Selecting property overwhelms us

Depending on which streets are involved, the few meters of distance from the streets are less relevant.

It is worthwhile to deal with sound and propagation once and to drive to a similar area. Usually, the houses standing directly at the noise barrier are not the ones that get the most noise. The noise level "flows" over the embankment, behind it it is surprisingly quiet at first (like in a wind shadow). The 2nd row of houses is the 2nd "breaker," that is where it is probably the loudest, therefore. From the 4th row on, it gets significantly quieter.

I am unclear how you determined your space requirements in the house. Are 180 sqm an arbitrary classification or are there already planning considerations behind it that relate directly to your life?

I prefer to live with 4 people in well-designed 140 sqm rather than in barely usable 180 sqm "status area." With this optimization, square floor plans (low usable space in the building center) are usually out, although these floor plans offer the lowest price relative to €/sqm.

So if you know the requirements and the house, you can decide much better about the plot location, here linked with the size.

Maybe this is a way out of being overwhelmed.

Here is another vote for a smaller but well-planned house. Then the house doesn’t feel too big when the children no longer live at home.