View Full Version : Choosing where to live
I've noticed an interesting split in people's reasoning when purchasing a home. Some seem to prefer to buy in their ideal area, even if it means taking a car, train, and subway 1.5 hours or more each way just to get to work. They would typically say "it's worth it just to be able to spend my weekends and off time in my dream house".
Others seem to prefer to compromise a bit on their dream house to be closer to work or other activities so that they can save money on commuting costs as well as have more actual time to be at home, with family, etc.
Which group do you fall in? how do you feel about your choice today? Wish you had chosen the other option?
(I am sure there are some here who didn't have to choose and got their dream house and it's only 10 minutes away from work. While you're not the target audience of this thread, if you'd like to post just to gloat and make yourself feel better please feel free :p)
Reagans Rascals
03-29-12, 07:29
I think the idea of a "dream house" is a fallacy.... there will always be something bigger and better you want down the road.
I myself go by geographic location.
I would prefer to be far enough out of the city and having enough land to do whatever I choose to. If I had to be in the city, then I would be in the city able to walk to any bar or store within a few minutes.
The suburbs are shit.... you aren't close enough to walk anywhere, but you aren't far enough out of town to shoot or camp or go hiking on your own property. Just stuck in the middle ground.
I would choose geographic location, and physical land size.... you can't build those 2 things...you either have it or you don't... you can build a house any way you want it if you have the land.
commuter 1hr drive ~40mi one way. currently, its totally worth it.
5yrs ago we moved for numerous reasons. my dad is a custom home builder, and in this county (at the time) land wasn't getting filled with cookie cutter zero lot line sub divisions. we didn't have kids at the time and was going to sell in a couple of years to build the next one. this house is great, but a lot of things we did, were with the plans of selling (mass appeal if you will).
moving closer to work would have cost us twice the price with much less house & yard. plus building where you want is tough in jax cause single lots are very hard to find.
anyway, the reason its worth it... we've had a couple of girls, so now we are doing family things, and a couple of years ago we did a family beach trip. i grew up on the beach so i thought id enjoy it. man that was a pain in the ass. all the bullshit i had to carry back and forth from our wagon because we had to use a public beach access, but the look on my girls face priceless. when i grew up you could drive on 90% of our beach. so the family would pack the truck and drive up to the water. so i sold my gto, bought a 4x4, and from last spring to fall, every possible Sunday we could, we went to the beach. we have 4-6 other families that meet up, and we build the redneck water park.
https://www.m4carbine.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=11687&stc=1&d=1333024006
ffhounddog
03-29-12, 07:30
I am in the middle with working in DC. When I got here everything inside the beltway was 600K or higher and found a place outside for 2300 a month. You have to remember DC prices are not normal for anywhere buy New York and California. I drive 7 miles to the train station and take the train into DC. About the only way I can afford it with parking costing $16-$22 a day in DC and not many places will let you park a truck.
Would I move farther out? Maybe if I found the house of my dreams and gas was not $4.00 an gallon.
Reagans Rascals
03-29-12, 07:33
commuter 1hr drive ~40mi one way. currently, its totally worth it.
5yrs ago we moved for numerous reasons. my dad is a custom home builder, and in this county (at the time) land wasn't getting filled with cookie cutter zero lot line sub divisions. we didn't have kids at the time and was going to sell in a couple of years to build the next one. this house is great, but a lot of things we did, were with the plans of selling (mass appeal if you will).
moving closer to work would have cost us twice the price with much less house & yard. plus building where you want is tough in jax cause single lots are very hard to find.
anyway, the reason its worth it... we've had a couple of girls, so now we are doing family things, and a couple of years ago we did a family beach trip. i grew up on the beach so i thought id enjoy it. man that was a pain in the ass. all the bullshit i had to carry back and forth from our wagon because we had to use a public beach access, but the look on my girls face priceless. when i grew up you could drive on 90% of our beach. so the family would pack the truck and drive up to the water. so i sold my gto, bought a 4x4, and from last spring to fall, every possible Sunday we could, we went to the beach. we have 4-6 other families that meet up, and we build the redneck water park.
https://www.m4carbine.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=11687&stc=1&d=1333024006
I was born in Jax.. went to Fletcher in Neptune Beach... what parts are you from?
I think it depends alot on what you do..In my case I work construction,(I'm a pipefitter) so, I usually have to commute to work, usually about an hour, sometimes a little more...In 30 yrs I've had exactly 3 jobs within 10 minutes of the house.. So, I bought a house where I wanted to live..I've got a little over 2 yrs to go before I can retire at 60, I'm just hoping my '99 Honda CRV (it's got about 208,000miles on it) will hold up another 2 years.. But, overall, I'm happy with my choice, I'm in a good location,I'm just outside of the city limits by 300'. I'm "in town" but I'm not, So I don't have to pay city taxes, and after I retire,It'll be great..
montanadave
03-29-12, 07:58
My wife and I are very fortunate. We live in a small city (<150K) and our modest home (built in the 40's, remodeled, about 1500 sq. ft. including the finished basement) is located in an older neighborhood in a nice section of town. I actually live within a half mile of both the houses my parents owned when I was a kid growing up and my parents still live just down the street. We both worked in health care (she still does) and the local medical corridor is within walking distance of our house. There's a large city park 3 blocks down the street and we have a bakery/coffee shop/cafe around the corner.
And we just purchased 220 acres of meadow and timber with great mountain views sitting above the Yellowstone River less than 60 miles away. Takes less than an hour to get from the back door to the front gate.
You did say it was OK to just gloat, right? :dance3:
Others seem to prefer to compromise a bit on their dream house to be closer to work or other activities so that they can save money on commuting costs as well as have more actual time to be at home, with family, etc.
The above for me is key because I have 3 very young children. Having a short commute means I can be home in time for T-ball practice for my sons or gymnastics for my daughter. I can take the kids to the pool in the summertime after work. As close as I am to where I work I still don't get as much time with them as I like and a further commute would make that even worse.
I think it depends greatly on your situation. If you have children, then family is the MOST important thing. So if you can avoid any type of long drive, that is a good thing.
Then again, if you do not have kids a longer drive in order to get a better place to live might be worth it.
For my wife and I, we were both .Gov Contractors and G&R Tactical was a huge home based business when our first son was born. We were well compensated in our Govt jobs, but we soon realized that day care wasn't something for us and my wife quit her job. So I continued on working for the Govt during the day and working on G&R Tactical at night and on the weekends. I was running myself into the ground and my family life was sucking.
So to fix it, I quit my job with the Govt and moved to rural Ohio where I walk to work and see my kids all day, every day. No commute, no traffic and no wasted time away from the family. Do I make a lot less money now? Yep. Was it worth it? Yep
C4
I was born in Jax.. went to Fletcher in Neptune Beach... what parts are you from?
Fernandina Beach, just north of jax, little drinking town with a fishing problem.
CarlosDJackal
03-29-12, 08:44
I am definitely a location guy. I used to commute 3-hours to work in NoVA and DC from Baltimore. I hate the DC area and refuse to live there. I would rather spend a quarter of my life commuting than to live inside the Capital Beltway.
I only live 10-miles from my current job and it's great. While the "commute" can get irritating because a lot of people in this area (Charlottesville, VA) has the annoying habit of driving on the passing lane at or below the posted speed limit,; it still beats DC or NoVA traffic.
When I bought my house back in 2001 I had to commute almost 30-miles. But it was worth it because I live at the end of a cul-de-sac off the beaten path and my property is surrounded by 40-acres of zoned Agricultural property.
The only down side is I am almost a hour away from the range (Gun Club). :(
We're still in the 1st home we purchsed. Our mortgage is less than rent would be for the same house & we still have equity in it. We absolutely loved this place until they put a Walmart about 1/2 mile down the road. Now the neighborhood pretty much sucks as varmints travel to & from the king of Chinese crap superstore. My wife will be going back to work in less than a year (so she says) once our little guy is in kindergarten. Once we have a 2nd income, we're burning rubber from the city. We'll be looking for at least 5+ acres about 1/2 hour up the hill.
I'm not sure we will ever be in the perfect house in the perfect location, but moving to the country is a big step in the right direction.
Army Chief
03-29-12, 10:44
I think you've got to strike a balance, which is obviously easier said than done. I'm not especially tolerant of long commutes, so for me anything over ~30 minutes one-way is probably a deal-breaker. On the other hand, most cookie-cutter subdivisions and popular neighborhoods leave much to be desired, unless you actually have the means to do the whole "modest home in an upscale community" thing. Living in Europe for 10 years has also left me admittedly underwhelmed with what we consider to be acceptable build quality in this country, so structural soundness is another one of those intangibles that I tend to weigh more heavily than some.
For me, these factors would (and do) affect my willingness to even accept a given job or assignment, as it is important to me to be able to strike that balance I mentioned. This does force a few compromises, but as Grant said, at some point you've got to take stock of the impact that the job -- and location -- are having upon your family time. The best job in the world isn't worth doing if you're never home, and the finest home you can imagine isn't worth owning if it means that you're always stressed and short of time getting to/from it.
So, for me, a nearby-ish home in a nicer-than-usual area is pretty much the ticket -- at least as long as my place of employment dictates where I spend the majority of my workdays. Once I'm finally free to spend my days as I please, like most of us, I tend to think of getting a few acres well outside of city limits where I can put a little distance between myself and society-at-large, savor a bit more personal freedom and ponder some stuff -- 'cause I'm deep like that. ;)
AC
TriumphRat675
03-29-12, 10:51
Living in Europe for 10 years has also left me admittedly underwhelmed with what we consider to be acceptable build quality in this country, so structural soundness is another one of those intangibles that I tend to weigh more heavily than some.
Isn't that the truth...
As of five or six years ago, IIRC building codes in Houston allowed four story structures to be made out of wood...in an area that gets hit by hurricanes and powerful storms routinely...
New construction in my area is garbage, and terrible looking to boot.
LowSpeed_HighDrag
03-29-12, 11:15
My wife and I moved out to CA in 09 and got a house on base that was walking distance from my work. We hated it, even though there was no commuting. So we moved about 20min away off base to a place we really liked and it was a great tradeoff. After a few years I got tasked out to another unit that was much further away and ended up having 45min-1hr trips to and from work, and that caused my quality of life to really drop. Getting up at 4am to drive to PT, and getting released at 1830 only to spend an hour driving home 5-6 days a week was just terrible.
So, for me, I will take a little longer drive for a better place, but not when it starts taking me 45min+ to get to work.
Currently my Fiance and I live in a 950SF condo which for the last 2.5 years and for another 5 or so will be our "dream home" lol
Price in NJ are ridiculous and honestly, we found a great deal in the same town my parents live, about 17 miles from where she works and 12 miles from where I work. We can car-pool if we want, which does save money. When choosing this place we considered what we can afford, location and our tastes. It was a Co-Op that was switching to a condo and a lot of people could not afford the price of conversion. We bought it cheap, and being an Architect I drew up a full set of drawings, we had the place COMPLETELY gutted and the interior rebuilt to out liking. Moved the kitchen and so on. It became our dream home.
Next step will be to find land in PA, and design/build a single family dream home. I started the initial design long ago, and work on it from time to time, it WILL be exactly what we want. If I am still with the same firm I am with now, we have an office in PA, and I will move offices. The reason for PA is that its still close to family and friends, only a short drive away but empty land does exist, and its not nearly as expensive as NJ.
turdbocharged
03-29-12, 11:53
Born and raised here. I have a romanticized loyalty to this town, but my wife and I wanted to live in the country. Unfortunately you have to drive pretty far out of town for that. Personally I refuse to drive more than an hour for work. I don't know how you country folk support yourselves living so far away from big cities. Anyway new homes are going for super cheap right now and we built one on an acre lot in a suburb. It's sort of settling but not really, I just can't imagine driving an hour or more to work just so I have 6 acres to go shooting in my backyard. (There are plenty of indoor ranges around here.) Actually things work out really nice for us as we carpool and don't have to pay for parking downtown. I love it here the only thing I want now is a new Mustang GT,not gonna happen though :(.
ICANHITHIMMAN
03-29-12, 12:44
For us it was loaction. We have been in our second house for over 3 years and the only complaint is the road we are on is a little to bussy at times. I want to live further south of the city than we are as you get more for your money but the wife did not want to drive more than 30 min to work. At the time I was a Union Ironworker and I would drive anywhere from 20 min to 2 hours for work.
We live in the country and my closest neighbore is about 400 yards away through the woods. Its right on the edge of rurual. My wifes job offered her 8k to move to the city where she works I told her NO ****ING WAY.
My wife and I live in a condo in northern VA. Traffic sucks but we work reasonably close by so it's not terrible. I chose having a balance between commuting, living where I wanted to, and getting something that will hopefully appreciate in value. Maybe one day I'll have a dream house.
My wife and i found a really cool neighborhood on the outskirts of Phoenix where we bought our house. Its surrounded by mountains which keeps the city noise and light down. We both have about a 15 mile, 20ish minute, commute to and from work.
Another thing we really like about our community is its really nice. If it wasnt for the down housing market there is no way we could afford to live where we do. There are a lot of custom homes and Ive counted 2 lamborghinis driving around. Id much rather be the "poor" people in a good neighborhood than the "rich" people in a shity one.
Location is key.
You cannot buy or build neighbors and easy access to things that are important to you and your family.
Proximity to schools, stores, restaurants, ranges and work all should be factored in.
Security, defensibility and proximity to likely problem areas may be factors as well.
At this point in time location is key. I was lucky enough to find a nice home in a very stable neighborhood that is within bicycle riding distance to work if need be. My kids school is about halfway between work and home. So I drive them to school every morning and take lunch when they get out of school so I can pick them up and drop them off at home. Luckily our home is still appreciating. Hopefully when the kids go to college we can make plans to build our dream home. Preferrably, at least 30-50 acreas of land and far enough outside of the city to not be bothered but close enough to not to have to take a vacation just to get to the store. Right now I've made the compromise.
After I win Mega Millions tomorrow the only commute I'll have is from the bed to the head. :)
Seriously speaking, no more than 30 minutes commute time for me. I think you have to find the right area and balance the equation. I used to live in HB, CA and I could get to work in 30 minutes and some days it'd take 2 hours to get home, F that! I hate being stuck in traffic.
I have multiple acres out in the sticks, just as things should be IMHO. "The Compound" as I jokingly refer to it (tightens tin-foil hat) is separated by trees and elevation from the road, good fields of view, space to shoot and hunt, big garden, etc. I can support myself from this place for a long time, the community is pretty tight, and there is a good local school.
Just what I wanted, I prefer to avoid the smog and car horns/police sirens.
I work from home, so as long as I've got high-speed internet, I'm fine, it's really all about being somewhere with clean air and low population density.
I don't have a choice in that I needed good schools for my kids. living outside the ATL area I have access within 40 minutes to mountain wilderness and to all the big city benefits with a short commute but live in a fairly rural setting.
my "dream house", once the kids are out of college, will be in the mountains with a nice amount of property and fresh water. my wife loves the beach but I couldn't see living there - too many tourists.
we love to snow ski as well but I'll never again live where it snows enough to make this a weekend deal. can always visit...
DeltaSierra
03-29-12, 18:50
I don't know how you country folk support yourselves living so far away from big cities.
Ummm....
Well, I work for a living - unlike you city slickers...;)
I'm from a very rural part of the country, where the only local work is in agriculture.
What you have to remember is that in farming country, the cost of living is lower than in the city, so we can get by on a good bit less income.
theblackknight
04-01-12, 15:57
I drive a hour each day to base, but its worth it because there is no civilization any closer and wife goes to school here.
I like NC because of all the mil/shooters we have in state,Im never without feeling humbled by real dudes. I can surf and MTB in one day and still have guns(ahem cali). Wilmington has a good mix of people,artsy things going on,farmers markets are a way of life, film industry, 2 rad ranges, beaches and surfing but isnt all touristy like florida in the spring.
My wife and I recently bought a home. At the time, it meant about a 30 minute commute each way. Then I changed jobs, now I have to drive into Seattle which ends up being about 45 minutes in the morning and around an hour in the evening. I have to get up a bit earlier than I would otherwise, but I almost enjoy the commute itself as it provides some 'me' time, whereas at work/home someone always needs *something*.
Plus we were able to get a home in a quiet area with great neighbors, a acre with with cherry trees, a small woods, and wildlife and yet have a Safeway and restaurants/stores just a few miles away, CostCo/Home Depot/other stuff a few mile further, and are still fairly close to Seattle. (This surveys are always kind of dumb, but this gives an idea of where we are: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2011/snapshots/PL5361115.html) Our home which is modest (about 2000 sq ft) but very nicely finished, was built in '86 but almost completely remodeled, would have been unaffordable in Seattle proper. I'm pretty damn happy with our choice.
Absent a crystal ball I cannot fault my decision in 1997 to move into a subdivision in a bedroom community about 25 miles from down town Tampa. I moved here because at the time there really wasnt much here and I could bear the 45 minute commute. I could get a good bit of house for my buck. The other benefit is that I was starting a young family. I wanted good schools and the ability for the kids to play with their friends, have side walks to use, to be able to bicycle to the library and sports fields, etc.. My plan always was to move in 2013 out into the sticks. I figured by then I would be telecommuting full time so screw the drive into work. The kids would be big enough so that they could really take advantage of the acerage and would have already established friendships. Well it nearly all worked out. The big difference is that I now own my own business and work from home. The only fly in the ointment was the housing crash.
See I moved in 2002 and refied in 2005. Mind you it was only a refi for the value of the note plus just a bit more (20K) to settle some debts. So nothing stupid or outrageous. Problem is that even with being smart like that, my house is now worth what I paid for it in January of 02. So here I am stuck. Sure I could sell and break even but that's it. But wait, there is more. Oh but then we had a sinkhole hit the house. Take that and add in the BS pulled by the FL legislature in 11 and I am truly stuck here until I walk away from it. I regret not moving into the sticks from the get go, but at the time the option wasn't available to me. Such is life.
I had my dream home already. 35 acres on a lonely stretch of road, surrounded on 3 sides by cattle ranches totalling 20,000 acres. Nearest neighbor was a quarter mile away, and he bought the hay off my field. Wet weather creek, 2 ponds (catfish & crappie in one, bass & bluegill in the other), deer, turkey and quail. The opposite side of the creek had a large steep bank that made an excellent natural backstop for my private 100yd range. The 2,469 sq ft home had a full length sunroom that looked over one of the wooded ponds. The wife and I cataloged almost 50 different species of birds. It was beautiful.
The commute was 50 miles & 50 minutes to work each way. Hardly anyone ever came to see us out there (we're not the hermit type). Grocery shopping (and anything else) was 18 miles away and there were no quick runs to the convenience store for something you forgot. I spent about 10-15 hours a week keeping the place up. Between that and nearly 2 hours a day commute, we lasted 2 years.
Now I live 14 miles and 17 minutes from work. Convenience store, groceries and 3 fast food places are only 2-3 minutes from the home. I have an acre in an edition that backs up to a 20 acre farm. It takes about 2 hours a week to keep the place up. I have a 26'X30' shop to store all my toys indoors. I see friends and family a lot more often now. The next door neighbors became great friends and we hang out, grill, watch each other's places, even hit the range together. It's 15-30 minutes to three different ranges, and 40 minutes to a range that's been NRA range of the year before and you can shoot to a thousand yards. It's 25 minutes to the nearest boat ramp and about 15 minutes to a 7 acre pond I have access to. I'm near enough to everything I need, but far enough out that urban crime and traffic are not a concern.
Yeah, I lost my "dream" setup, but overall I'm much happier and more relaxed. Everything I need and nothing I don't! :D
I visited a friend yesterday that lives exactly where I'd like to. It was 100 miles round trip from me, and I'm a good 20 miles from work now. So figure 150 miles round trip each day if I were to live there. Besides the issue of the time spent in the car (which would be an hour each way if I was lucky) there is the issue of the $600/month or so in gas alone.
I guess I'm going to have to grin and bear it and live with the shitbirds. There are shitbirds out where he lives too, but they are more my kind of shitbirds.
I had to strike a balance. Anything much more than 30 minutes drive time was getting dicey. Luckily the suburbs of north of Houston are generally pretty nice and 30 minutes of highway cruising gets you far enough away into fairly a affluent area with lake & river access. There's a 4,800 acre wilderness park 30 minutes north for camping, and I can walk to the lake shore. I've got access to all the shopping I need and I can drive into the big city fairly easily if i wanted to (but I don't :) ) It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn comfortable.
As a rule, I like to be in the "sweet spot" where I can get into town to do "city stuff" within 20-30 mins drive, or head in the opposite direction and be in the woods, range, etc within approx same time frame. The area should be upscale, low crime, stuff to do close by, etc.
That's where I tend to gravitate to, and that's where I'm at in Metro West MA.
It's a very nice area. Don't have to commute, gym is minutes from my house, lots of good places to eat, etc.
Things I don't like, weather, taxes, gun laws, Mass-holes, and other issues that have me looking to leave some time. If I could just transport my nice house and quiet little neighborhood some place warmer with less living costs, etc I would.
So, instead, purchased a condo in Panama I can get away to as needed, and perhaps make a move down there depending on variables here.
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