# Should I buy this house or not ??



## wlandlord (Apr 18, 2016)

Hi,

The house itself is very good and we like it very much. However, its front side with 2 bedrooms faces a busy local road with heavy traffic (about 5 vehicles passing by per minute), but its rear side with other 2 bedrooms faces a beautiful forest.

Should we buy it or not?? It's so difficult to make the decision. We are perplexed by the situation.

Please help! Thank you!


----------



## OnlyMyOpinion (Sep 1, 2013)

Welcome to CMF.

But really, how can anyone here provide a knowledgeable opinion about this?

What does your significant other think? Will the front bedrooms be used for sleeping or some other purpose (office, craft room...)? Can you see yourself 'stuck' living there for at least the next 10 years? etc. etc.

What I would say is that if you have doubts sufficient to mention the traffic noise and to want to solicit opinions here, this may be sign that you should continue looking.


----------



## wlandlord (Apr 18, 2016)

Hi, Thank you for your reply! 

More info: Two bedrooms will be enough for us when the child goes to college 3 years later. We would like to live here for at least 10 years if purchased. Noise pollution is not the major concern since the traffic during the night is Ok. Air pollution is the major concern. I've done some online researches and found houses near busy roads suffer severe air pollution that could cause various health issues to people living there.

Regards,


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Have you tried talking with any of the neighbours? Maybe you could ask them how they feel about the traffic.

Also, what's the hurry to buy? Why not keep looking for one that doesn't have any concerns?


----------



## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

I'd keep looking around. Doesn't sound ideal. It's nice to go home and have it quiet. I wouldn't want to smell all that exhaust either.

ltr


----------



## hfp75 (Mar 15, 2018)

I hate busy roads.... no one with kids will/should buy a house on a busy street....


----------



## *PetePerfectMan* (Jan 24, 2019)

wlandlord said:


> Hi,
> 
> The house itself is very good and we like it very much. However, its front side with 2 bedrooms faces a busy local road with heavy traffic (about 5 vehicles passing by per minute), but its rear side with other 2 bedrooms faces a beautiful forest.
> 
> ...


If this is the case, look for another house that is more convenient with your family.


----------



## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

What does a 'busy local road' actually mean other than 5 vehicles per minute?

We live in the first house outside the town boundary. A town of around 3000 people. It is the main road through town and after passing us, heads on a couple of miles to the 401. So obviously, it is as busy as it gets in our town as far as passing traffic. But it still gets far less traffic than if we lived on say Queen Street in Toronto. Even normal residential streets in a city probably get as much traffic in a day as we do.

What we do have however is a house that is set back around 50 feet from the road and a raised berm with trees and bushes on it along the front of our property. Those two factors certainly cut down on noise from the road. If the house you are looking at on the other hand has old Victorian single pane windows or something and stands 10 feeet from the street, then that is a different story.

As for air pollution, do you seriously think that we are likely to get more than someone living in a city, regardless of how busy a street they live on? I think not.

So from my perspective, you haven't given enough info for anyone to provide a reasonably informed opinion on. If it were our house you were looking at buying, I would say stop worrying out something that only exists in your head. If it were a house on Queen Street in Toronto, OK, it may be worth thinking about.


----------



## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

I see the matter as entirely subjective. Some people could care less about nearby traffic, others will get used to it, and for others it will drive them nuts. Some will be concerned about resale. If they are worried about traffic, then other future purchasers might also worry.

For me, I am sensitive to noise in my living environment. That, in part, explains we we live on remote oceanfront acreage. A few boats go by every day, at a distance. We are on a flight path to nowhere, so few aircraft come near us.

Way back, I bought a triplex on East 12th Avenue in Vancouver, near Fraser. Vancouver people will know that a main drag E. 12th is. I could not live there. At least not as an owner. The seller's real estate agent sought to encourage me by saying "tenants don't care about traffic". He was right. It was easy to rent the suites. I myself rented a house when I was in university. It was on a very busy street. I was there for 3 years and it was okay. It was not my first choice of locale, but I accepted it. I would not have been so accepting as owner/occupier.

Some years later, we bought a house on Adera St. in Vancouver. Around W. 49th. Area known as South Granville. The next street east was Churchill, then super busy Granville St. We were on the west side of Adera, so I thought when we purchased that we had a pretty good buffer between us and Granville. I reckoned that Adera St. was about 30 feet wide, then there was the depth of 2 lots before you got to Churchill, each lot being about 140 feet deep, then Churchill St. itself, then the lot on the east side of Churchill, then the lot on the west side of Granville, and finally Granville. So, all in all I figured we had about 620 feet and a bunch of houses between us and Granville. 

What we discovered was that, during the day, with general ambient noise, etc., traffic on Granville went unnoticed. But at night - especially rainy nights - we could hear the pssss, pssss, pssss of car tires on Granville. Not real loud, but definitely there. Again, for some, they would probably not notice. Then, after a couple of years, YVR announced plans to build a third runway, said to be a mile closer to Vancouver. Sitting on our back deck we could already hear the heavy jets as they landed and took off a few miles away. We were not consoled by the claim that the new runway would be for landings only. That operation is not exactly noiseless, except perhaps in the case of the Gimli Glider. So we sold and moved north about 20 blocks, just over the ridge, getting us off what the locals call the "south slope". Much better.


----------



## emperor (Jul 24, 2011)

I'd suggest looking up sound proofing on Youtube. There is window covers and a bunch of other things you can do. Check out this video might give some ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UcgIJ5Qde8


----------



## wlandlord (Apr 18, 2016)

I had some problems to post here yesterday. Sorry about the delayed reply. Thanks everyone for your valuable comments and advices!

I went to view the house today the third time. Here are what I checked and confirmed: Traffic noises can be heard from the two front bedrooms, but not from the rear bedrooms, at least in the early evenings. Two negative facts make us make our mind not to buy the house: (1) the traffic noises can be heard in the family and dining areas. This is something we cannot tolerate. (2) The land of woods in the rear is owned by a private party, not the local government. That means new construction can be on the way at any time, then the forest will be gone.

You can find these topics online: Living near a busy road may raise risk of dementia, Living next to a busy road is as passive smoking 10 cigarettes a day, Living Near Highways and Air Pollution, (Adults living closer to the road—within 300 meters—may risk dementia. In 2017, a study of residents of Ontario, Canada, found that those who lived close to heavy traffic had a higher risk of dementia, although not for Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis. Researchers found the strongest association among those who lived closest to the roads (less than 50 meters), who had never moved and who lived in major cities.6 A study of older men in 2011 also found that long-term exposure to traffic pollution increased their risk of having poor cognition.)

We like the house itself indeed but have to let it go finally due to its bad location (location, location). There are some real mansions along the sides of the road. It is interesting to know how these local rich families living in such a heavy polluted environment.


----------

