I too am very uncomfortable looking for caches close to homes ... HOWEVER ... I actually own one in my front yard (GC7R0B1). The container is a large bird house and in the description, I make it VERY clear that it is VERY easy to find. It is so easy, it pushes the boundaries of even qualifying as a "hidden" cache. It is immediately visibly obvious from the street but unless you are a Geocacher, you wouldn't know it to be anything other than a well decorated bird house. The description also spells out the house number in BOLD so that cachers are not uncomfortable. Also, all of my neighbors know that it is a cache and gets visited on occasion.
Now, having said that, I again side with all of you in that it is very awkward and uncomfortable to go to close to homes to search for caches.