This article, published in the SLTrib, is EXACTLY what I'm talking about with my last post! Some quick math:
Living in Eagle Mountain, people average 67% of the $45,833 median income for the area on housing and transportation, or $30,708 per year. Their study shows that living along a mass-transit-accessible area reduces housing and transportation costs to as low as 35%, or $16,041, even with a more expensive home. That's at least a savings of $14,500 per year due to reducing use of the personal automobile as the primary mode of transportation. These savings are achieved due to the reduced need for vehicles (1.9 per family to 1.3), in addition to reduced operating costs of the vehicles you do keep.
The study implies that as transportation costs increase, i.e. fuel prices, so do foreclosures. Remember the stilts analogy?
I'm all for shortening the commute. When I was in Utah I lived in Bountiful and then Draper commuting 30 mins- 1 hr each way to get to work. Now I live 5 mins from work and the "quality of life" factor is huge. Even after we moved to Indiana we started out living in Columbus and I had to travel 2.5 hrs/day to get to and from work. that means 12.5 hours a week and ~50 hrs a month. That's about 3 waking days a month or one full waking month a year just in commuting that I lost...after having made the switch to the shorter commute I don't think I can EVER go back. Even if we moved to Utah I would have to find a house 5-10 mins from work. PERIOD- end of discussion. Costs of living even go beyond the mighty $- time is also money! Especially when you start thinking about raising a family and being able to spend quality time with them, etc. I love Alpine but unless I work at Micron it's not worth it. Ditto for Suncrest, Eagle Mtn, Herriman, Payson, etc. Find work, draw a 5-10 min circle around it and start house hunting. If you can't find a good home find a new job :)
ReplyDeleteExactly! Driving sucks so much life out of us--time away from the family is sooooo big for me. We bought our house where we did so we could be within easy riding distance. LOVE IT!! What are your plans? Staying in IN? Still considering grad school?
ReplyDelete