Home Mortgage Alliance Corporation (HMAC)

Soaring to home ownership near an airport

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Published Date 1/9/2024

The location being either the triple blessing or threat to buying a home, would you consider buying one close to an airport?

Realtor.com’s Sally Jones tells the tale of how she and her spouse were looking to buy a home in New York City and came across “a perfect two-bedroom with character.” The only thing wrong with the picture was its location — only about a mile from LaGuardia Airport.

Her big question: “Would the added noise, pollution, and traffic congestion in the neighborhood have us running for the nearest emergency exit? Or would we sit back, relax, and enjoy our new home?”

Answer: They did a ton of research, and then bit the bullet. “Nothing stopped us from purchasing our dream home,” she says. “Now, 10 years later, we have no regrets, even if we sometimes hear and see a 747 roaring overhead.”

So she offers some of her seasoned insight so that others might know what to expect with such a home purchase, the first of which is the noise. Takeoffs and landings can often boom overhead, interrupting a phone call, a Zoom call, or an afternoon nap. “So you’ll want to look into flight paths (check out a flight-tracking app like FlightStats) and noise reduction restrictions particular to the airport near a home you’re interested in,” she says.

Another great idea? Check out noise complaints in the neighborhood you’re researching on forums like Facebook, Nextdoor, or Neighbors. Many airports across the country near residential neighborhoods have noise and flight time restrictions that make a living near them a more positive experience. But if the home is located directly in a flight path, you will experience significantly greater noise than your neighbors.

Jones says her home is one of the quietest she has experienced during her residence in New York. “From time to time, however, weather patterns cause LaGuardia Airport to alter flight paths. Only then do we get to experience what our neighbors 10 blocks away live with daily, and it’s not pleasant.”

You’d think you could get a quintessential bargain when buying property near an airport but these days you might be wrong. Discounts are hard to find anywhere. Supply and demand have some cities and municipalities bucking any lower home price trends at all. In Jones’ case, demand for homes to purchase is high in New York City, and supply is low, so even homes bordering the airport are expensive.

“My home in the Queens borough cost about the same as the sales price on my previous home in Brooklyn, which was miles away from any tarmacs,” she says. “However, I did get more square footage for the money, trading up from a one-bedroom condo to a two-bedroom.”

Jones says appraisers often use proximity to an airport for valuation purposes using what is referred to as “external obsolescence.” It’s a form of depreciation tied to factors not on the property itself, such as environmental, social, or economic forces. In reality, however, Jones says the value of her home when it comes time to sell it, however, will depend on the housing market in her neighborhood at the time — not how close she is to the airport.

A property’s proximity to an airport might affect the type of loan buyers can qualify for, but that depends on the area’s residential zoning. “Sometimes houses around an airport flight can be in the local municipal property zoning classification of Planned Industrial Park or Airport Operation Approach Path rather than a residential zone classification,” Jones says, citing her research. “Conventional or government loans are difficult to obtain when a home isn’t in a residential zone, so the financing could be limited, and that can affect the long-term valuation and appreciation.”

In her case, Jones’ beloved New York City is a densely populated metropolis, with nearly 75% zoned for residential use, so she had no trouble obtaining a conventional mortgage.

The air you breathe can be a concern, since the heated fuel of aircraft exhaust emits particles that can seep into the lungs and the bloodstream. Potential homebuyers with conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema might immediately feel the impact of moving near a major airport. While some forms of air pollution are regulated, ultra-fine particle emissions are not. In Jones’ case, she says she is already surrounded by highways, so car emissions and pollution are something she and her husband had already come to terms with.

Of course, there are always those whose preference would be to live near an airport. Frequent flyers. “I used to fly frequently for my job, and the 10-minute taxi ride to LaGuardia is very convenient,” says Jones, who admits it saves her time and hundreds of dollars she would otherwise spend for airport rides and parking.

Realtor, TBWS

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