A view of I-95
Among the winter leftovers, every year, are nice houses (and not-so-nice houses) that were built close to major highways, like I-95 or I-93 or Route 2 or the Mass Pike. Being near a highway will ding the price of any house. The closer you get, the bigger the ding.
In a down market, these houses get even harder to sell, no matter how nice they are inside. Yet some do sell, and resell. Belmont Hill is an example of this. I haven’t been hunting there this year, but I’ve seen many nice houses very close to Route 2 in that neighborhood. Some of those houses sell for very hefty prices even though the yards have highway noise. The neighboring houses with less noise sell for even more. But, in more ordinary neighborhoods with more ordinary houses, the houses with a view of the highway may end up on the leftover rack.
There are some things that make highway noise less intrusive. I was recently at a house that was close to 1-95. We could see the cars through the trees from the back yard. However, it was much less noisy in this back yard than it was in the street in front of the house. The house had two defenses against the sound: evergreen trees and topography.
Trees muffle noise. Evergreen trees do it all year. Deciduous trees do it part of the year. This house had a line of big, mature fir trees along the edge of the property on the highway side. It made a huge difference compared to other spots on the same street.
The highway was above the house level. There was a valley between the house and the highway, with trees (mostly bare) between. There was a swampy creek in the valley. At this place, the valley helped disperse the sound. However, sometimes the sound is made worse when it goes up or down hills. Are there any sound engineers in the readership that can explain why?
Besides the trees and hills, sound is louder when the roadway is wet. Sound levels can also change depending on the wind direction. So, if you are considering a house near a major road, you need to do your legwork. No examination of topo maps will give you an answer. You have to go there, a couple of times, to listen.
If you choose to buy a house that is close to a major roadway, the discount you get will revisit you as a discount to the next buyer. Is it a compromise you would consider?
