When house shopping last fall, Thomasina Borkman and her husband couldn't pass up the one with a kitchen that opens onto a front deck and a view of thick, peaceful woods.
But the property on Park Vista Court in northern Silver Spring also came with a problem: Those woods are in the path of a proposed route for a six-lane toll highway. If backers of the $3 billion intercounty connector plan have their way, highway traffic -- with all its sounds and smells -- could roar past the couple's house, barely 100 yards away, as soon as 2010.
Borkman said they went ahead with their $500,000 purchase because they don't believe that Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) will reach his goal of breaking ground on the highway next year -- or anytime soon.
"I can imagine horrendous noise from the building and traffic tie-ups," said Borkman, 68, a sociology professor at George Mason University. "But if they've been considering this for 40 years, we're just not going to hold our breath. We're gambling, I guess."
Theoretically, real estate agents say, few things make home values plummet like plans for a highway to run through a neighborhood. That theory hasn't taken hold in Montgomery County, where the demand for affordable housing in the increasingly expensive Washington suburbs has caused many buyers to gamble.
As the Maryland State Highway Administration prepares to choose an intercounty connector route in the next several weeks, homes near two possible paths are selling well above asking price, often with multiple offers. Neighborhoods that could be affected by the highway include parts of Rockville, Derwood, northern Silver Spring, Burtonsville, Colesville, Laurel and the Briggs Chaney area.
Some who recently have bought near the proposed connector routes said they do worry about their homes' potential resale values. Still, they point to a beacon of hope: Homes in the shadow of the Capital Beltway, such as in Bethesda, still sell for around $1 million.
Others said they liked the idea of having easy access to an 18-mile highway that would link Interstate 270 in Montgomery to Interstate 95 in Prince George's County, outside the Beltway. And then there are buyers whose real estate agent never mentioned the possibility.
Max Zurita, a paint company sales representative, said he felt so much pressure to buy a home as prices continued to escalate that he didn't have time to research the issue before buying his Silver Spring condominium last month. He said he didn't know he could end up living one street over from the connector until a reporter told him.
"Wow, that's crazy," Zurita, 37, said. "I didn't pay attention. I just didn't want to lose the contract."
The highway proposal has been in Montgomery's master plan for a generation and has endured decades of political wrangling. Even with Ehrlich's backing, it faces big hurdles. Federal environmental officials would have to approve a road that would cut through ecologically sensitive streams, wetlands and other wildlife habitat. Both supporters and opponents anticipate that legal challenges would delay construction if that happens.
Still, home buyers who hope a highway will never materialize should think twice -- or at least research how they might be affected if it does, Maryland transportation officials said.
