Smart Streets Make Property Values Soar
What makes your home valuable? Not just the location, the paint job, or the condition of the roof. Turns out, according to a new report by Transportation Alternatives, it’s the quality of your street, or rather, the livability of your street, that makes a difference. What makes a street livable? Quietness, for one thing; those…
What makes your home valuable? Not just the location, the paint job, or the condition of the roof. Turns out, according to a new report by Transportation Alternatives, it’s the quality of your street, or rather, the livability of your street, that makes a difference. What makes a street livable? Quietness, for one thing; those with little through traffic saw property values rise nine percent. Every decibel less of noise increases property values by four percent, and traffic calming can increase a home’s value by a third. Basically, the better your street is for walking or biking, the better its chances of appreciating in value. Oh, and nearby gardens help, too. The DOT is working on its own program called Sustainable Streets, to help ease traffic and promote biking and decent bus service. In the meantime, the more you hoof it, the better for everyone.
Streets to Live By [Transportation Alternatives]
Photo by David Stockwell.
schultz – these mosquito’s are infact mutant! they are huge and black & white. they look like those tiger beetles that you see the huge signs about on the subway to look for and report because they destroy trees – they look like they are their cousins.
Dittoburg — I’ve had it mentioned to me that the mosquitoes were never so bad before the spraying for West Nile and that what we have now are the mutant mosquitoes that resulted from the spraying. Anecdotally, it makes sense to me. So careful what you ask for!
bkny – which park?
mosqitos are bad in every back yard during summer months in nyc
someone needs to fake west nile virus so the city sprays again. The spraying really worked well.
everything is quieter in the winter time. we bought in the dead of winter, snow on the ground and the block looked and felt beautiful. eventhough the block is still fairly quiet in summer – there are tons of mosquitos (we are near a park)which drives us nuts! it’s actually so bad we may consider moving if the market ever turns around. it’s that bad – worse than anywhere i have ever lived. we can’t even enjoy our back yard – and I damn sure won’t be mentioning this to a prospective buyer!
Well in this he got the house. And all our driving by paid off!
You have to know what your getting yourself into.
Also, you can ask the selelr and if they are not scum they will at lest hint at the answer. I sold a house that was next to a building with lots of section 8 tennants (no racism intended!) and with round the clock noise (hanging out all night, music blaring, drug buyers in and out, etc). I got two high bids. One asked me (through the agent) if there were any noise issues. I certainly down-played it, but I said that there were on occasion. That bidder pulled out. The other one did not ask and now they own the noisy dump. I wish I had asked before I bought it in the first place.
ClintonHillLady – While your visiting during the day, weekends, nights and other days….someone could buy the place you were so carefully looking into.