We did it. We got a much nicer house for the money. Good school district, close to the metro.

We are set back so the noise is not too bad. You totally get used to it. We have storm windows so inside it is barely noticeable.

There is zero crime. Last night I accidentally left my wallet on the car dashboard, unlocked, with $600 in it. It was still there this morning. Other houses (in a safe neighborhood) have been burgled, but not ours.

Safety was never an issue. It is a busy road, you would never try to play ball in it! There was never any chance of my kids running out into it.

In short, it was a compromise, but one that worked for us. I also grew up on a busy street and it never bothered me then.

The appraiser on our house docked us for living on a “busy” road, but we love it. We’re in the suburbs, so our street is only really busy during the weekdays during commute times, otherwise the evenings and weekends are really quiet. Everything is walkable from the house — grocery stories, parks, community center, library, restaurants, coffee shops. I commented that if we lived a block farther, we likely wouldn’t walk to these amenities. Plus, everyone walks by our house so it’s very social to chat with the neighbors. We have young kids and they know rules about not going to the road.

This is definitely a dealbreaker for me.
If I couldn’t afford a SFH unless it was on a busy road, I’d move to a townhouse on a quiet street. If the only TH I could afford was o. A busy road, I’d move to an apartment. And so on and so forth until I got to a trailer in WV.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you lived on a busy road, does your mind start to tune out the noise?

Does road traffic wake you up in the middle of the night?

I lived on a busy road as a renter, and I was surprised at how quickly I got used to the noise. After the first few days, road noise did not wake me up at night.

I’m not on a super busy road, it’s just two lanes and a double yellow line. There are rarely cars passing in the middle of the night. Most of the traffic is during rush hour and I’m in the back of the house working at that time so I don’t hear it. I honestly only mind the cars when I’m outside. You’re going to laugh, but with good insulated windows they almost sound like an ocean tide to me from inside.

No, doesn’t wake me up.

We bought on a double yellow two lane street. It was 200k less than other comparable houses in this very sought after neighborhood, which made it doable for us. We added new windows and a fence for the kids and it’s been fine. Not my preference for sure, but we’d be in something much smaller or in a neighborhood that’s not quite as nice otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:If you lived on a busy road, does your mind start to tune out the noise?

Does road traffic wake you up in the middle of the night?

I lived on a busy road as a renter, and I was surprised at how quickly I got used to the noise. After the first few days, road noise did not wake me up at night.

Anonymous wrote:I'm interested to hear as well. I specifically avoided anything even remotely close to a busy road. What if kids or pets got loose? Not to mention noise & other disturbances.

Squish.

One advantage is not having to crawl through school zones twice a day.

Anonymous wrote:
Part of it for me is how people drive. In the US, our roads are designed to move traffic along, rather than to protect pedestrian safety. Also, there are a lot of bad and rude drivers who like to honk at the slightest thing, or speed without regard to safety or the neighbors.

If drivers were more pedestrian-friendly and if drivers were more considerate, I might have considered it.

omg, have you ever been abroad? americans are the most docile drivers ever.