<p>I’m thinking about moving when my lease ends in July. My place is fine, but the commute seems to be more than I feel like dealing with. Where I work is a bit removed from downtown, and I live pretty close to downtown. The main reason I moved here is because the rent was lower than anything I could find near work but I am thinking it may be worth an extra couple hundred a month to not have to deal with this commute. My commute going to work is typically about 25 minutes but sometimes when the weather is bad it can be upwards of 45 minutes. Going home is usually not too bad (about 20 minutes) but I don’t leave until after rush hour is over at about 6:30 or so most days. When I attempted to leave at 5:20 once, it took nearly an hour to get back home. Additionally, I’m finding myself spending about $120-$150 a month on gas, and putting nearly 200 miles on my car a week, which erodes a lot of the difference in rent. </p>
<p>I’m currently paying $388 a month for rent, and I could live about 10 minutes from work (with less variable traffic - so should consistently be about 10 minutes commute) for about $650-$700 a month. </p>
<p>However, there are some advantages of living closer to downtown. There are more restaurants in the area, there’s a couple of grocery stores literally walking distance (so far this year it’s only hit double digits a few times so I just drive, but one is about 5 minutes walk and the other maybe 10 minutes walk). Where I would move would be surrounded by undeveloped land. </p>
<p>Anyone else face this before? What do you guys think about it?</p>
<p>All us have faced this kind of decision. Only you can decide whether the time you spend commuting and the money you spend on gas and car repairs are worth it for your current choice of home. You have only mentioned convenience of grocery shopping. Is there anything else that you would miss if you moved out of your current place? For example, do you actually take advantage of all kinds of cheap or free stuff in the city that would be harder to access if you moved?</p>
<p>Well, there’s a pretty big liquor store walking distance as well. Kind of in between the two different grocery stores. Also I live practically right next to a gas station, so if I ever need gas I don’t really have to make much of a trip. </p>
<p>I would from April-October I think, but I’ve only been here a month and a half and it’s not gotten warm enough for me to deal with parking half a mile from wherever I’m trying to go downtown and then walking. But even in the summer, I’m still too far from downtown to walk from my apartment (depending on where exactly it’d be 2-3 miles), but I would be more inclined to go and park wherever there’s parking available and walk to where I’m trying to go. </p>
<p>But even in the summer, I’m definitely going to go to work more frequently than downtown. </p>
<p>Of my two roommates, the one who would otherwise stay past July if I were to say is nice. And he cooks a lot and shares. The other roommate is going to move to California in June. </p>
<p>There’s no right answer to this question. I’ve had commutes as long as an hour to working at home. The long commutes were okay as long as I was on public transportation and could read, but I would not have liked to have driven them regularly. (I had to occasionally when I was asked to do something on the job the involved visiting job sites.) Some people just buy food, go to bars etc. near where they work and live somewhere cheaper. Others like to live somewhere with places to hike or have a garden. It’s really a matter of what is important to you. Personally for driving, I don’t like to go much over 15 to 20 minutes.</p>
<p>It sounds to me like you already think moving is the right choice, and I am inclined to agree with you based on your priorities. We’ve never lived in a downtown area and always have a 10-20 minute drive if we want to do something fun. It doesn’t slow us down. It doesnt sound like you get to take full advantage of living close to downtown anyway. It’s a shame you can’t get a better rent price, because almost doubling your rent for a 10-15 minute difference most days seems a little silly, but at least around here $388 for rent is unbelivably cheap and $650-$700 that is clean and not in a bad neighborhood is a great deal, so that colors my perspective. To me, you can’t go wrong with either one and you clearly want a shorter commute-- although it seems like on most days you’re not getting THAT much shorter of a commute. So it dependso n how you weigh it.</p>
<p>I have an 8 minute commute now, and though I’d pick it over my 25 or 40 minute commutes I’ve done in the past, it does have some disadvantages. My route now is way less predictable and in bad weather, or in the event of an accident or a traffic light being out (which happens frequently), it can be an entire hour. So sometimes I am 45 minutes late for work, sometimes I am 45 minutes early. I had to get a different car because the freeways are plowed first and my roads weren’t getting plowed until I had already had to drive to work and back before a plow or salt truck ever came by, and my old car couldn’t do it. I get no flexibilty for bad weather when other people do. I had a much easier time getting to work when I could take the freeway for most of the way, it just took longer! But it’s worth it since most days aren’t like that. It’s a balance based on your own priorities, nobody can decide for you.</p>
<p>Note that time is not the only factor in the commute, or when choosing residence and work locations with commuting as a criterion.</p>
<p>For example, riding public transportation is less annoying than the same time commute that you drive, since you can rest, read, etc. while riding public transportation.</p>
<p>If your commute is under your own power (walk, run, bicycle, etc.), that can be extra exercise without having to take as much extra time out of your day to exercise.</p>
<p>The biggest issue other than costs is what the change is in your commuting time. I think it is useful to consider the change in the commute time as a fraction of your “free” time. Many commutes wind up adding enough additional time so that it takes half or more of what used to be your free time. That’s ok if you have your eyes open about it. </p>
<p>Actually, I was planning on taking the bus frequently before I moved here, but it’s been so cold here that I haven’t wanted to wait outside for 3 minutes to wait for the bus. But the forecast for all of next week is double digits, so I may look into it. Maybe I’ll feel different about it. The full bus fare is still cheaper every day than the gas to and from (though only by about $1.50 a day), and there are commuter passes and stuff that can bring the cost down some. I might give it a shot.</p>
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<p>Well, my free time is about 14 hours a day and this would reduce my commute by about 25 minutes so it’s not a huge fraction really. I was thinking of it more of a thing of how much I get paid per hour (I’m salaried, but if I divided it out) and how much I save by living where I do, it seems like it would be worth the ~$300 a month extra. But the other thought is that the free time I get from that may not really be worth all that much to me. At $13.70 extra per working day, that’s the difference between eating something good for lunch and dinner over a packed sandwich and boiled pasta. </p>
<p>I don’t know what kind of city you live in, but if you can live closer to work and give up your car? When you want to go downtown can you take bus or rail? That would more than make up the rent difference. </p>
<p>I own the car outright so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to get rid of it. The buses aren’t available all night, so I still need a car sometimes. This is not a place I can go completely without a car. </p>
<p>Additionally, I wouldn’t be able to move walking distance from work. There are no apartments that close. If I wanted to do that my only option there is to buy a house. </p>
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<p>Well, there’s a very good reason why I didn’t get a job there… Or California. </p>
<p>So the math…does 10 dollars a day savings (saving 300/month for rent) pay for 10-15 hours a month (30 min/day x 21 days) in extra commute time.? You make (or rather don’t spend) 20 to 30 dollars an hour driving in your car for the excess commute time. You’ll have to subtract your gas SAVINGS from that total. Say 75 dollars (you say 150-200 total for month so you get about half). </p>
<p>From what you say, you can’t cut much out EXCEPT the commute time so the savings are greater with the lesser rent. No matter what you do you still need a car and parking. But I get it–commuting gets very old. A lot depends on other factors–do you like your place? Got friends? Try audio books, car pooling and see if it helps. Using that commute time to relax in some way makes a huge difference in your attitude towards it.</p>
<p>My D moved further away from her work (I cringed with her new commute in comparison to the short distance she had previously) but she is enjoying it a lot more. Her friends live near by, it’s cheaper, she can carpool regularly and in her off time she’s got more social outlets.<br>
Just make a list of priorities and go from there.</p>
<p>How young are you? As a longtime commuter (worst was 75 mi each way and through 3 traffic jam points - and rotten weather through winter,) here’s my vote: indulge yourself, live where you want to live, where friends are and you can have fun. If the weather has held you back from exploring the city, see if spring and summer open more possibilities. </p>
<p>When I was under 30, I commuted 30 miles through CA traffic and got to know the jam patterns. But I lived near the beach, practically on the beach. It was worth it.</p>
<p>^Exactly, one summer I commuted from Pasadena to a job located at LAX. I had to get on a 6AM bus to get there. But since my boyfriend (now husband) was at Caltech, I never considered living anywhere else. Luckily when I moved out there after I graduated, I was able to find a job with a much shorter commute!</p>
<p>What services/entertainment are available around where you work? Unless you plan on sitting at home every night then you maybe better off downtown. 25 min commute is not that long. I would think being closer to downtown would be more fun for a young person.</p>
<p>I don’t know where you live and work but from your description it sounds a lot like Minneapolis-Saint Paul. If that’s the case, or if it’s anything like here, I’d encourage you not to move to the suburbs at least until you’ve spent a summer in the city. IMO, the suburbs around here are deathly dull, and for a young, single person I can’t imagine a worse choice. So you save 20-30 minutes per day (roundtrip) on the commute, and you do what with that? Spend more time in front of your TV or on Facebook? More quality time at the shopping mall? </p>
<p>Winter in the Upper Midwest can be brutal (this one more than most, recently), and it can force everyone to spend most of their time indoors, but the cities come alive in the summer. There’s so much more to see and do–music, theater, street fairs, ethnic festivals, farmers’ markets, restaurants, bars, sidewalk cafes, museums, spectator sports, participatory sports, you name it. You’re not giving any Upper Midwest city a fair shake unless you spend a summer there.</p>
<p>When we first moved to Minnesota, we were in the habit of leaving for a chunk of every summer, because we could. Longtime Minnesotans thought we were crazy: “Why would you leave in the SUMMER? It’s what makes life here worth living!” Turns out, they were right.</p>
<p>I live and work in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, and I have a great commute (18 minutes each way, with minimal traffic). </p>
<p>But many of the younger people in my company – both the singles and those who have partners but no children – prefer to live in Washington and reverse-commute to our suburban offices, even though there are plenty of nice apartments and condos in the suburbs. Their travel time is much longer than mine, but they think it’s worth it. Their rationale: The suburbs are meant for families. They’re a deadly dull place for young adults who don’t have children. The young people are willing to spent more time commuting on the weekdays in exchange for having a more active and interesting lifestyle on the weekends (and for the more energetic among them, even on weekend evenings).</p>
<p>I don’t know what metropolitan area you live in, but perhaps the things that my younger colleagues care about might also be important to you. </p>
<p>I think it depends on what you value most- where you live, or the length of your commute.</p>
<p>Before I married, my commute was 15 minutes. Even then, I could have moved to the town where my school was located, but I would have had a much longer drive to movie theaters, shopping, restaurants, etc.</p>
<p>After I married, my commute was 30-35 minutes. Yes, it was inconvenient, but I was living in a more desirable neighborhood, better school district for our kids, and much closer to the aforementioned conveniences. It was always worth it to me except during those 30-35 minutes I was driving. </p>
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