Will gladly pay for an answer for ONE of these. I would love to 
have both answered (and will pay double, at least). I don't need
exact numbers, just general ways of estimating that are more than
just a guess. Thanks in advance for answers and comments. I need
an answer soon and will close this if my own deadline has passed.
I am not expecting a terribly detailed answer, just something that
helps me out. Could pay more if answer is more than I am expecting.

A house very near a highway would be worth how much less than
one just near a highway? I am specifically looking for a comparison
of when the house is extremely near versus somewhat near, namely
when the highway is right on the edge of the property versus if
a property that's one removed from the highway. Since that may be
a tricky question, I would still accept other comparisons that are
analogous such as of a house that's within 500 ft of a railroad
versus a house that's 500-1500 ft from a railroad. Or something
analogous with proximity to airport, comparing when you are in a
terrible zone where that is a huge nuisance, versus just a large
nuisance. I have already done some comparison of finding pairs of 
houses and seeing their asking price, and that's okay, but that is
difficult to compare apples to apples (because they can be in 
different condition, different sizes, etc).

A house without a backyard would be worth how much less?
The problem I see with trying to figure this out is you can't 
really compare actual properties well. Because generally 
properties with no backyard will be in much worse locations.
I am wondering about a property that has really like NO 
backyard compared to one with a normal average yard. I suppose
my "no backyard" situation is fairly similar to if a property 
had a yard but it was basically unusable for some reason. (If
the reason is weeds, no grass, etc that is different however
because a person could turn that into a useable yard.)

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Clarification of Question by querystring-ga on 01 Oct 2005 20:55 PDT

I'm thinking differences in rents could be comparable if you want to
answer with rental prices.

I don't think there is an answer to your question because the value of
real state is a subjective matter. What is valuable today may not be
tommorrow, people move in and out of neighborhoods making it more or
less desirable, local economic trends etc... There are too many
variable to take into account to be able to answer the question as
general/broad as this question is. If for instance you were to ask "In
Northern VA. in Loudon county at the Dulles airport what difference
..." then, although the answer would still not be applicable to all
for the reasons you've mentioned, at least it would be possible to
tacle within a say 5% margin of error.


Your question as posted is not answerable.

You're making assumptions that may not be valid in both situations
you're asking about.

Proximity to the highway might be considered desirable in some
situations and might raise the price instead of lower it. For example,
in commuter neighborhood, being close to the onramp might be an
advantage.

In recent years there has been a decline in large back yards. There
are many neighborhoods where monster houses are built very close
together and have miniscule yards. In this type of neighborhood a
large yard might be considered a disadvantage.

I agree with elids-ga. Your questions as posed are not answerable.

Maybe, I don't feel it's subjective. I do agree that I'm not likely to
get a real answer because of lack of real available data.

I think that nobody wants a highway RIGHT in their backyard. I mean
about 10 feet from the edge of their yard. I am trying to compare how
much worse it is to have one right there, meaning it's 2x as noisy as
when you have the buffer of one house between. That's so different
from just being located within 1/2 mile of an onramp, yes people like
that often.

And same with the other situation, not subjective, because I'm saying
having NO usable yard versus having a basic average sized yard. Again,
who wants to have absolutely no usable yard, the yard all filled with
tree stumps for example. It's definitely less valuable, and my
question is how much. I'm saying that if you took two places that are
the same, but one you put tree stumps, etc in the yard, how much did
you just reduce value by?

HI,
I agree that there may not be a documentable "answer" to your
questions, but, as you suggest yourself, the anecdotal information
supports the impression that a housed directly near a highway is of
less value than one that is further away  - all other things being
equal, which is seldom the case, hence the inability to document an
answer.
But as an indication, there have been very recently two quesions
posted which refer to the problems:  noise and dirt.

With back yards, the problems of finding an entirely equivalent
proverty is similar, espicaly since adjacent lots are probably equally
deep,, making it even moe difficult to find equivalents.