Do you have photos both of your yard and the view outward you want to camouflage? It will be easiest to add them in the comments. Be sure to wait for the grayed out image to gain full color before hitting submit.

I tend to doubt you want the tallest since a row of 40+ feet tall trees can be overwhelming in a typical urban or suburban yard. Seeing the size and location of what you don’t want to see will be helpful for getting constructive suggestions. Knowing if you have a front yard drive and how much space you have among other considerations will help determine shape of plant.

Think about whether you want a mixed planting or all one kind. The mixed planting tends to me less formal. Is safety a concern, either for sight lines or for needing a secure yard?

I actually don’t see the problem if that first pic is your house I have no idea what the other ugly house looks like and I have no idea of how you would put a fence up that would actually block anything. Enjoy the view from your back yard put some top down bottom up shades on the windows that look out on what you don’t like.

I am confused......do you want a privacy fence - a tall, narrow, manmade construction, often of wood, that is used as a barrier or boundary - or do you want a privacy screen.......a row of plants that grow tall and dense enough to obscure views?

If the latter, even at 5' tall at planting it will take 5-10 years for just about any choice to grow to sufficient size to provide much screening..

Planting for privacy is always a bit of a long range forecast.....you plan and plant now for something achieved a number of years down the road. For immediate effect, a fence would be better but expensive to build and with a limit to height.

I can see how having a densely settled development across the road might be something you would like to be able to look past, though because it is lower than your yard and has its own fencing, it isn’t as visible as one might expect. Some screening from the road itself might be nice also.

You don’t appear to need something particularly tall since beyond the development are more trees. So I would look for a large shrub of one or more kinds that will grow to about 8’ to block the view of the road and homes without blocking the view of the trees further back.

It looks like the trees you have out by the road are red maples, Acer rubrum, which can be challenging to get plants established under because they have a lot of shallow, thirsty roots. Would you be willing to plant closer to the house or along the road where the trees aren’t close? You can plant some small trees closer to the house to visually fill in a roadside shrub planting with gaps.

One inexpensive, fast-growing shrub that will be dense enough to screen even in winter when the leaves are down is old-fashioned forsythia. Be sure to choose one of the old-fashioned large cultivars since several more modern cultivars have been bred to be smaller. If you know someone with forsythia, they are easy to root, and mine sometimes even has branches that have rooted themselves. IME if they are mulched and have adequate moisture you will have a quite solid hedge in less than 5 years from small plants. If you can find inexpensive sources for some of the larger panicled hydrangeas like Limelight or one of the larger ninebark (Physocarpus) cultivars, either would also provide reasonable screening in winter. Often you can find them at big box stores. Or you can look at evergreens which may look too formal for your setting. If you click on my name I have a winter photo of a piece of my mixed shrub planting as my cover photo. It was planted as a screen to block off a work area on my own property. I used a mix of deciduous and evergreens and it functions well for me.

Space for folks to park is helpful, and you also need to plant far enough back that at full size, what you plant won’t visiually obstruct your ability to see oncoming traffic as you leave the driveway. Because you are on a curve, farther back is better for good sight lines.

Here is a thread where about halfway down I have photos of my border and 4 years later. I listed plants as well, though what works for me here isn’t necessity going to work for you because of different climate.

https://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3113384/shrubs-for-privacy-along-a-fence?n=22

Have you only been in your new home in winter? When all the surrounding trees and shrubs leaf out I think you'll find it's much more private. Maybe take sometime to assess exactly where you want screening and what height is needed. You could mark places with stakes or bamboos and plant this autumn after a full season in the house.

"My street has a mix of regular middle class homes, new construction (what I bought), mobile homes, and homes that are just shy of a million dollars."

I'd hold my horses and wait this OUT. Asheville NC is one of the fastest growing retirement markets in the US. Before you know it, they'll be buying/tearing out the "ugliness" and someone will be trying to block their view..of your house. In other words, wait for trees, soften your view with sheer window treatments, make your own property lovely.....and wait.

The mobile homes........etc? They'll be gone before you can speak Arborvitae.

To add to floral’s comment, get a friend or two once things leaf out, and use something like a towel or sheet fastened to a couple of stakes or broom handles to figure out placement to block what you want to block. Then you can take photos of the size needed and place stakes to remind you of where you want the most screening. Often a solid “wall” of plants isn’t needed and something that has variation as well as repetition and gaps for borrowed landscape is helpful.

Chelsea the giant 'rose bush' is a Camelia. Evergreen but unscented and not so long flowering as a rose. I don't know about the USA but I doubt you could buy one that big here and it would cost you a small fortune.

Look for climbing roses, and the one in your photo likely has a rose obelisk under there providing support. No you cannot purchase one at this size. Gardening is a life lesson in patience, and most plants settle in better when smaller and within a few years surpass ones planted larger. Ask about disease resistant climbing roses for your area on the rose forum.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/roses Edited to add that I am sure that floral is correct.

At the very least, wait to plant until you have figured out what and where you want to plant. It will save money and the need to redo mistakes. Even as a very experienced gardener, I typically spend the first season preparing the beds, mulching them to prevent weeds, and planning. Then I plant in early autumn when the weather is cooler, days are shorter, plants are often on sale, and rain is more regular so that plants settle in well. Figure out things such as, would a small flowering tree near the house provide a better view or would shrubs closer to the road? How much work and time do I want to spend in the front garden? Where is there sun and shade at different times of the year as the sun changes position with the seasons? Where will I store the trash cans and the lawn mower? Many of these are questions that won’t be answered until you have lived here for a bit. (so we are back to gardening being a life lesson in patience.). For instant gratification, get a couple of big pots and stuff them full of bright flowering annuals or get some seeds for scarlet runner beans and grow them up a teepee of poles to attract humming birds.

In the long run, for appeal as you come home I would plan on at the very least planting a flowering large shrub or small tree diagonally off both house corners. Look up the expected size of the tree or shrub (not just the plant tag which often gives a 5 year size) and then divide in half and add a couple of feet to find how far from the building to plant. You don’t want a plant rubbing against the building at maturity. So a plant that will reach 14’ wide should be planted 7+2=9 feet from the building. That gives it room to get a bit bigger than expected if happy and room to move in the wind without damaging roof or siding. It will look sparse at first, so fill in with short lived perennials or annuals. Growing from seed can be a budget friendly way to get more plants to fill in.

When you plant along the foundation, a few things to note about the planting in the photo above.

-The bed is reasonably spacious, and because your house is tall and with high windows, you will want a bed that is at least 8’ deep front to back to look good. As with the trees plan to place plants with some space between their ultimate size and the wall so siding can dry out, so depending on what you plant, you may need to make the bed wider for plants that will grow large or have a couple rows of plants which are smaller. Choose plant heights that won’t grow up in front of the windows for the best appearance from outside.

-The bed in the photo isn’t edged, so grass will grow in and it looks a bit ragged. A crisp edge cut with a deep V or else a mowing strip of brick or patio block inset to ground level and held in place with metal or plastic edging, also set with the top at ground level, will keep grass out and look tidy.

- The bed pictured has a single lonely line of plants in a sea of mulch. A garden bed may start out looking sparse, and can be filled in temporarily with annuals as I mentioned above, but your ultimate goal for an attractive bed should have mostly plants with little mulch needed. Just be sure when planting you allow room for your plants to grow to their expected size.

As floral ponted out, there is NO rose in that photo!! That is a Camellia, a large growing evergreen shrub that needs no obelisk to support it :-) You can get some good sized ones here at nurseries, but nothing that big. I would guess that was transplanted from another garden. It is also a very good plant choice for NC.

What Babs said about patience is key. But if you own a home, it's not that hard to find distractions -- all kinds of projects to focus on -- and before you know it, the plants will have gotten big. The Camellia is lovely and it would make a great screening shrub. Though it is not particularly fast, it's still worth the wait. There are bookoo different kinds. Get a Camellia catalog and start dreaming.