Any chance of the road being continued or whatever is on the other side of the dead end being developed as retail, commercial or industrial?

If you have municipal water it might stagnate or accumulate precipated minerals. Could be remedied by more frequent line flushing.

It's not the dead end that would kill this for me; it's the armory! Keep looking.

I agree with chisue. A dead end (or the fancy cul-de-sac they use up here in CT - took me months after moving from Long Island, NY to figure out what the heck they were talking about!) has never bothered me and is kind of private, plus you have a light at the end. It's the Armory that I would have issues with.

A cul de sac is considered the most desirable location here, that is where our house is. Snow removal has been an issue, but a conversation with the road commissioner took care of most of it. It is worth the drawback. However, street lights, armory, etc., are drawbacks that could negate the "pros" of the cul de sac location.

What is an "armory", btw? I have only heard that term used in regards to a military installation. Do you mean a gun club?

I lived on one (a "cul-de-sac") in Ct. Was very desirable. Perfect location for kids to play, quiet, no issues whatsoever. Well, one, the school bus wouldn't come down it as it was too small at the end to turn around. We could deal with that. Not sure what an armory is, but I would jump at a dead end street.
Jo

Thanks for all the responses. The armory on the other side of this dead-end is for the National Guard. Soldiers in the area report there one weekend a month and there's a three-week training period there for newbies. Neighbors in the area don't seem to know what goes on there. It's quiet, they say, except for once a month when they briefly start up all the vehicles stored there.

I hadn't thought about the school bus not being able to turn around. We rely on the bus and will be the next several years.

Real estate agents call it a cul de sac here, too!

In short, most of you wouldn't consider buying a house at the end that bordered the armory, but if it were another house on the same dead end (another one might be coming on) that didn't share a fence with the armory, you would? Thanks again.

There's a national guard armoury in our town, but we don't live along it. I have never heard any complaints of those who live nearby. Although, I would not like the barb wire fence bordering my property and would probably put a privacy fence up to cover it.

Is this in MN by any chance?

"A dead end (or the fancy cul-de-sac they use up here in CT..."

Dead ends are not the same as cul-de-sacs.

Dead end streets just end, sometimes with barricades.

Cul-de-sacs have a wider area (think of a bulb shape) and often have houses around the entire perimeter.

Either is a good location since through traffic is eliminated.

The only folks driving are the neighbors and visitors.

Cul de sacs are considered desirable here also. We don't have snow so that isn't an issue.

My in-laws live on a cul-de-sac, and everything was fine until new neighbors moved in and started parking head-in on the street (I've posted about this before). In other words, they don't park their car alongside the curb. They drive down the street until they're facing up against the curb, then leave the car right there, sticking out into the street, as if the cul-de-sac was a parking lot.

It really looks awful. My in-laws are pretty upset. When I saw it, I made a mental note to never buy on a cul-de-sac.

I lived on a dead end street, (NOT a cul - de - sac), and loved it. Be prepared for curious and lost folks needing a place to turn around when they realize the road ends. If there is not a dedicated space for this, they will make one... like the edge of your yard.

Carol,

Have your in-laws mentioned this to the new neighbors? Are the cars in anyone's way? Depending on the configuration of the cul-de-sac, it may be more space efficient to park that way. I've seen this on many cul-de-sacs. Is the real problem that the new neighbors have too many or too ugly cars?

The house is in New Jersey. We talked to the neighbors who said snow removal hasn't been an issue. We could put up a fence, a very high one, to block the armory's chain link and barbed wire fence.

It's really a dead end, not a cul de sac. "Cul de sac" is just what some of the agents around here call it.

I love my dead end street...NO traffic. If I were choosing between two of the exact same houses, and one was on a dead end or cul de sac, I would choose the one on the dead end or cul de sac over the one on a through street. The armory wouldn't bother me if it was indeed quiet. In fact I would welcome a quiet armory over a noisy neighbor! I'd put up a pretty fence to hide the armory fence. An example is linked below. If the armory fence is 8' tall, then your fence could have a 6' tall base with 2' of decorative openwork on top.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

auntciss, you may want to double check on your towns height limitation for fences. I wouldn't want to spend the $$$ on a really wonderful fence only to have the town tell you to tear it down!!

Thanks for the advice, everyone. We bid on the house, 10 percent below the asking though I was just told the sellers turned down another offer slightly higher than ours. They did not want to "give it away" and are listing it this week for rent. (It's been for sale for just about four months.) Hopefully they'll counter. We love the neighborhood and though the house needs some work it's nothing that scares us off, for the right price. We met the neighbors, all seem like good people.

Thanks again!

Wow, talk about memories! I grew up on a dead end street and just LOVED it (it was true dead-end, not a cul de sac). There was a very thick and widespread wooded area at the end of the street. We were all so CLOSE on that block, and though we were living in a kind of rough area, our block was like a utopia in the midst of chaos! It was just one block of bungalow homes surrounded by much older, sort of run down houses. We had lemon-ade stands and back yard bbq's in the summer, snowball fights in winter, leave raking parties during the fall. One of my fondest memories is playing in the back yard as our mothers chatted across the yards while hanging up clothes on Saturday morning. There was only one family on the block that had any considerable money, but we had a story-book childhood because of the isolation that that dead end street gave us!

Pdg, what a nice image you've conjured with your own memories. Your post comes at an interesting time as it looks like we're close to hammering out a deal.

This particular dead-end has only five houses on it, plus the two on each corner that face the main road. I honestly wondered if it might be TOO isolating, especially for the children. (I happily did take note that there were toys in some of the other yards.) It sounds like we have unanimous agreement here that a dead end is something pretty special.

Thank you.

"Have your in-laws mentioned this to the new neighbors? Are the cars in anyone's way? Depending on the configuration of the cul-de-sac, it may be more space efficient to park that way. I've seen this on many cul-de-sacs."

My in-laws are afraid to have a discussion with their new neighbors. They're elderly people who would never get up the nerve to knock on someone's door.

And although it is, indeed, a more "space efficient" way to park, it looks terrible. Their street is in a traditional suburban neighborhood from the 1960s, with curbs and sidewalks and driveways.

Come to think of it, the cars probably ARE in the way from the fire-department's point of view! I should mention that the next time I visit them.