Pros/Cons of a corner house?

Seems like corner houses have more property but less privacy.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

I have a corner house and love it. We have a bigger lot than most others in our neighborhood. We have a fence so we have plenty of privacy and the side street ends at a park right behind our house.

Cons - high taxes, we have plenty of people parking on the side street cause of the park behidn us.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

We just bought a corner house and other than the fact that we just cut down all of the over grown, scraggly trees, I don't have any issues with privacy. To the back of our property, we have the garage side of the house around the corner and on the street side, I see it as at least its not anther house right there, overlooking our yard. (And on the other side, the house next to us in down a hill, so we look down into their yard, but they cannot see into ours). I was orignally not too interested in a corner property, because most of them seemed to have a lot of side yard, but not a lot of backyard, but the way our house is situated, we have a big back yard without a lot of "wasted" side yard.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

my parents are buying a house on a corner. They like that that house IS visible. To them, it's safer knowing that other people can see the house so it's less likely for something to happen and go unnoticed.

for me, I don't want a corner house because I have kids and I don't want kids that close to the street. I have a fear of a car come crashing through a fence

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

We almost bought a corner lot home.

For this particular corner lot, we had more of a side yard then a backyard which can be seen as a (+) or (-) depending on how you look at it.

The con's I could see is:
- more property = hgher taxes maybe
- more to maintain (shoveling, lawn etc.)

Also, if you're in a village or a "strict" town, you might have more flexability on the fence location and height. The town we were looking in only allowed fences up to 3 Ft. but if you were a corner lot that would be extended to 6 ft if it was used on the side of your property.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

My dh was originally dead set against a corner house, but our house is a corner. It turned out we loved the house, it had an oversized property, and it is on a corner of 2 side streets with lots of mature landscaping (trees, shrubbery, etc.) for privacy. So the fact that it happened to be on a corner didn't dissuade us in the end. All of the must-haves and most of the want-to-haves were there.

A pro is that we don't have a neighbor on the other side of us.

As others have said, a potential con of a corner house is less useable yard space or a bigger side yard than backyard, but that's not always the case. Sometimes you can get the "extra" land on the block when you have the corner house. On our street, most homes are on 60 by 100 lots, but we have a 75 by 100 lot on the corner.

For resale, midblock is considered better. But most of my customers don't care, unless the corner is on a busy road with lots of traffic. I have had some buyers raise a concern about having to shovel snow off of more sidewalk (front and side of house). But really, that didn't factor into my decision when buying. And in my experience, even those buyers who express a preference for a mid-block location will buy a corner house if it has everything they are looking for. It's not the type of thing that's a dealbreaker for most people.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

we live in a corner house... we actually do have a nice size back yard (unlike some corner properties that have mainly a front yard). The only PITA is that there is a lot more grass to mow, and shoveling extra sidewalks.

Message edited 4/30/2012 3:34:24 PM.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

Pros:
One less neighbor

Cons:
People passing by may be able to see into your backyard if you don't have a proper fence.

Also, your house may be where the school bus picks up the kids. So you may end up having kids and parents congregating by your house in the morning while waiting for the bus to come.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

We have a corner lot.
Compared to our neighbors, our property is up to double the size (the avg on my block is probably .25 our is .45). We have plenty of privacy as we have a 6ft fence all the way around. THe only time I see my neighbors is when they are jumping on the trampoline!

The only con for us is that there is more traffic. We dont have on the street parking during the day bc we are near hte schools so there isnt an issue with that, but being by the schools it gets busy during pick up and drop off times.

Other than that I have no cons. Our taxes are right in line with the rest of our block.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

I did not like living on a corner. No privacy, very small backyard, big side yard, and people were constantly walking across my lawn to cut over

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

I like our side yard. It's enclosed by bushes. We have an 80x100 lot which is bigger than most on the block, but yes, the backyard is not big. Really depends on the house. We use our side yard as if it were a back yard. We are not at a busy intersection but there is a bus stop on our corner. Hey, it will make things really easy a few years from now at least!!

When it's windy there's more debris that blows onto our property.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

Posted by CouponKT


for me, I don't want a corner house because I have kids and I don't want kids that close to the street. I have a fear of a car come crashing through a fence

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

My parents and my in laws have corner houses, and as a result have much bigger lots than their neighbors, double driveways, and with fences/landscaping have no privacy issues at all. I would have no problem being in a corner house myself!

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

There are a couple of corner houses in my neighborhood that have less property than middle houses. It depends on how the blocks are carved up. Since the corners get what's left, it's often to their benefit, but if the block isn't a convenient distance, the end may get gypped.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

We have a corner house -
pros - its more private not closed in on both sides, good sized yard and side yard space
cons - noisy, people use our lawn as a cross through (and someone even drove across it a few years ago!)

Overall I like being a corner house. We do not have side walks which I hate but am thankful about when it snows - to shovel a corner property would be a PITA.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

love my corner prop.

pros:
- love the privacy factor form the neighbors. feels more open, and not closed in by houses.

- more space than the average property in my hood.



cons:
- do not like the landscaping maintenance. lots to take care of.

- less privacy from people walking by. we have tall hedges, but we're looking into getting fence.

- and that wind blows all the junk to my back door, including buggers. more about our breezeway probably.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

Grew up in a corner house, i can't say anything positive...i hated having 2 side yards
and not having a backyard like i do now.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

We are on a corner but are set back and have a very big front lawn. We have high PVC fencing around the whole property so privacy isn't an issue. One con is higher taxes! We pay considerably more than our friends 8 houses down who have the same amount of property as us. The kids safety thing is not an issue given the size of our front lawn so taxes is my only complaint

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

We have a corner house

Pros:
- only 1 side neighbor
- our lot is 1.5x size bigger vs. other lots in our area

Cons:
- we have a side street with car traffic (although not load)
- A LOT more snow shoveling and landscaping. We have 2 sidewalks in the result of a corner house.
- We have to get trees for side street privacy from houses on side street looking into my side/backyard


I really like my size yard so those cons are really not enough of a con for me.

Re: Pros/Cons of a corner house?

We own a corner house and I never considered the pros and cons till now. I love our home and have no issues with it at all. Both streets are side neighborhood streets so the traffic flow is about the same. We live in the city of Atlanta so property size is relatively small so our yard is about typical for the area. Along the side we have a fence with huge trees that line it so you can't see into our yard at all. There is more maintenance as far as lanscaping because we have shrubbery and landscaping along the side which adds to the privacy. We also don't have to worry about shoveling here since we are in the south.