# House on a corner lot?



## KalamazooMom (Apr 26, 2005)

A friend of mine said she thought she had read that houses on a corner lot are more likely to be broken into. Anyone know if that's true? Any other safety issues with a house on a corner lot? I always thought a corner lot was more desirable because it's usually bigger.


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## Herausgeber (Apr 29, 2006)

I suppose it depends on the corner ...


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## ASusan (Jun 6, 2006)

Yeah, I thought they were more desirable because they're bigger, but they have drawbacks. Primarily, they may have less usable yard space, depending on the siting of house, of course. And, you may have to pay for more sidewalk (to pour if you are building, or to keep in repair if you buy).

I would think the "more likely to be broken into" may come from the fact that they have 2 sides on a street = more exposure? (But it makes more sense that they are more visible, so *less* likely to be broken into.)


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## MommaCrystal (May 25, 2006)

We have a corner lot. I would THINK it'd be LESS likely to break into because you can actually clearly see THREE sides of our house from road (Front, side, and back). And, really you can see the fourth side as well.

We have no side walk so no issues there. The lot feels bigger then it is (we had the same sized lot at the last house so I have a comparison).

My only issue with our corner lot is that we are right at an intersection with a stop sign that cars tend to ignore. I watched a car blow through it just today!


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## Papooses (Dec 20, 2006)

I would hazard to guess that it depends on the area.

I've always lived on a corner lot. In 4 different corner lot homes. 2 seemed more dangerous. 2 seemed extremely safe.


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## sunnymw (Feb 28, 2007)

I've lived on 3 corner lots and never been broken into.

I currently live smooshed up in a tiny neighborhood, in the middle of a million houses. We were broken into last November. (We hadn't started moving in yet, sucks to be the thieves! All we had was a guitar that we found in the woods, and a TV they couldn't carry







)


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## Masel (Apr 14, 2008)

I had heard a while back that corner lots account for 40% of all break ins. I'm not sure where that came from. The house I grew up in was on a corner and we had a lot of people cutting through our yard. The way the blocks met up we had no one watching our back or side yard.


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## KalamazooMom (Apr 26, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ASusan* 

I would think the "more likely to be broken into" may come from the fact that they have 2 sides on a street = more exposure? (But it makes more sense that they are more visible, so *less* likely to be broken into.)

In this case both streets are very quiet and not really through streets so I wouldn't think would get a lot of traffic. There are also windows that face both ways.


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## Jenivere (Aug 4, 2003)

I lived on a corner lot for 15 years and we never had a break in. Our only problems were people cutting across our yard (often with bikes) and the occasional toilet paper prank. We solved the bike thing with a low chain fence along the side.


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## Papooses (Dec 20, 2006)

On my small town rural corner lot + on the suburban corner lot . . . never any problems whatsoever.

On a main (highway) corner lot + on the corner lot in the middle of "gangstaville" . . . the major problems are cigarette smoke coming in my windows, yelling at all hours & broken glass at my front steps once in a while.

I made nice with the neighbors & we have an unofficial neighborhood watch kinda thing. It's OK.


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## jdedmom (Jul 11, 2006)

We have a corner lot and have never had a break in. Our neighborhood is isolated so we don't have a crime problem. We have about a 1/2 mile straight road into our neighborhood so people tend to drive in and out really fast though.

We have a really narrow back yard but a lot of yard on the sides and in the front and no sidewalk.


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## KalamazooMom (Apr 26, 2005)

I did a bit of searching and found a few studies that showed that corner houses are more often burglarized than other houses-- but they were all fairly old articles. And so far I can't find any official stats on it.


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## janasmama (Feb 8, 2005)

When I was in highschool the house on the corner of our street had a car crash right into it! Thankfully part of the house was brick but it went right into one of the bedrooms. Nobody was hurt and the street wasn't a super busy street but it wasn't really slow either.


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## PGTlatte (Mar 7, 2004)

Some towns have restrictions on how much of a backyard of a corner lot can be fenced. Like you aren't allowed to extend the fence out to the side of your house so to fence your yard, you end up basically cutting it in half. If you would be interested in a fenced backyard I would be really careful with buying a house on a corner lot.


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## anywaybecause (Jul 9, 2008)

I grew up in a corner-lot house -- my parents have been there for 35 years and never been burgled. The corner house immediately behind them, though, which faced a busier road, was burgled twice in a 10-year span, both times during the summer when the family was on vacation. (So, was it the fact that the house was on the corner, or was it evidence of being uninhabited? Not sure.)

I currently live in a corner house, and really never thought about it. I know that many years ago, a drunk teenager drove up the front lawn and hit the cement steps, then left the car there and stumbled home (which was across the street & 2 houses up!), but no burglary stories.

I, too, would guess that it depends.


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## maliceinwonderland (Apr 17, 2005)

We lived in a house on a corner lot for most of my childhood. We were never broken into, but did have a car drive through our backyard fence once, and then through our living room window another time.

The intersection wasn't a big one either, but there were car accidents in front of our house ALL the time.


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