Corner Lot - Yes or No?

[meliss8599]

Thanks for all the replies. Corner lots in our suburb definitely do not have large yards, so it seems that, aside from that, many agree with me in that corner lots have more negatives than positives.

 

[aristocatz]

We live on a corner lot. We were against buying one at first, because other corner lots that we saw looked like they had no privacy.

We love ours though. It seems like we actually have more privacy, because the next house is around the corner, a bit of distance from ours, so it is almost like only having one next door neighbor instead of two. The openness of the corner on ours has stuff strategically situated around it so it does not feel open at all. With our house, it's trees and a shed that are situated at the corner. We have a decent sized backyard that is, again, surrounded by trees so it makes it more private and closed in.

It really depends on which corner lot you come across. As mentioned, we looked at several that we did not like because they did not feel private. The one we chose feels very private, so we went with it.

 

[NewRVLady]

I live on a one street subdivision with little traffic and no bus stop
The back 1/3 of our lot is all open-the kids always had a tag football game or hitting baseballs...now we have a huge veggie garden
I love my side yard and all the privacy it gives us-not having a neighbor there is a big plus
also because the driveway is on the side we have a 3 car garage-one separate garage is for our boat
would not have that if we had a middle lot

 

[disykat]

I also think it depends on the house.

When we lived in the house on a corner, it had shrubery all along one side and it was a pretty quiet side steet - so it was no big deal. Added privacy really. That said, the majority of our lawn was in the front and on the side. We called our backyard "the courtyard" and it was actually quite charming. More like a large patio with the house sort of wrapped around it than anything else.

I really didn't mind the yard at all. What I did mind was that if the living room and dining room curtains were open it felt like people got a direct look inside as they were turning the corner.

 

[Disneychick75]

We live on a corner and love it. Our lot is as large as any of the others about 1/3 acre. In our area and in others we've lived in, corner lots were the most expensive, not the cheapest.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

We lived on a corner. We had a much bigger yard as a result and fewer neighbors. But it meant the master bedroom faced a street and the traffic noise was annoying.

 

[North of Mouse]

We're looking to move and I've been against anything on a corner lot because it usually means a small/nonexistent yard, more sidewalk & parkway to shovel/maintain, and more foot traffic and people looking in more exposed windows as they walk or drive by. Other than being cheaper, I can't think of any pros of living on a corner.

If you live or have lived on a corner lot, can you tell me the pros and cons?

No way would I ever live on a corner lot! Most for the reasons you mentioned above. Also, I do 'not' want to hear traffic starting and stopping all hours of the day/night. I also value my privacy and don't want people walking on a sidewalk half way round my home/yard.

 

[tvguy]

Corner lots are premium in the suburbs!

It meant our garage could be put on back of house and driveway on side street
That way my whole front lawn view of my house is pretty-no cars sitting in driveway, etc
Also neighbors on ONE side only-other side has LOTS more privacy

(I have a 1/2 acre lot, BTW)

Personal preference. Corner lots in the suburbs here knock about 10% off the value of the home. Less privacy for sure since now the front and one side of the back of your house are on a street.

We have 2 bedrooms and the garage on the front, and the front door. The family room, living room open onto the backyard so we live in the back part of the house and can parade around in front of the open windows however we like....since the house behind us is downhill.

 

[Bluestars]

I think it depends on the neighborhood and the actual lot.

I have never seen kids or vehicles cut across any of the corner lots in my neighborhood. We have sidewalks and that's what everybody uses. The lots have the same size backyards, but you also get a side yard, so much more property.

Pros - more land, no neighbors on one side of your house, more parking, the driveway is always straight in

Cons - more land to maintain and mow

 

[JaneBanks]

We love our corner lot. We have a lot of yard, front and back. We also don't have the issue of people cutting across our lawn because we put up a fence. The traffic doesn't bother us but we don't live in a high traffic area.

 

[tvguy]

I think it depends on the neighborhood and the actual lot.

I have never seen kids or vehicles cut across any of the corner lots in my neighborhood. We have sidewalks and that's what everybody uses. The lots have the same size backyards, but you also get a side yard, so much more property.

Pros - more land, no neighbors on one side of your house, more parking, the driveway is always straight in

Cons - more land to maintain and mow

I might give it some thought for more land, but here the lots are the exact same size even if they are on the corner.

 

[Lilliputian]

Drive past it at night. Do your headlights shine on the windows when driving from any direction? That would be an automatic no for me.

I might consider one in a very quiet neighborhood if it were on the corner of 2 quiet, slow streets. If one of the streets is a busy street, you do have the potential of having cars end up in your yard sometimes. I grew up on a corner lot. It was a huge lot, so it wasn't a big deal to us when cars were in our front yard, but it did happen. We also had to keep our shrubs and trees trimmed shorter than everyone else so that people had a good line of sight to the other road. We had a garage that came straight from the back of our house and long driveway that curved from the side street. It made our house look nice since everyone else in the neighborhood had front-facing garages.

 

[LBIJim]

I might give it some thought for more land, but here the lots are the exact same size even if they are on the corner.

I've seen many variations in corner lot sizes. In general, I'd say most are a bit wider than interior lots. But then I've seen some corner lots that appear much smaller than the rest, especially in newer subdivisions. It also depends on how the house is situated on the lot. Some houses on corner lots seem to have very little back yard.

I sort of live on a corner. My land is a double lot, with the house on the second one in. I've let about half of the corner lot revert to its natural state. No lawns....whatever decides to grow stays, with occasional cutting back. A detached garage is at the back of the corner lot facing the side street.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

We're looking to move and I've been against anything on a corner lot because it usually means a small/nonexistent yard, more sidewalk & parkway to shovel/maintain, and more foot traffic and people looking in more exposed windows as they walk or drive by. Other than being cheaper, I can't think of any pros of living on a corner.

If you live or have lived on a corner lot, can you tell me the pros and cons?

A ton depends upon the particular lot. Corner lots tend to have a bit more land, but this is not always the case. Due to set back requirements, (ours are 25 feet from either street and 10 feet on the sides) back yards might be smaller and front yards bigger. Our house sits on a corner lot and faces the corner itself. So we don't have the view of anyone to the back of the house. Our lots back up to woods. Had we not faced the corner and faced one of the two streets, our view would have been of another house. But this is not always possible. We have a side entry garage and that makes the front of our house look so much better. We didn't pay any premium for the corner, but in several subdivisions, they cost an extra 1-2k. It just depends upon the lot. We aren't on a main road and the noise isn't bad at all.

 

[ksjayhawks]

Not sure if this is still done or not, but we were living in a corner house once and city did some upgrades to streets. We were all assessed by "feet of frontage" so being on the corner really zapped us compared to our neighbors--twice as much!

Both of the corner lots we had only had sidewalks on one side of the lot, so that wasn't bad in terms of snow shoveling/maintenance. It did involve more mowing. One had a huge front yard, small backyard with neighbors tooooo close in back. Other had huge front yard and great back yard. Both had side entry garages--I personally like my driveway in front so I can see who is pulling in and it was easier to see the kids when they were playing on the driveway.

Best house we liked was the top of the culdesac house--smaller, angled front yard, but super huge back yard!

 

[tvguy]

I've seen many variations in corner lot sizes. In general, I'd say most are a bit wider than interior lots. But then I've seen some corner lots that appear much smaller than the rest, especially in newer subdivisions. It also depends on how the house is situated on the lot. Some houses on corner lots seem to have very little back yard.

I sort of live on a corner. My land is a double lot, with the house on the second one in. I've let about half of the corner lot revert to its natural state. No lawns....whatever decides to grow stays, with occasional cutting back. A detached garage is at the back of the corner lot facing the side street.

I apologize. I'm wrong about my subdivision. The corner lots are bigger. Zoning requires 5 feet from the house to the property line on one side of the house, and 10 feet on the other, except for corner lots, which require 10 feet on both sides. HOWEVER, zoning also requires a 5 foot setback from the property line to the fence on the street side of a corner lot. So you have a 5 foot strip of land you own between the street and the fence that you own and have to keep up, but since the depth of the lots is identical, the USABLE size of the lot within the fences is identical.

 

[Christine]

I might give it some thought for more land, but here the lots are the exact same size even if they are on the corner.

Same here. You don't get a bigger lot, the lot usage just changes. Most of our corner lots lose half of the backyard land but get a lot of yard on the side. I know one person in our neighborhood put in a pool and it is out to the side of the house and pretty much is next to the street.

 

[Ceila]

I think it's impossible to make a blanket statement for or against a corner lot. It really depends on the size and layout of the lot, the traffic, and the kind of neighborhood you live in, etc.

One of the houses I grew up in was a corner lot and the yard was huge - bigger than the other homes. The same is true of the corner lots in in the neighborhood we live in now.

We luckily haven't had rude kids anyplace I've lived, so I've never seen problems with kids at bus stops. I guess the kind of people you live around really makes the difference on that issue.

Snow shoveling, again, depends on whether there are sidewalks on both sides. Some corner lots here have them, some don't.

 

[Colleen27]

I have mixed feelings about ours. It has one of the largest lots in the neighborhood and I have a lot more options for where to add a garage than I would on a regular lot, but it also means the whole yard is visible to anyone passing by. There's no place to discreetly put less attractive but functional elements like the compost bin, firewood, or trash cans, and a lot of pressure to keep every inch of the yard kept up because if the kids leave a dead-spot because of having their slip-and-slide out too long or I fall behind on weeding my veggie beds everyone sees it. I didn't worry about stuff like that when we had a more private yard.

 

[sam_gordon]

I think it's impossible to make a blanket statement for or against a corner lot. It really depends on the size and layout of the lot, the traffic, and the kind of neighborhood you live in, etc.

One of the houses I grew up in was a corner lot and the yard was huge - bigger than the other homes. The same is true of the corner lots in in the neighborhood we live in now.

We luckily haven't had rude kids anyplace I've lived, so I've never seen problems with kids at bus stops. I guess the kind of people you live around really makes the difference on that issue.

Snow shoveling, again, depends on whether there are sidewalks on both sides. Some corner lots here have them, some don't.

This. It REALLY depends. How is the house laid out? What is the traffic pattern? If you are complaining about a longer sidewalk to shovel/snowblow, that means you have a larger lawn. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Too many unknowns... a corner lot in one area may be undesirable, while people might fight over a corner lot in another area.