Owning your own home

I ask because our flat backs onto an LA block and we do get kept up reasonably frequently by loud noises, whether music from cars / flats, arguments etc etc. Enough to make me think about avoiding it if I move.

When we moved to the estate where we are now, I visited the place without the estate agent about five times at different times of the day to see what it was like. I suspect it varies from location to location massively; where I live now is peachy (touch wood), where we came from kinda sucked.