Hello!
My wife and I built a house with what we will call a "super-value-driven" (read: cheap/frugal/stingy) mindset in 2019, and probably made a mistake. I was really focused on "will this feature impact our happiness? FIRE savings/experiences over things."
Our house floorplan is perfect - exactly what we need and no fluff. It's perfectly efficient. However, our lot, is not. We backup to a busy road and a "small" airpot (25,000 flights annually...). The airport is actually pretty fun to see the airplanes and they only takeoff in our direction (i.e. noisy) on about 5-10% of the days. The rest of the time, they are usually landing near us or going on the other perpendicular runway. The road is incredibly intrusive. It's a "county highway" that is 55 mph with 15,000 "trips per day" at our section. Semis are roaring by, and in the summer, motorcycles love to rev their engines. We had a road in our backyard at our previous house, but it was 35 mph, and was WAY WAY WAY less busy. We could sit outside and 10-20 minutes could go by without a car, here, it would be incredible if 1 minute went by without traffic. To top it all off, we just found out that we live in an old superfund site boundary. After much more research it appears as though the mitigation solutions in place should make us "safe" but really, how much can you trust these things??
Here's where we are struggling. Help me pick. Or facepunch me. or give me alternatives. My wife and I are really struggling with this decision.
BUILD SIMILAR HOUSE IN NEARBY NEIGHBORHOOD (outside of superfund, no airport/road noise)
Pros: quieter neighborhood, staying in same community that we love, community pool (pro?), functional floorplan
Cons: small bedrooms, small master bath, expensive, neighbors, projects even at high purchase price (trees, deck, garden, fence)
Cost: $675k (?)
BUILD ACROSS STATE BORDER
Pros: land, serenity, choose exactly what we want to build
Cons: unknown costs, far from major city (30 minutes), not very bike-able (grocery and shopping mall is 5 country road miles away), may come with projects even at high purchase price (ie: trees, deck, garden, unfinished basement)
Cost: $675,000 + $3-4,000 more in property taxes annually
PURCHASE EXISTING HOME IN CURRENT COMMUNITY
Pros: most economical/good value, the possibility of land/get away from road noise, stay in community that we love, possibility of mature trees/neighborhood
Cons: not brand new construction, extremely competitive market, may need to compromise on floorplan as we are not building, projects (paint, update, trees?, fence?, deck?)
Cost: $700k (?)
STAY IN CURRENT HOME
Pros: not having to move, great floor plan, somewhat bike-able, already have features such as deck/solar panels/trees/garden/irrigation, staying in community that we love, few projects left to do (finish basement, shed?), 20 year mortgage with low interest rate
Cons: road noise, future stop lights in backyard, possible ecological issues, “cheap” finishes such as trim, opportunity cost of NOT moving
Current value: $500,000
Mortgage based on original purchase price of $415,000
I know these are super high costs for a home, but unfortunately, it's the reality of living in the community that we love. Our combined income is about $240k yearly, and our savings rate is still about 40%. What should we do?