To buy a house so close to a motorway

[fabulousfailure]

Just this really. A lovely house has come on the market. We put an offer in which was accepted, now having second thoughts.

The issue is, it's really quite close to a major motorway. As in, 3 or 4 houses beyond ours, then a decent fence which is the motorway edge.

You can hear it, it's a bit like white noise, there all the time. I don't know whether we'd get used to it and just not notice it over time, or conversely whether it would become an ongoing irritant.

And then I've started to read up on air pollution. Forgive me but I knew little about this until now. What I'm reading sounds really scary. If you live within 150m or so of a road like this, it sounds like there are all sorts of health risks. Not just for us as adults like dementia, but also our children and potentially lifelong.

On the flipside, clearly lots of people live there now, and across the country so many people live near roads like this and in cities. Am i being really over anxious through Google groups this stuff?

YABU = it's not that bad, you can get used to it
YANBU = these are valid concerns, it is reasonable to hesitate in this situation

We live about a mile from the motorway but couldn't open the windows at night in the heatwave last year as our son is sensitive to noise and there was still too much.

I wouldn’t do it. I’m sensitive to noise.

We’re in a rental at the moment due to relocation from small town living on outskirts near quiet roads, to an urbanised valley 100 mtrs from a busy dual carriageway. The noise isn’t too bad but the black dust that accumulates is. I’ve been constantly bunged up each morning since we moved in. Haven’t completed on our old house yet so when I go back for weekends etc my nose is instantly clear.

cant wait for sale to complete and find somewhere further up the hill away from the dual carriageway.

I got all the way through to day of exchange on a house, then pulled out for this reason. I've ended up in a smaller house but definitely the right one. No regrets.

Just realised this was my own post, an old thread! I didn't go through with it.

Aww, my family home was near a motorway. And an airport!
I remember taking wee study breaks and gazing out the window at the motorway traffic, wondering where everyone was driving to.
I know it sounds crazy, but to me it was really comforting!
If you love the house then do go for it.

Oh, that was pointless 😂

Poor vendors though 😳

There's a special place in hell for people that pull out at the point of exchange.

Yes, why on Earth did you do that, OP?

Why on earth did you wait until the day of exchange?

There are people who go through life utterly oblivious to the havoc they cause. I was once at the bottom of the property chain from hell. Above me were my vendors, their vendor and then the vendors at the top of the chain.

I sold my property, moved in with relatives and put my furniture and white goods into storage. The chain above me took several weeks to form, then there was a problem. The vendors at the top of the chain hadn't got probate before putting their property on the market and it took more than eight months to get it sorted.

My sellers and I were extremely keen to complete as our (second) mortgage offers were about to expire and interest rates had shot up in the meantime. Then, one of the estate agents got a call from the vendors at the top of the chain. They were taking their property off the market as they'd decided to sell it to their son instead! They were so lacking in self-awareness, that one of them said to the estate agent, "you don't sound very happy with our decision!"

The chain collapsed. I eventually bought the same property, but my vendors found a new one and started the process from scratch. We both had to wait several more months and accept new mortgage offers with much higher interest rates (my original offer - 1.62%, second offer - 1.79%, third offer - 3.8%) Aside from the storage costs, the vendors at the top of the chain have cost me extra money every month for at least five years! I don't think they even know, much less care.

Even with electric cars noise will be the same - maybe worse as they’re heavier and still there’s the particle pollution from braking, tyres so it’s pretty irrelevant.