31 Jan Why Your Commute Time Should Be High Priority During Your House Hunt
When you are house hunting, your commute time to work takes a very high priority. If you overlook the commute time while finding the perfect home, you won’t get the chance to enjoy the stay in your home if you will be spending countless hours daily stuck in traffic.
You should prioritize the factors that are important in your home/house buying process. This will help make an informed decision on where you would like to buy.
1. Home prices
Those working in big cities should house hunt in the suburbs. The suburbs are the right place to get very affordable homes. Even if your priority is a short commute to work, make sure the options you have are affordable because your chances of buying a house can be limited. This, in turn, will affect the places you can realistically shop for good homes. If you can’t afford it, continue driving and house hunting.
2. The commuting costs
The Census Bureau noted that the average commute time to work is 25.4 minutes in the United States. However, this varies widely depending on where you live. The report also showed that 10.8 million American workers have to travel for more than 60 minutes to get to work. The more time you spend on the road going to work and coming from work, the increased your monthly travel costs (gas and car/motor maintenance expenses).
3. Job flexibility
Since many workers have the freedom and luxury of suggesting their working hours, this means there is ample flexibility with working hours. If you have this privilege, you can adjust your working hours so don’t have to deal with the rush hour traffic. Moreover, many people are now telecommuting and only making a once or twice a week appearance in the office. Those who have such flexibility can comfortably survive with longer commute time.
4. Your lifestyle
Apart from the cost of the home, personal preference with regards to the kind of lifestyle we live plays an important role when house hunting. Factors like nightlife, accessibility to restaurants, outdoor parks, and population density can play an important role when picking the right place to reside in. If you are a parent with young children, you will want to spend more time with your kids, and that calls for short commute time. Also, if you have fallen in love with a particular neighborhood or community, you can tolerate driving farther to work.
5. Commuting stress
The stress levels associated with long hours of commuting to work can be incredibly exhausting. This varies from one person to another, depending on how frustrated you get after sitting behind the wheel for long hours. Recent research shows that prolonged commute time has side effects that are way deeper than just the time you spend on the road. However, some of us like the long commute since we get to listen to our favorite podcasts and music.
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