We liked a SFH house on a relatively busy 2 lane street in Sunnyvale. Everything else looks good .
Wondering whether to make the compromise on this one thing as inner streets in that neighbourhood are worth 200k more and not in our budget.This is not an investment property , we plan to live there .
No!!!
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+one
BIG NO !
$200k lower is a no? Explain, please. Mary ave houses sell fast.
I agree. People who said no might have already have a house or have the budget to choose.
You need to give some alternatives to solicit opinions.
Is it buy this house or keep renting? or a 3 story town home with $500 HOA? or in a much less desirable city with 1hr commute each way?
I’ll choose a busy street vs a 1 hr commute each way for example.
Also what is the base price? is it 1.4M vs 1.6M ? or 750k vs 950k?
There are quality of life which you can not match with money.
In Mary ave, everyday backup the car is an issue. How many times wait and struggle, sometimes hit by car, insurance claim and hours.
Think of a situation, children coming on road and accidents if any. You can not match it with Money. When such issues, they won’t even care 1 M at that time!
It is not worth $200k, just pass it and go next.
Mary ave may sell fast. The new owner will again put it up on sale soon or live with such issues.
To me, busy road is BIG NO. You can not change location, but you can change the home.
I would prefer a home like this than busy road (some 100k work is there)
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sunnyvale/359-Stowell-Ave-94085/home/1115014
This one is sold before open house (only one open house was there) in few days of listing !
This is the latest deal I saw !
Price is ~ 1.5 so going 200-250k more is really not an option.
Compromise
. not consider schools , use private school for single kid. But schools also indicate that neighborhood is good and safe.
.got to los gatos, everygreen and live with 1 hour commute , not a personal preference.
That’s definitely majority’s preference.
But there are always tradeoffs to be made.
Otherwise every busy street will be vacant?
What if you have a family size of 6? You can’t live in that 2/1br home without major rebuild.
All else being equal, (and assuming a big huge base price of 1.4m+), I would prefer the non busy street. But it’s still a moot point because what if I just cannot borrow enough or can’t downsize to a smaller house?
OP: what’s the sq footage you’re looking at?
can downsize to a smaller house? Or a fixer upper?
What happened to the Golden Rule of Real Estate? Location, location, location…
Remember the poster who had the issue with noisy street traffic? I don’t want to hear cars whizzing by all the time!!!
And let’s not forget if you have children. Are they going to be safe playing in the yard or street? Come on now, at some point money is not the most important thing.
Everything is a trade-off but I just don’t see this type of situation ever changing (so this wart if you will, will always hamper appreciation rate of the house) when you could have easily looked elsewhere and be more happy and safer.
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Is the street one lane each way? Or 2 each way?
One lane each way
How much traffic can a small street really have? Does it have traffic lights? Stop signs?
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1159 Hollenbeck Ave, 1605 sqft, 4/2, asking $1.468 mil.
1431 Hollenbeck Ave, 1908 sqft, 3/3, asking $1.498 mil.
manch asked the right question, busy is a relative term!
there’re very few Cul-de-Sac in sunset for example, so technically it’s hard to find a quiet street there. everything is relative.
is there online tools to look up traffic average by the hours?
like how many cars pass by a street from 10pm til 6?
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This golden rule remains for centuries, will not go away.
If the road is like Hollenbeck Ave, avoid it. If you have children or going to have children avoid high speed road.
If you are near by Sunnyvale or mountain view, ever green is horrible commute. Los gatos too commute.
Better to go near Los altos (expensive) or Santa Clara or Redwood city Emerald hills or Campbell (if apple employed)
May we know which city your company located?
You can even consider this than busy street. This is excellent choice and be ready for high competition !
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sunnyvale/1361-La-Bella-Ave-94087/home/1355130
Less expensive option is
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Campbell/327-Cloverdale-Ln-95008/home/1658494
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Dang, @Jil, you know Sunnyvale and the South Bay in general like the back of your hand. Next time I am looking for a property down there, I don’t need a realtor’s perspective, I will just PM you…
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If you are doing private school, then do you have other possibilities in your price range that are simply in a different neighborhood? I’ve found that some very nice neighborhoods near me have crappy schools, but that doesn’t make them unsafe, since a lot of the students are from other parts of town.
I think the busy street is a noise/safety thing. Personally I do not like either noise or busy streets. On the other hand, some people need noise to sleep. For them it might be a good thing. I would also look at how easy/safe it is to pull in/out of your driveway.
An often overlooked but very important point, @Terri. You couldn’t give me a house on 19th Ave in SF Sunset…
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I saw the result of rear-end of 2 cars on Jefferson in RWC. Front wehicle (if my eyes and memory still intact - it was Prius) got kissed in rear bumper by another car. This poor Prius flew into frontyard of the hous. Intrestingly the front yard served as playgroung for kids. Thanks whoever (god or chance) no kids were there during accident.
There are many more cars will be. Streets are not getting wider and safer.
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