Houses in close proxmity airports can be designed to help minimize the noise -- I know someone that built a house in the flight path for SFO, so he used triple pane glass windows, clay roof tiles instead of the more typical asphalt shingles, some sort of soundproofing insulation in the attic, heavy solid wood exterior doors (with tight weatherstripping) among other things. Apparently the home builders in that area know what they need to do.
It works, you can barely hear the planes go by from within the house, but outside, they are loud enough to make it hard to carry on a conversation.
I think most people just get used to the noise, I used to live close to a train line - close enough that not only could I hear the train horns at the crossing, but also could hear the rumbling train cars go by and could feel the vibrations in the house.
It was super annoying for the first month or so, and then I forgot about it and never really noticed it until I had a house guest that complained about the late night noise.
I once stayed at an airport hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, and I was amazed that while there was a direct view of the runway from the room, you could not tell there was a plane taking off a few hundred meters away. I didn't think it was possible.
It works, you can barely hear the planes go by from within the house, but outside, they are loud enough to make it hard to carry on a conversation.
I think most people just get used to the noise, I used to live close to a train line - close enough that not only could I hear the train horns at the crossing, but also could hear the rumbling train cars go by and could feel the vibrations in the house.
It was super annoying for the first month or so, and then I forgot about it and never really noticed it until I had a house guest that complained about the late night noise.