I grew up in a very very loud city so I’m not at all bothered by being relatively close to the highway. I do know though that proximity to the highway affects resale value/ability. How do I know that a specific house is close enough to the highway that it will drive its resale value down?
Can you hear and/or see it? If so, you’re too close.
Also, will you inhale any of the exhaust, even if you can’t detect it. That’s a quick trip to cancer world.
Do people just buy houses to live in anymore? Every post is about ‘resale value’ like it’s an investment.
Well an entire generation became wealthy off homeownership so that’s how it’s viewed now. Unfortunately that ship has likely sailed.
For me personally as a buyer, anything within a mile was too close because I could hear it just being outside, and I didn’t want that. It will probably depend on where you are and how many options there are for housing.
My 77yo ears can.
I lived in the suburbs. A mile from the highway, 2 miles from train tracks. At night in the summer, with the windows open, I could clearly hear the sound of the highway. Tires on the concrete made a constant white noise sound, and the engine breaking of trucks would stand out also.
If you can hear it or see it, it’s too close.
Just look up comps that are in the same neighborhood and same proximity to the highway.
You compare sales prices of houses close to the highway vs houses a few streets over. You make adjustments for like for like, and if the average of one set of houses is $100k and the average of the other houses is $200k, you can see a difference in what the value of quiet is to people.
You can look up the FHWA or FTA noise modeling manuals to get a rough estimate of how much noise your specific location receives. It all depends on the amount of traffic, type of traffic (cars, trucks, trains, etc.), distance between noise producer and receiver, and obstructions.
I’d be more worried about your health than resale value. Developmental effects in children: Air pollution can impair lung development and cognitive function in children.
Being close to the freeway is awesome for the commute.
We had road noise on one side of the house from a hill that was over a mile away. We installed a pond with a waterfall on that side of the house, and dual pane patio doors. Problem solved. Our garbage collection was at 6 AM which was worse.