[quote author="CK" date=1210132592]This is an interesting question. Thank you, kelela, for the impact of backing to a street on the appraisal. I'm curious if anyone can speak to what sort of offsetting $$ premium might be attached to the larger lots often found backing to major streets? Is it a dollar for dollar offset in value?
It seems in Irvine that you must back to a main artery in order to get a really premium lot where your neighbors can't watch you flipping burgers from their bedroom windows. We are struggling with this question of whether a larger yard and privacy is worth the noise.</blockquote>
For myself, we took our location, because you don't see neighbors when you look out your window, nor do they see. The street is way above us and most sound seems to go over us, so we rarely hear much, even with the windows open.
however, privacy and all that, didn't make one bit of difference to the appraiser. It was an automatic deduction because we lived too close to the street. Even those that backed smaller streets, lost the same amount (our comps). The only ones that didn't lose it, were those that were smack dab in the middle of everyone (aka absolutely no privacy and windows are about 6ft from one another, LOOKING in on one another).
So, IMHO, you'll get privacy, but it'll cost you on an appraisal. I think the amount of sound would make a difference to me. Like I said, I am below a bigger street, we have more privacy, but on a refi, we lost $15k total. But I'm happy with our location because of the privacy.
