Dilemma - perfect house, but on a busy road

[JenL]

Wondering if anyone could offer their advice? We've just seen a beautiful house, basically perfect but it's situated on an "A road" so there's constant traffic. It is however, set back and screened by trees, and any road noise is pretty much inaudible from the inside. However, the garden is fairly noisy, so much so, that I doubt I'd ever enjoy sitting outside, BUT there is a gate from the back garden which leads to a communal meadow/field.
I know buying a house is all about compromise. This particular house is on at a great price, walking distance from the train station for DH and within catchment area of an outstanding primary for DD - am I just being overly fussy?? We've just spent 8 months trying to offload a difficult flat and I'm terrified of making another similar mistake again!

We live on an A road going out of a market town. We couldn't have afforded our house if it were just one road back as our 'suburb' of the town is probably the most desirable part of town to live. So we'd rather have our detached house with driveway on a-road in nice area, than terraced / on street parking away from a-road in not so desirable area. It all depends on personal preference I guess.

We didnt even consider the road when we purchased the house 9 years ago (not even married then, let alone thinking about kids), but now we have children we do sometimes worry about them running out into the road. However, we have a driveway with gates, we're in a 30 limit, and we're lucky that our A-road is, literally, the road to no-where (the wilds of the west country), so whilst there is a steady flow of traffic at rush hour, its fairly quiet rest of the time & pretty much dead at night.

To be honest, one of my friends lives on a road directly behind us (residential street), and she says the speed at which the cars shoot down her road (its a cul-de-sac) is really scary. And because they're residential, they have a false assumption that its safer than the main road. Our kids have had road safety drummed into them from a very young age.

OUr neighbours put their house on the market last year and sold within 3 weeks, so the a-road was certainly not an issue for them.

Re: road noise in the house, we have secondary glazing at the front (big bay window), and we do hear traffic noise from the back garden, but I find it rather reassuring! (grew up in a tiny village with only the sounds of tractors / cockerels / cows moo-ing and, to be honest, often felt totally isolated). Perhaps I'm just a townie girl at heart!

Anyway, waffly post, but I wouldnt let an a-road totally rule out a house purchase, there will always be someone who wants to buy a nicer house on a busy road than a less nice house on a quieter road (if you see what I mean?!)

We are renting a house a couple of houses down from the end of the street and at the end is a busy road. I don't think it's even as big as a B road but it's so busy. From about 6am to 9am and from 4pm til my brain explodes. If you have a TV on in the front of the house, you miss the words every time a car passes on the main road. It sounds like the traffic is passing my house but it is actually going along the main road.

The windows are part double glazed, part single glazed. I expect full dg would help. But then there's all the times you want the windows open. So personally I wouldn't buy a house if I thought there was going to be that much traffic noise.

I'd never buy a house on a busy road and have discounted houses that back onto roads that many would not describe as busy but have a bit of bus traffic etc. There is a reason why houses on busy roads are cheaper - I would buy a smaller house in a better location.

I think it's a big issue when DCs are old enough to want to visit their friends. My friend's DD (10) has to take her phone and call her mum from the other side of the road opposite the house and she has to come and see her over, every time she wants to go anywhere by herself. It's a 30 limit but this is not respected by all drivers and it is a very busy road.

I think it depends on how busy the road is and where it is. Are there are traffic lights or junctions where you'll get traffic slowing up and then pulling away again? Also if its single or dual carriageway. We've been on an A road for 30 years and the noise is there a lot of the time during the day but at night it's pretty quiet and we regularly sit outside in the evening and listen to the church clock striking and have the windows open if its hot. For us the traffic is there and gone, and I'd rather have the noise of traffic than noisy neighbours!

Also, the other thing is pulling on and off your drive or parking. It's awful. The bastards don't give an inch when you are trying to park. We get flashed pipped, hooted etc, just for trying to pull out.

Having lived on a busy street for 45 years now, I can truly say that the last time I felt any concern about living on a busy street was 45 years ago. When it snows we get priority plowing. There is always eyes on the place, essentially no burglaries in comparison to houses on the next block in either direction. Most burglaries occur during the day when people are at work, so the street is busy when we need it to be. Home insurance should be giving me a break, accordingly. No dog shit on my lawn as on other streets, either. Barking dogs at night are too far away to bother me. I figure if I lived on a beach, I probably wouldn't hear the ocean after a week, either. We are close to downtown so after the commuters go home, the suburbs are grid-locked and my street is quiet. We have a nice big covered porch that faces the street and we often host weekend breakfasts there just for the fresh air. We have a fenced front yard. I can truly say I am glad I didn't let my imagination overrule my lack of busy street living experience when I bought. If I ever move, I want another busy street. I have alley access to parking in the rear.

I once had a rental house that when I would go over to work on it, it dawned on me one day I was hearing, inside my property, the neighbor's vacuum cleaner running because there was no "white noise" covering it over. How do people put up with that?!!! I guess if I wanted to hear my neighbor's arguments, I could move to a burglary-prone street.

As for selling when the day comes, you will need a salesman, not just a form-filling order-taker for an agent. They should have a big network of buyer's agents and they need to educate on the advantages. You could have a problem with the wrong agent.

Worth remembering that it will only be a decade before electric vehicles are more common and road noise will start to calm

this thread is literally more than a decade old.

I wouldn't buy a property on an A road, re- sell will be a pig.

Just stretch the budget a bit further (as you mention is possible), and buy on a quieter street or undoubtedly you will be wanting to move again in a few years because you will have house envy for all the people you know living in nice, quiet streets.

Kinda wanna know where/if OP moved to now! @JenL - update??

Mortgages and borrowing have never been cheaper. I’d see it as an investment to borrow a bit in order to get a house away from a main road, the pollution etc etc

Obviously it depends on your circumstances but at 52 we went from mortgage free to a £250k mortgage in order to buy a £500k house. It’s perfectly managed debt and we’ll have paid it off in 10 years.

Oh bugger…zombie

Same here.

We are slightly set back and there's lots of garden at the side of the road with tall hedges and trees and fields to the back, but it's a busy road.

I thought it would bother me but I switch off from it. Often don't 'hear' it. I previously lived under Manchester Airport flight path so this is quieter!

I've found several houses like this during my house hunting, and visited a few. In the area I've been looking at, it appears an A-road has expanded into a motorway over the past 20 years, and homes that were in quiet rural locations now have an artery road out the back. One house had a motorway, trainline, busy a-road and local airport making sort of a box around it, and even on a lazy Sunday afternoon it was very noisy.

We want somewhere rural without the noise, so have not pursued any of these homes. They have all been on the market for ages, too, which is a shame for the owners - they all seem to be exclusively owned by older people who need to downsize.

Location all the way.

I know it's a zombie thread, but actually rather relevant to many.

The area I've been looking there is one particular town I would love to buy in, but there are 4 really nice houses up for sale that are right next to the big A road through the town. And I know how busy and noisy it is. They are all sitting unbought, prices have been reduced several times already, and it's a really, really popular town where property gets snapped up so quickly normally.

I'd rather have a less nice house in a quieter estate than next to a main road with all the noise and pollution.

Same @WineAcademy , I feel sorry for these people as when they bought the road was probably much quieter. But equally they need to understand that money talks and they need to slash their asking prices if they really do want to move!

If you want to know what it is like to live on a busy street you are interested in, why don't you just knock on some doors, introduce yourself, tell them you are interested in being a neighbor, but have concerns about what it is like to live with the traffic and whatever else you are imagining? They've got no reason to lie to you, and it sure beats having false stereotypes reinforced by people who are only giving you what they imagine because they have no experience with what they are talking about.

It doesn’t bother me to be honest. We live in a nice house on a busy road as we couldn’t afford the nice house in the estate. The garden is around 50m long and put back so you can’t really hear the road. It’s only very busy peak times at school run and rush hour then it’s just a slow hum.

Also I’m finding more people around here are getting electric cars so there’s less noise with them and after covid there’s generally a lot less travel anyway.

Bonuses are it’s really easy for transport links. When it snows we can always get home very easily and get back out. Easy to access buses, trains and local shops and things.
Also our house is the easily accessible one straight off the school bus so tends to be where friends congregate

If it's just a garden noise problem then I wouldn't be bothered.

Another who doesn't mind a busy road. You get more house for your money and nowadays can get specialist windows to virtually reduce all noise even from a very busy road. Plus electric cars are the way forward so will substantially reduce pollution and noise in the future. We are 5 minutes from the tube and 5 minutes from a host of restaurants and coffee shops. So swings and roundabouts.

I wouldn’t mind a busy road as long as the house is set back, has decent frontage and the house has double glazing.
Definitely not a dealbreaker for me

You’ve made the right decision to discount it. I bought a house exactly like that, it was more than we would have got for our money else where. Never ever again if we can help it. You can’t open your windows in the summer, because of the noise, the pollution turns everything black and sooty, it’s just an over all ball ache and not worth it,

@Bluntness100

You’ve made the right decision to discount it. I bought a house exactly like that, it was more than we would have got for our money else where. Never ever again if we can help it. You can’t open your windows in the summer, because of the noise, the pollution turns everything black and sooty, it’s just an over all ball ache and not worth it,

Was it directly on the road or set back from it?