Real Estate Gurus: just how bad are power lines for resale?

Simply and my opinion…
They are ugly, noisy and can get old to look at. Not my idea of a view.

And, are you sure about the health risks?

Another non-real estate agent here. When I was searching for a house, it was the agent that pointed out the visibility of power lines at one of the houses on the list. I ended up buying one nearby, but they are not in view.

If you are buying, the price has already been discounted. Your capital gains on the sale should not be affected since you bought the house at the lower price.

If they put up new lines in a place where there were none before, that would have an effect.

If it is the big main grid lines I recommend not buying the property. It’s not just the value, it reduces the amount of people even willing to consider buying the property when you go to sell. How close are they to the house? Can you see them from your back yard? Meaning, when you sit on your back porch they are right there? The more expensive the house, the more of a problem they are, because people who have more money have more choices, and are more aware of health scares related to the powerlines. I think if the house value is $300k or higher don’t buy it. Under that, it depends on what else is available around you.

Looks like it’s $200K for this house. You can see the power lines on the google map. I guess I’m mostly worried about them affecting my ability to find a buyer if I ever needed to re-sell. I used google map’s street view to take a look from a different street, and the lines don’t look crazy huge, but I can see how it might bother some people. From the satellite image, it looks like there are trees that block the view of the power lines, but I’ve not been there and it’s somewhat difficult to tell.

Well, I lived near power lines, and there were houses very close to the lines, practically under them. From my house you were not aware of them in my backyard. Before I bought the house I checked into the health concerns, and I felt that I was far enough that there would be no effect, if there is a possibility of problems. One thing that I think helped the houses where I lived sell, was there were so many, it helps people psychologically feel that all of those people think it is ok, so it must be ok, and there is a market for resale most likely. Also, some might be offended by this, but many of the people who bought in that location were Latin American, and seemed unaware of concerns about powerlines. My sister-in-law, who is Mexican thought I was being ridiculous when I was concerned about them, telling me my house was beautiful and you can’t even see them when you are in my house.

Having said all of that, my husband wanted to buy a house where we live know that was right near big power lines, the house was perfect for us, and I would not let him buy it.

It does look like the house you are looking at has many trees to block the presence of the lines, but from a satelite view you cannot tell how tall the lines are.

I would check the sale price of comparable houses away from the power lines, and discount at least 25%.

We bought property near power lines and had a house built. We loved our house and we had a small wooded area behind our house that blocked the view of the power lines. We never heard the power lines and have had no ill effects from them. I have heard the only health concern is if you live directly under them. Another consideration, if you are going to be living there for some time (5+ years) the value shouldn’t be a concern as your equity will grow and the house value should grow even if it is not as much as in the past.

Besides how they look, I would not be super concerned about power lines.
But transformers create electro-magnetic fields that some say cause all sorts of health problems, and they can be noisy. Some say that’s hooeeey but… it must have some affect, possibly harmless.
If there are transformers behind or near the property, consider that.