Would you buy a house near a correctional facility?
 

As some of you know, my wife and I are looking for a home. We found one this morning that we absolutely loved. It has been sitting on the market for 240-some days. That got me thinking of what is wrong with it. My first thought was that it was an older home and most people like new, especially where this home is located. But it really is a great home. Then, after some research on the computer and looking at overhead views I realized a correctional facility butts up to the property.

This house sits on 5.75 acres completely surrounded by trees. You can see one other house when you walk down the driveway but nothing near the house. About 400 yards to the NW is where the facitility is located. It is a maximum security prison.

I'm not really worried about safety as break-outs really don't happen in real life, only Hollywood. I'm worried more about the resale value and perhaps other things I can't think of at the moment. You can't even see the facility from the home and you would have to walk a ways to get to it so it is not an eyesore or any type of nuisance (at least that I can tell).

Is living near something like this kind of like living right on the interstate? People put up with the noise because they can get the house they want at a cheaper value?

Thoughts?

Its worse than putting up with the interstate, because there's an upside with that. You can get on the highway quickly.

Power plants, garbage dumps, prisons, heavy duty power lines always scare people away.

Their price better be way below comparables.

I wouldn't worry about the prison being close by. If the house is what you want, buy it. BTW you might want check under the house to see if there is any hidden tunnels. :cool:

It's unfortunate that people have this crazy nimby fears of things like prisons and power lines.

I would live in a house near a prison. Just don't expect a payout unless there's a gold vein right underneath.

Good luck. If you like the house go ahead and move in, just don't expect to make a huge profit on it if you plan to sell.

If you live in the place for 30 years it won't really matter anyway, but if you ever for any reason had to sell your house quickly it would be a problem. It just needs to be considerably cheaper than the rest.

I actually think the interstate would be worse because it is loud. I like living away from things so it is quiet (personal preference). The prison does no harm to me while I'm living there. The interstate is loud.

It is not really like those things because it is not an eyesore or a nuisance in any way. A power plant is loud and lets off plumes off water vapor, dumps smell, power lines are eyesores. The prison is not visibile, doesn't smell or make any noise. In fact I doubt any visitors would know it was that close unless I told them.

It doesn't really bother me. I'm just wondering if I should be thinking about anything else besides hurting resale value.

My dad always told me, "You don't make money in real estate when you sell it, you make the money when you buy it." What he means is that you can only sell it for what the market will pay at the time and not any more than that. How ever, you can sometimes get steals on properties and thus make money when it is time to sell them because you paid less upfront.

So perhaps living near a prison is just a bargaining point to get it below value??

Pass.

Can you expand on your reasoning?

Unless there is something compelling about that particular piece of property, I would also prefer a non-controversial piece of real estate.

It's like finding a rusted out MB - nobody else wants it, so you decide it's a great find. I say let somebody else be the lucky owner....

Pass.

I know where you are looking and I'd think there be some other alternatives up that way.

There kind of is. My wife said to me as we were driving away "I feel like that place was built for me." Now you don't know my wife, so I'll put this in context. She spends almost no money. She drives a 12 year old car with over 100k on it because it has no car payment even though her parnters all drive new cars. So she doesn't really want to buy things, so this was quite a big statement for her to make. The house has literally everything on our list of desires in a home and is in the range we are wishing to spend. We have probably looked at 50-60 homes in person in the last month and a half and only one or two have even raised any interest by her.

There are other alternatives, but nothing that we have liked except for the previous one we made an offer on (as you probably know this is not the same area) and this one is bigger and the lot is actually better for only a little higher asking price.

Actually, the more I think about it, the less like buying a rusted MB it is. Eventually the MB rust will overtake it and you will no longer be able to use it, thus losing money. The house, not so much so. It is a solid house.

The only issue I can see (other than fear of breakouts, which neither of us have) is resale value. If I buy it at the right price, resale value won't matter because I will have already paid the right price for it when I bought it. We'll see.