[quote=zk]
Well, let’s say you’ve got 6 kids. You want to live in a low-crime area. Let’s say you’re an indoor-type family. You want to live near your work, because traffic is bad. The only house that you can afford near work with enough room for you and your family has a small yard and is near a freeway. The back yard is pretty noisy, but you’ve got double-paned windows, and inside it’s not too bad. I think that many reasonable people in that situation would wisely choose that house because it was the best fit for their priorities.
The pros are enough room for your family and a short commute (more time for your family). The cons are freeway noise and a small back yard.
The house in the quiet neighborhood is similar and priced the same, but could be lacking either square footage or proximity to work. A buyer such as this might wisely and gladly give up quietness and a big back yard for enough room for their family or more time with their family. For them, if time for family and room for family are more important than quietness and yard size, it could very well be the best decision.[/quote]
I tried to make that a more realistic scenario, and in the process I made it too complicated and put in too many factors.
To illustrate my argument (it’s not really my argument, it’s more of a basic real estate concept), probably the simplest example is the best. You have kids and want to live near work so that you have more time to spend with them. All the quiet neighborhoods near your work are too expensive for you. There are a couple streets in one neighborhood that back up to the freeway. It’s noisy, and hence cheaper. You decide to live there because you’re an indoor-type family and the noise doesn’t bother you too much, and it allows you to have a shorter commute and therefore spend more time with your family. The noise bothers you a little, despite your double-paned windows and the fact that you don’t spend much time in your back yard. But you’re willing to make a trade-off. You’ll take that extra noise so that you can spend more time with your family.
Just one of countless scenarios that involve people making trade-offs when selecting a home. Some of them involve freeway noise, and some of them don’t.
