Would you buy a family home on a busy road

[SilverDoublet]

I'm wondering would most people buy a family semi d on a busy road, in a location that is expensive but close to the city, driveway for several cars at the front, but constant traffic doing 30 - 40mph, sometimes backed up in front of the house? My friend thinks it's undesirable but I think the house looks lovely and would be great.

I did, but depends on the busyness of the road, ours is quiet in the evenings when we are home and only really busy at school run and to/from work times.

most cars don't drive at 30 though...

It would totally depend on how big the driveway was and how far back from the road. If it was a case of pavement, small driveway, house then it would be a hard no from me. There are some houses near me however that are:

Busy road, large grass verge, pavement, 20ft tall laurels, driveway for about 6-7 cars, house. That would be fine.

To put some balance we locally have the M3 near us and zillions of houses / flats have been built alongside and all occupied .

No, aside from the danger I wouldn't want to live somewhere my kids couldn't play in the street. We've only lived in cul de sacs and quiet side roads

Why do your kids need to play in the street though? Do you not have a back garden?

Friend lives in a nice semi, lovely back garden, fast A road outside, I find it noisy if I stay over, and getting on/off the drive is an art form. And there’s no visitor parking on the road, it’s a 5 minute walk. She loves it, much nicer house than she could have got otherwise….and she is used to the noise.

another friend bought on a country lane, in theory its quiet as anything, but she has boy racers revving up outside and agricultural machinery going past early doors for harvest…. Can’t win really.

OP please don’t buy the house, I think buying a house near a busy road is the only big regret of my life. I’ve moved since and every day is a blessing.

I live in a maisonette on a busy road with noisy traffic. Sometimes it bothers me more than others, but despite being here over 10 years, I’ve never got “used to it”. We have trains too but they just chug on by with a rhythmic noise. Cars generate a different noise; revving, popping exhausts and blaring music. This is far more disturbing than train noise.

I wouldn’t choose a busy road again.

Why is that such a regret? This house is on a road with a single lane of traffic in each direction, but it's a main route, there won't be buses or big heavy trucks, mainly cars and vans and there are trees along the road. Can you tell me why you didn't like your road? Any insights welcome!

The noise, car lights, pollution and vibration from the vehicles lowered my quality of life.

I lived on a busy road, and would do it again. We got double glazing with one panel thicker than the other that made a big difference to the noise. We also put privacy film on the bottom half of our windows to stop people looking in while waiting for the bus, and shutters at night which kept out the light and noise. We didn’t have pets. It’s not for everyone, as shown by this thread, so houses are cheaper - but might take longer to sell. And as someone mentioned - you always get your road gritted and ploughed.

I wouldn't @SilverDoublet There is currently a beautiful house near me (for sale.) It's 3 storeys high, has a cellar, 3 bathrooms, 7 bedrooms (4 en suite,) 4 reception rooms, a study, a 28 x 24 ft kitchen, a 20 x 20 ft conservatory, 3 acres of land/garden, an orchard, 3 big sheds, a triple garage, and a large (16 x 18 ft) dining room. It's stunning inside. It looks classy, but also quite modern and fresh. It's detatched. Built in the 1790s. It went up for sale in mid April.

Whilst 5 other houses (similar price, similar house,) closeby have sold in the past 6-7 months, this one has been for sale for 7 months. Only had 3 viewings. The price is reasonable too. Problem? It's right on the main road out of the village (and into it,) and it's on a sharp bend, (and tractors and lorries sometimes come through the village on a regular basis.) Also, its front door is approximately 5 feet away from the main footpath, and the pub is 30 seconds walk away. (And the front door is 8 feet away from the main road.)

The family have never had any issues with people knocking at their front door (or front windows) and running off, or people being bothersome after leaving the pub, but I can see how anyone looking at the house/seeing the house may be put off because of this...

Also, another house similar to this is opposite them, on the corner also, and it got hit by a large van the other week, and its front garden wall and gates were wrecked. If the van had been 15 feet further across it would have gone into the actual house. This house also has the front door just 8 feet away from the road/5 feet away from the footpath.

So anyway, tl;dr I would never buy a house on a main road, close to where a main flow of traffic passes through, on a fairly regular basis...

...

We just bought a house on a busy 40 road which was the compromise. Up side was we have big garden, view at the back and neighbours are far away. You get used to the noise, don't even notice it now. We'd never be able to afford a house of this size on a quiet street.

For me it would depend on the age of my children. I wouldn't be able to relax if there was a chance of say a 4 year old opening the door and going into the street. I would be forever worrying if I had put the bolt that's out of their reach across.

If any children were teenagers, I might consider it.

No. Air quality would be an issue, as would noise. If it's a road with speedbumps, that not only makes noise worse but can also impact foundations.

I wouldn’t, personally, but lots of people do!
I wouldn’t like not being able to have fully uncovered windows - needing blinds or (God forbid) net curtains to stop people being able to look in whilst sitting in traffic in their cars.

I’m finding this thread very interesting as I’m going to view a house on Wednesday that is right in the centre of the town that I live in. It is an extremely busy road and when you step outside the front door you are on the public footpath. I don’t have kids though.

It’s all about what is important to you. There’s always a compromise when buying a house unless you have an endless pot of money.
it would out me off, but I live rurally. City folk may think of it as just normal

I wouldn't again. We did, and have lived with it for 20 years, raised our kids here, but I am desperate to move now, just waiting for retirement. I hate the constant traffic noise, not so much when in the house as we have good double glazing, but in the summer, the garden is never peaceful. Also, I have cats. The road has never taken one but no cats homes will rehome to us, simply because of the road.

On the other hand, your house may be affordable to you simply because it is on the road. That was the case for us, so I do understand the draw, but I personally wish we had lowered our sights and gone for a house on a quiet street. I think that would have been healthier and pleasanter all round.

I've not read the full thread but just wanted to say I grew up in a semi on a busy road and it was absolutely fine - we were never broken into, I was able to walk to school/friends houses as there was plenty of passing traffic, no kids playing or loitering out front, no nosy neighbours, good bus services, we had cats who were more savvy to traffic than in a quiet street so didn't get knocked over, good street lighting. I think houses on main roads do have a lot of advantages especially if you want more privacy than being in a cul-de-sac type setting.

We had a house on a pretty busy road, but in London, so while there was a lot of traffic, it wasn't going fast.

The house was set back quite far so we had a driveway with parking for two cars and lots of plantings in the front that gave some privacy. We had good double glazing and a whole house air filtration system plus a/c, and because we did a gut renovation we basically made it so the whole back of the house opened up, As a result, we never opened the front windows. Noise wasn't a huge issue for some reason, although you could hear traffic in the back garden, more so if it was raining.

No cats, kids a bit older, but realistically, you're not opening up your front door and letting them run out of the house anywhere in London, so not really bothered by that. We eventually sold very quickly and easily and got well over the asking price.

Yet we've been very happy on our busy road for 25 years.

As others have said, never get snowed in or trying to drive on ice, people always happy to drop your dc back / pick them up as 'are passing anyway'.
Plus, we could afford a MUCH bigger house, and a house with a huge long garden because it was cheaper, being on a busy road.

OP it sounds - from the size of your drive - you will be a lot further back than we are too.

Like ANY house purchase, you have to weigh up what you can afford, and what is most important about what you get for your money, from the houses available at the time.

OP your house sounds similar to mine. Semi detached. We have slow moving traffic in our road, one lane each way probably max 30mph. We get the occasional lorry, but not noticeable. There are busier and quieter times. It occasionally backs up. We have a front garden and hedge (no drive as it's too steep)
It's not a problem. You don't notice the traffic when inside as the cars aren't whizzing past, and barely hear when in the garden.
To be honest my parents live in a quiet road but you can hear cars from a fast road nearby!

Does the house have everything else you want?
For us we wanted a nice not-overlooked garden and ideally 5 bedrooms. We have a fab view out the back and 5 bedrooms, and had this house been on a quiet cul de sac it would have been out of budget.
Since buying it I've found more perks. Our kids will have full independence as their walk to the park is fully lit, the bus stop is 30 metres away. Our son can walk safely home from school. Neighbours aren't nosy or curtain twitchy.

What jumps out at me from your post is that this isn't something that initially bothered you until a friend commented. I think if this is something that would really bother you, you'd have thought of it straight away.

We live on a farm miles from everything with many acres of land! But when we did live in civilisation, I had a mum friend who lived on a busy road and she could never send her kids out to walk to friends, or go to the shop because it was too dangerous. Whereas we lived in a quiet road that was only really used by residents and visitors, and the kids were safe to cross the street, walk to their friends etc. The kids who lived on busy roads, or further from the school weren't called on to come to play because a parent would have to drop them off. It was the same for my DH in childhood. He lived on a busy road and was completely cut off, no independence because even the pavement was dangerous (narrow, 30mph speed limit not adhered to, difficult to let people pass without having a car zooming past you)

Just a point, not a great big reason to deter you!

I currently live in a small very quiet cul de sac which backs onto the countryside, it’s so peaceful all you can hear are birds twittering which is so lovely, however the small cul de sac is literally full of cars, it’s so depressing when you drive in, it feels like I live in an actual car park. We have recently viewed a lovely house in its own plot with a long gated drive on a main road, I can’t decide what is the better/worst option, all the problems posters have pointed out here compared to living in a car park!