how far are you from your neighbor?

[AnnieW625]

we are probably 10-15 feet (and this is just a mental estimate, it could honestly be less) from the two neighbors on either side. We can see into our neighbor's master bedroom and their frosted glass bathroom window from our kitchen. I can't believe I didn't notice that when we decided to buy our house:shake: .

No offense, but I laugh at posts when people say they are too close to their neighbors when I am pretty sure in master planned communities in states like Texas they are probably no closer than 15+ feet from their neighbors (making assumptions also based on what I have seen on House Hunters) and I say to myself, "well they'll never make it in California."

question 2: I meant to add: so only one wall or only one space below separates us from our neighbor

[WatchingThemGrow]

We are in a condo building, but it's built like an H so each part of the H is one of 4 different units with windows all around. Our front door is about 6' from the one across the hall, but our windows are about 25-30'(?) from the next set of windows. It's a bigger gap on the other side.

[BabyBearsMom]

0 feet. We live in a townhouse, so we are attached to our neighbors. In my HCOL area, we will be lucky if we can afford 1/4 of an acre when we buy our next house (might be closer to 1/10) so I always expect to be close to my neighbors. I think when it is just a fact of life where you live, it stops bothering you. You would have to move FAR from the city to get a big lot out here.

[StantonHyde]

When we bought our house, one of my stipulations was a private yard and distance from neighbors. I grew up in small town/rural environments so I really value privacy. On the flip side, I like having a nice street with neighbors and I like being close to town/shopping so that's where I live!

[AnnieW625]

.......I think when it is just a fact of life where you live, it stops bothering you. You would have to move FAR from the city to get a big lot out here.

I have no issue with our lot size and how close we are to our neighbors because that is all I have ever known, but I just have to laugh when people complain about the house next to them being soo close, when it's probably the equivalent of a lot size or large 30 ft. patio area here.

Same with us to for the most part, although there are a couple of different parts of the OC where you can get 1/4+ acre lots, but for that you really have to move somewhere where it is known there is horse property, and then house prices are higher in the OC, but out in the Inland Empire it is more reasonably priced, but just too far from work. There are a couple of developments near us in my city that have larger lots and are more spread out a bit, but the prices were too high when we bought our house, but honestly even if we could afford them now I think we'd rather be near the water and would rather have a smaller yard and water access instead.

[stinkyfeet]

0 feet. We live in a townhouse, so we are attached to our neighbors.

me too! We also live in a HCOL area.

[georgiegirl]

In our neighborhood, the lots are 1.75-2 acres. So you can't see into anyone's house.

[ilfaith]

Our house is on a corner lot of just under 3/4 of an acre. The lot behind ours is protected preserve which will never be built upon. Our next door neighbor on the other side has a deep lot and a home set far back enough from the curb that it is not visible from the street, so while our driveways are next to one another, I can only see the top of their roofline from our second floor balcony.

[joonbug]

Semi-detached house so they are on the other side of the wall lol. I would say 1 foot.. We share the front porch,too and sometimes in the kitchen I can hear them running their microwave if it s really quiet! Or kids tantruming. Way too close for my comfort...

[DualvansMommy]

In my neighborhood, which is a small enclave section of colonial homes with quiet and cul de sac streets; lots usually are about an acre each household.

Big enough to afford us privacy, build big deck/patios without being right on too of each other. It's also just right size to add a in-ground pool if a family wanted to do that, and still have plenty of grass for their pets/kids to run around.

[elektra]

We are pretty close to our neighbors. I put 15-30. The lots around here are around .25 acres each. Almost all the homes are single story though, so either the garage or portions of the houses are often not that far from each other. There is no HOA either so it is pretty common for people to ignore some of the code restrictions on space. For instance my dad's neighbor behind him has part of the house about 1 foot from my dad's back fence. It's totally what I am used to though. I grew up in a housing tract with an HOA and the homes were on small lots with only a few feet between them.

[lhafer]

I live in a "regular" community by Texas standards. We have 5' easements on our side yards, so that puts me about 10-15' from the houses on either side if me. We have a large one story, and the house is over the easement on one side, and on the easement on the other side. In our backyard, there is 17' from the back porch to the fence line. 7' of that is easement.

I think it depends on where you grow up and what you are used to. I grew up on a huge ranch. Tons of open space. We moved to the city, but got a large house on a large corner lot. Then my parents moved to a small town, and we had a medium sized yard (there are 15 trees in the front yard alone), but have a small house. Behind their fence is tons of trees so it feels private and secluded.

I now live in a neighborhood where they cut down all the trees only to plant new ones when you your house is done. I see and hear my neighbors, and I know they hear us.

I'm sure people who grew up in manhattan have no concept of having a yard. They grew up living in high rises and apartment buildings. People who grew up in brownstones and semidetached homes are used to condo and town home style living.

I have a lot that is ~8,000sqft and my house is a 3,000sqft one story.

[maestramommy]

I voted 50-100ft, but it might be more than 100ft. Our closest neighbor is across the street, but our house is set about 50 ft from the street, and theirs is about 30? The lots are irregular, each house is not set uniformly in the center of lots. So one neighbor is about 500 ft away, but the one on the other side is more like 200ft, behind our backyard. We're at the base of a very sharp curve, and this neighbor is on the other end of the curve. NOTHING is square here:p

[crl]

Currently we live in a rental townhouse. Shared walls on both sides. I love this neighborhood to pieces but we are moving because (1) Dh's commute (they closed the city office after we moved here and he went from a 15-20 minute free bus ride to an hour to two hour drive), (2) you can't buy in this neighborhood as it is owned by the federal government and all rental and financially it doesn't make sense to keep paying high rent, and (3) the San Francisco school situation.

New house will be a detached single family with about 15 feet between houses--just enough room for driveways--and tiny front and back yard.

I will be glad to lose the shared walls mostly because I worry about my kids making noise (especially the toddler crying at night) and partly because the single people around us do very occasionally throw loud parties. But they also play with my dog and babysit my kids and would help me in a heartbeat if I needed something. I was just thinking I might have to see about an alarm system for the new place. Here if I started screaming bloody murder one of the guys next door would be over here to check on us immediately. So I will kind of miss them too, even with their loud parties.

[lhafer]

we are probably 10-15 feet (and this is just a mental estimate, it could honestly be less) from the two neighbors on either side. We can see into our neighbor's master bedroom and their frosted glass bathroom window from our kitchen. I can't believe I didn't notice that when we decided to buy our house:shake: .

No offense, but I laugh at posts when people say they are too close to their neighbors when I am pretty sure in master planned communities in states like Texas they are probably no closer than 15+ feet from their neighbors (making assumptions also based on what I have seen on House Hunters) and I say to myself, "well they'll never make it in California."

question 2: I meant to add: so only one wall or only one space below separates us from our neighbor

If you haven't been to Texas, then don't assume about the lot sizes. If you only got based on what you see on tv, then we are all cattle ranchers and wear western wear and cowboy boots. :rotflmao:

[codex57]

I'm pretty sure we're just under 15 feet from our neighbors. Still, I've been in SFR homes that have been closer. While certain rooms can see into our neighbors, it just means you gotta put shades up at night. I don't think it's that big a deal. I like having neighbors close enough that if I'm in trouble or just need them to pop on by to check on me, it's not a great imposition.

[AnnieW625]

If you haven't been to Texas, then don't assume about the lot sizes. If you only got based on what you see on tv, then we are all cattle ranchers and wear western wear and cowboy boots. :rotflmao:

I was talking about House Hunters and like shows, not scripted TV. Sorry if I offended, it is just more times than not when I see a show like House Hunters or one of those DIY shows they houses are really far apart and people are complaining about being so close to their neighbor when at least IMHO they are pretty far apart, and most of the people who make comments are those who live in the SE, so Texas was an easy Target. I guess I could have said Atlanta as well.

[brittone2]

1/2 acre lots....75 feet. I think I voted for the 30 range LOL. I just asked DH and he corrected me. I was going from memory and apparently neeed to actually look before estimating! Last two homes it was a greater distance (acre plus lot size). First house you could see in neighbors' windows easily....30 feet?

[sariana]

We're pretty close, one side more than the other. We could get more land for a similar price down in the canyon, but fires and floods (esp. the latter) are a big concern. We're in South OC, a little more than an hour south of the OP.

[speo]

One of the good things about our house is that the neighborhood is a little more spread out than typical SoCal. We have a compact 2 story on .25 acres. I would guess we are almost 50' away from our side neighbors. We have a corner lot. Our streets are slightly wider than usual also. I am so grateful for the size of our backyard. My boys burn so much energy playing sports out there.

[niccig]

We're under 15' but it doesn't feel like it. We're on a corner lot and 1 side of our house is along neighbour's driveway but the wall there is 8' tall, our backyard wall is along another neighbour's driveway and then we have the street on 2 sides. We have a lot of trees and landscaping, so we can't see the street from inside the house.

DH likes that it doesn't feel like we're in LA, but we are.

[lizzywednesday]

Our development is zoned as townhouses, but in reality everything's a duplex with a small yard.

We share a wall with one set of neighbors and can see into our other neighbors' house if the blinds are up.

I feel claustrophobic about the lack of a yard - I grew up on a fairly nice sized lot in a less-densely populated area of NJ, so it's been an adjustment for me to re-think yard space.

On the one hand, it's nice not having to do a ton of yard work to keep our lawn & flower beds looking neat but I'd like to have a large-ish vegetable garden and we simply don't have the horizontal space for it. In a year or two, I might research container gardening with an Earthbox or something.

For now, I'll keep my fall-planted bulbs and summer climbing vines going until the HOA president (hahaha because it's DH) tells me otherwise.

[wendibird22]

There are 10 houses on my street and each lot is 1-2acres. The neighbor to our right actually bought the lot between us so we have probably a full 2acres between our houses. Our lot is long and more narrow so there's probably 1/2 acre between us and the house to the left.

[Tenasparkl]

Under 15 feet on one side and 15-30 on the other side (driveways touch on that side so there's a little more distance). Suburban SoCal! I'm just happy to finally own a house here : )

[smilequeen]

I have no idea. More than 500 feet to the closet neighbor. But it could be 1/4 mile, IDK? We don't have any other direct neighbors. I can see other houses in the neighborhood, but they are at least 1/2 mile away.

[AJP]

We have one that's about 150 feet away (behind some nice big arborvitaes) and the other is about 200 ft away separated by natural growth trees. There is no one directly across from us and no one behind. We live in a rural/suburban town. I love that we don't have anyone close, but our street has no sidewalks and is not really private. Lots of people use it as a cut-through and don't follow the 25mph posted limit. We were lucky to get the privacy by finding this new build on an existing old street. Every other new build in the area was very close to the other houses.

[lmwbasye]

I guessed 50 - 100 but am still not happy. My requirement for our "forever" home when DH retires from the Army and we actually get to pick where we live is that we have zero neighbors. I want to be in the middle of nowhere.

[arivecchi]

I'm terrible with measurements (and voted incorrectly), but according to google maps, one house is about 200 feet away and another one is about 175 feet away. Those are the only two houses that are near us. All lots here are 5+ acres and I absolutely love it. Shocking since I have always lived and loved urban environments!

[JElaineB]

We're about exactly 500 ft. as the crow flies, house to house, to our nearest neighbor. Our driveways are much closer, though.

[doberbrat]

Not only can we see directly into both of our neighbors houses, but we can watch their tvs, hear their phones ring and say God Bless You when they sneeze in the summer and everyone has open windows. ;)