Urbanization and CV19

[littlejerry]

I would imagine the job you had was largely responsible for the effect you are putting down on the commute.

I can not afford to and do not want to live in the Big City where all the jobs are, so I commute some 40 miles each way. My girlfriend travels to the same city for work, so I have to drive by her workplace first - it takes me about 1.5h to commute one way on a normal day. (My worst trip home took about 2.5h during a nasty winter storm... Now that was brutal, but of course I only had to do it once.) If my girlfriend is not going to work I might get to my work place in one hour, if there is a lot of traffic it might take me 2 hours.

Is the commute time-consuming? Yes. Is it rough? Sometimes. Is it worth it, in order to not live in a city? Hell yes. And despite the time sink that work is, I've managed to inch my level of fitness slowly higher since moving here. I guess like in everything else in life, it's all about how much you value something. If living outside of the city is important enough, you'll figure out a way to make it work. If not, you won't. And you always have to trade something for something else - there are things I do not have time for, because work consumes so much of my time. But I do like to eat and to have some place to live, so (like an idiot) I keep going there.

No doubt, the job was a component. I think of it like diet and exercise though: the two are intertwined. A good job with flexible hours will enable a longer commute. A short commute enables a more demanding job. But really what you want to go for is a short commute and a flexible job. It's that middle ground @Nephrology is referring to. Decent employer outside of downtown and a house in the burbs. People dog on Atlanta for having terrible traffic(and it does) but it also has some great burbs and a ton of employers.

Do the math sometime on your commute. Cutting 30 minutes from your commute is 5 hours per week. Assume 48 work weeks per year and that's 240 hours. That's 6 40-hour work weeks or 10 24-hour days of your life every year. How much is your time worth to you? It adds up over time.

[Chain]

Do the math sometime on your commute. Cutting 30 minutes from your commute is 5 hours per week. Assume 48 work weeks per year and that's 240 hours. That's 6 40-hour work weeks or 10 24-hour days of your life every year. How much is your time worth to you? It adds up over time.

Yeah, definitely wise to at least consider it in that manner before just chalking up the commute as a given.

Out where I'm at a lot of people do long commutes to coal mines, and while it does pay well especially when they get a lot of overtime, I don't think people always consider the cost of the commute, both in terms of time and money.
$30/hr for 10 hours = $300 day
a round trip 2 hour commute = 300/12 = $25/hr
IRS mileage rate = $0.58/mi, 120 mile round trip = $70, 300-70 = 230, 230/12 = $19/hr

The book "Your Money Or Your Life" is a good read that addresses some of these ideas. https://yourmoneyoryourlife.com/book-summary/

[ranger]

What is the dollar value of having wife and kids in suburbs vs in downtown while you are out of the country working or deployed?

[That Guy]

Do the math sometime on your commute. Cutting 30 minutes from your commute is 5 hours per week. Assume 48 work weeks per year and that's 240 hours. That's 6 40-hour work weeks or 10 24-hour days of your life every year. How much is your time worth to you? It adds up over time.

You have it backwards. How much is it worth to not have to live like a sardine in a can in the city or in an overpriced house on a postage stamp sized lot in the suburbs? The answer is: quite a lot.

[Joe in PNG]

Different strokes for different folks, YMMV, and all that.

For some, the idea of being able to take a short walk to an assortment of nice restaurants, stores, and other locations is extraordinarily attractive.
Others would rather be able to walk all day without being able to see a single neighbor. If that means grocery shopping or the commute takes an hour one way, then it's totally worth it.

[rob_s]

I guess I'm not most people because I know all of that stuff. I'm still not living in a metro area with 3 million people. I did that for about 20 years of my life. You can have it. This black death thing just makes heavily populated urban areas even less desirable. So far over 1000 people have died in NY. They have a lot of good hospitals, no doubt.

Funny. This is the forum all about “it’s not the odds, it’s the stakes” yet when it comes to the kungflu it’s BOTH

https://apple.news/A_afYlNFpSOOl17IhkwxXbg

[ranger]

So, CV19 is a kick in the head to living in high density urban areas. How about rioting and looting - will that impact the former trend toward living in large urban areas? I know several people who sold their suburban home after kids moved out and relocated to downtown Atlanta so they could walk to restaurants, etc. Wonder if they reconsider?

[blues]

So, CV19 is a kick in the head to living in high density urban areas. How about rioting and looting - will that impact the former trend toward living in large urban areas? I know several people who sold their suburban home after kids moved out and relocated to downtown Atlanta so they could walk to restaurants, etc. Wonder if they reconsider?

"Eat here and get gassed" ?

[TheRoland]

So, CV19 is a kick in the head to living in high density urban areas. How about rioting and looting - will that impact the former trend toward living in large urban areas? I know several people who sold their suburban home after kids moved out and relocated to downtown Atlanta so they could walk to restaurants, etc. Wonder if they reconsider?

This is an anecdote, but I know a bunch of people in downtown NYC. They're basically all looking to buy "summer" homes in places outside the city now. I would imagine property prices in rural areas within a couple hours of cities are going to go way up but a lot of the jobs aren't moving.

[Borderland]

We live in a fairly rural community. Our property values have been going up before Covid and riots. They were up 6.4% over the last year. They were projected to flatten over the next year but I doubt that will be the case now. Probably just keep going up.

We were getting ready to move to a city north of us but I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen now. We dodged most of the covid spread and there won't be any looters in this neighborhood. They don't call 911 out here first thing because they won't be coming for awhile.