know what I decide, thanks once again for
everybody's input...Rakesh

More input...

I used to live about 400 yards from I-40 in Durham. The noise was
always there and it was louder in the winter and seemingly at night.
It wasn't too bad, but 200 yards closer and you'd definitely notice it
as a constant dull roar.

A few thoughts that I haven't seen:

(1) You'd probably get used to the noise, but you'd always notice it
if you were outside a lot. The noise wasn't as bad when we had woods
between us and the highway. It got much worse when they leveled the
woods for a shopping center and apartment complex.

(2) I currently live in New Jersey, close to NYC, and houses are right
next to highways everywhere. Traffic also tends to move slower
because the roads are smaller, older, and narrower--rush hour is
generally 60-65 mph if it's not crawling. In Durham I-40 moved at 75+
mph at rush hour. That makes a big difference in the tractor-trailer
noise. I suppose Colorado is similar to Durham.

(3) I-40 in Durham was only 2 lanes in each direction when I lived
there. It's being widened now. That would only increase the noise.
That doesn't happen much any more in the northeast but will probably
happen some day where you live.

(4) I was also 400 yards from the I-40 interchange, a nice
convenience. If you're going to live that close to a highway you
might as well get some convenience out of it.

(5) You should definitely get a cut in the housing price. People have
written how houses are next to highways (and railroads) in dense urban
areas and it isn't a disadvantage, but where you are, all someone has
to do is build a new house farther away from the highway.

My advice? If you don't spend much time outside, you absolutely love
the house and will stay in it forever, and get a great deal on the
house, it'll be fine. Otherwise move on.

Dennis



Houses will too much traffic noise do not retain their value very
well. Unless of course there are a few exceptions where finding a
house for sale is so rare because of the space issue such as Boston,
NYC, and SF.

In article , (Eastward Bound) wrote:

Houses will too much traffic noise do not retain their value very
well. Unless of course there are a few exceptions where finding a
house for sale is so rare because of the space issue such as Boston,
NYC, and SF.

You don't seriously think that the value of the house will go *down*, do you?

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 02:28:45 GMT, someone wrote:

You don't seriously think that the value of the house will go *down*, do you?

Do you seriously think that the value of any particular piece of real
estate can NEVER go down? On average real estate may go up, just like
the stock market over time, but in the period that any one person
could own it, it can indeed go down.

I have purchased several properties for less than the last person
paid; it went down for them.

Of course this would not *only* be because it was 200 yards, or any
other distance, from a highway.

-v.

In article , (v) wrote:
On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 02:28:45 GMT, someone wrote:

You don't seriously think that the value of the house will go *down*, do you?

Do you seriously think that the value of any particular piece of real
estate can NEVER go down? On average real estate may go up, just like
the stock market over time, but in the period that any one person
could own it, it can indeed go down.

Well, of course it could, but the person to whom I was responding appeared to
think that the value would drop for no reason other than its proximity to an
interstate highway -- clearly a ludicrous proposition. If a *new* interstate
is built next to an *existing* home, yes, I can see the property value
declining in reaction to that, but when both the house and the highway have
already been there for some time, it's absurd to think that the value of the
house will decrease just because the highway is there.

Doug Miller wrote:
In article ,
(v) wrote:
On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 02:28:45 GMT, someone wrote:

You don't seriously think that the value of the house will go
*down*, do you?

Do you seriously think that the value of any particular piece of
real
estate can NEVER go down? On average real estate may go up, just
like
the stock market over time, but in the period that any one person
could own it, it can indeed go down.

Well, of course it could, but the person to whom I was responding
appeared to
think that the value would drop for no reason other than its
proximity to an
interstate highway -- clearly a ludicrous proposition. If a *new*
interstate
is built next to an *existing* home, yes, I can see the property
value
declining in reaction to that, but when both the house and the
highway have
already been there for some time, it's absurd to think that the value
of the
house will decrease just because the highway is there.

When I was looking for my house, the way I figured it was that if the
total market went down, a house near the highway would probably go down
even faster. It just seems to make sense. If there are few buyers, the
buyers will pick & choose ... and the last choice would be a house on a
highway if there are ample other options available. In a down market,
such a house would likely languish for months on the market, or require
a major cut in price to move it.

To the OP: if you forsee the possibility of ever having to sell quickly
(for relocation or some other reason) during a potential downturn or
sluggish market, this might be something you should consider.

jen

jen