This recently listed Irvine home was, upon first glance, quite intriguing– a 4-bedroom single family residence with a loft and custom spa, newer construction, in the gated community of Harvard Square for under $700,000. The pictures of the home’s interior looked nice as well. Plus, the listing points out, the home has “only one neighbor next door”!
But once I scrolled down and saw the aerial overview of the neighborhood, it became clear just why the home has only one neighbor– it sits right next to the Santa Ana Freeway. The only separation is some overgrown trees and hedges, and a wall. Check it out:
I have long had an aversion to homes built close to freeways, as I have read about the potential health risks associated with living near major highways. Plus, I hate traffic noise or excess noise of any kind, as I am a very light sleeper.
But just driving the freeways of Orange County and seeing thousands of homes clearly visible from the road, it is clear that many people don’t mind the proximity. And in Irvine, homes near freeways command pretty high asking prices, like this University Park fixer listed for $680,000, or this 3-bedroom Oak Creek home asking $749,500.
So today’s question is: would you consider a home that’s close to a freeway? How close is too close? Should such homes be discounted, and if so, by how much?
FWIW, the home at 25 Minnesota has been on the market for 16 days, and the asking price has been knocked down by $30,000 so far.
Props to the Irvine Housing Blog forums for alerting me to this listing.
TAKE THE POLL…
There is a great article on the New York Times site written by Robert Shiller showing how home prices will most likely continue to fall for several years.
You honestly could not pay me to live next to a freeway, or even within several houses of a freeway. There is abundant medical evidence that shows how detrimental this is to your health. Why save a few thousand to live next to the freeway when you’ll more than make up for it in medical bills?
What baffles me is why Irvine, the always vaunted “ultimate planned community”, planned to put houses right next to freeways.
Well, I guess it doesn’t baffle me, really–their profit was more important to them than the livability of a community, or the resident’s health. Have you ever been in any neighborhood in Irvine where you couldn’t hear the roar of traffic?
My little neighborhood in West Irvine, Sheridan, is actually quite quiet as long as you’re not backing up to the major cross streets (Portola and Jamboree). A house came up for sale in our neighborhood at a price we could (almost) afford, but we shied away because it was in very mediocre shape and because it backed up to Portola, and you could hear some traffic noise through the closed bedroom windows. At $680K asking price, I at least want a home that’s quiet.
There are many studies showing that children that live within a few hundred meters of a freeway also do more poorly in school than those than live the next few hundred meters away. They suggest that in addition to the health effects, that there are effects of the noise on concentration.
The good news is that you dont have to live next to a freeway, closed landfill or airport flightpath.There are plenty of good homes coming on the market the next several years,cheap.
I live right off of hwy 14 near the Wisconsin River on 2 acres in my 3 bd 1600 sq foot home that is 7 years old that I bought for $155K.
the noise doesn’t bother me half as much as the bi lingual checkout the last time I shopped at Lowes before leaving California.
don
I don’t understand why the zoning laws allow such dense development that results in homes right next to the freeway. There’s no much open property in California that the homes should be required to be spread out a little more. It creates such population density that the roads can’t handle the traffic, not to mention how undesirable it is to have homes within 10 to 15 feet of their neighbor, or this close to a freeway. I grew up in a waterfront community that only allowed the foundation of the home to occupy 40 percent of the lot, and the houses had to be a minimum distance from the property line. Although the costs were as high as they are here in OC, the community was much more appealing and there wasn’t so much stress on all the public services. It’s criminal the way they let developers rape the community in the name of making a few more bucks.
For those that think the property would be too expensive, it wouldn’t. The builders can only charge what the market will bear, and there would be many more nice places to live in OC.
As for the house that was listed, I wouldn’t be a player for anything close to 200K. It’s a postage-stamp lot with a medium-sized house that is backed right up to the freeway. I’ll never say never, but you know the old saying, “location, location, location.” About the only thing less desirable than this location would be to have a home downwind of a sewage treatment plant. It would have to be REALLY cheap. I would be SHOCKED to see this house sell for even close to half of its listed price. There’s always some sucker that buys houses like this eventually, but given the current market and suckers notwithstanding, I would be surprised to learn that a “mysterious fire” broke out in this home when the owner realizes that insurance fraud is going to be the best offer they’re going to get.
The proximity definitely does devalue the property. Smog is bad enough but to live next to a freeway is insane.
My home in the City of Orange backs up to Glassell (near Lincoln). Over my fence is the street and it can get VERY noisy during the week. The weekend, thankfully, is pretty quiet.
I cannot imagine a FREEWAY over the fence. No way would I buy a house next to a freeway … and I wouldn’t buy a house next to a major street again either.
Little Guy must be monolingual. LOL
..I was recently at a friends house in Yorba Linda, NEW construction.. They are off of Bastenchury, and when we were playing Flip-Cup in the garage, someone noticed a sign that read “vapor barrier, no not disturb or drill into slab”… my buddy had no idea this was because he was on a landfill and the methane leaking out could come into his house…. ahhh, good ol’ homes for 1.2 million in YL on a dump.
I want to know who’s buying those homes in Santa Ana that back right up to the 5 freeway. I’ve never been in a home there but I have a hard time believing a house right next to the freeway and in Santa Ana should be worth the “low $1 millions” or whatever it is they’re advertising.
exactly. those are in a horrible location. i just spent a little over 400K on an ocean view house in san clemente. the 5 freeway is about half a mile away.
Realistic sized cars powered by electricity running not over 45 mph, then I will live by the freeway. Or if the price is good enough after I install a bedroom anechoic chamber.
Nellie Gail has nothing under $1M.
25022 buckboard Ln, 5 bed, 4 bath (Nellie Gail Ranch - 827k list price (56 dom)
25952 Sherrif Rd, 4 bed, 3 bath (Nellie Gail) - 899k list price (180 dom)
26122 Spur Branch Ln, 5 bed, 3 bath (Nellie Gail) - 999k list price (58 dom)
27151 Westridge Ln (Pending Sale), 4 bed, 4.5 bath (Nellie Gail) - 995k list
3 Active listings and one pending sale.
I guess it depends on your definition of “nothing”.