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Why does everyone put such an emphasis on living close to where your work is? Don't forget, a ton of people move to Charlotte from major cities where sitting and rotting in traffic is a daily ritual. I drove 30 miles 1 way to work and took 45 minutes to get to work in the morning and 1 hour 15 minutes to get home. If I just loved Concord and my job was in Steele Creek....I would have lived in Concord....who cares about traffic if you love your neighborhood and your home?
Doesn't the average personin the U.S. commute 1 hour per day anyway?
Besides the reasons listed another factor is if you have children your commute time is time spent away from them. More than likely their schools and afterschool care are going to be relatively close to your home. If you need to go pick up a sick or injured child, a shorter drive would better than a longer one.
IMO, I feel like people generally would rather spend their time doing anything other than sitting in traffic. Charlotte pretty much has nice neighborhoods around its perimeter on all sides. So, if you know where you work-you can find a nice neighborhood on that side of town and spend your life living, rather than sitting in your car polluting up the place. If you worked in Matthews, I wouldn't suggest living in Huntersville because every single day you would just be sitting there in your car. While Huntersville is a nice place, theres about 3-4 other places that are just as nice as Huntersville near Matthews and you cut a huge headache out of your life.
Why drive across town stuck in traffic every single day if you don't have to? I would rather have that time with my family and friends doing the things I love.
That said, there are a few places that are just a royal pain in the ..... to get to and would be a whole lot easier if you were coming at it from a different direction.
Besides the reasons listed another factor is if you have children your commute time is time spent away from them. More than likely their schools and afterschool care are going to be relatively close to your home. If you need to go pick up a sick or injured child, a shorter drive would better than a longer one.
The reasons listed may have worked 5 years ago when jobs were plentiful and people were able "choose" where they wanted to work.....now you are lucky to have a job at all, much less control where it is located. People with 4 year degrees are working $10 an hour jobs to survive much less pick the location.
The reasons listed may have worked 5 years ago when jobs were plentiful and people were able "choose" where they wanted to work.....now you are lucky to have a job at all, much less control where it is located. People with 4 year degrees are working $10 an hour jobs to survive much less pick the location.
I don't think that's necessarily true. For some job areas, such as banking and finance, jobs may be hard to come by, but there are still plenty of jobs for well educated and well qualified people in other sectors. Maybe her husband will be working from home or transferring with his current company. Who is to say?
Anyway, regarding the commute time, I think in general when people move from cities where they have to commute to smaller cities where commute time may not be a norm, having a long commute and/or sitting in traffic can really wear on you. If there's no need to drive 45 minutes to work, why do it? It's a total waste of time and resources, and completely unnecessary in a city like Charlotte.
I don't think that's necessarily true. For some job areas, such as banking and finance, jobs may be hard to come by, but there are still plenty of jobs for well educated and well qualified people in other sectors. Maybe her husband will be working from home or transferring with his current company. Who is to say?
Anyway, regarding the commute time, I think in general when people move from cities where they have to commute to smaller cities where commute time may not be a norm, having a long commute and/or sitting in traffic can really wear on you. If there's no need to drive 45 minutes to work, why do it? It's a total waste of time and resources, and completely unnecessary in a city like Charlotte.
That is kind of my point, if you don't have to commute than you wouldn't want to as nobody likes to sit in traffic but if people are coming here with job transfers like so many do, you can't control the location of that job, if the schools are good, if the area is a desireable one, if it has the things that are important to someone, etc. plus if someone has been laid off as many people have, than believe me the first job offer will not be turned down just becasue it's a little further away than someone would like it to be.
Doesn't the average personin the U.S. commute 1 hour per day anyway?
Uh, nope. Of everyone I know in my family and friends, both in NC and in other states, only 1-2 have an 1hr+ commute - and that is only because she lives way out in the country on 100+ acre farm.
There is no greater waste of time in my mind than sitting in stop and go traffic. I can handle a longer distance as long as I'm making forward motion for majority of the trip, but when it comes to sitting and not moving .. that starts to go against my "quality of life" criteria on my location. I definitely have better ways to spend my time than sitting in traffic.
Uh, nope. Of everyone I know in my family and friends, both in NC and in other states, only 1-2 have an 1hr+ commute - and that is only because she lives way out in the country on 100+ acre farm.
There is no greater waste of time in my mind than sitting in stop and go traffic. I can handle a longer distance as long as I'm making forward motion for majority of the trip, but when it comes to sitting and not moving .. that starts to go against my "quality of life" criteria on my location. I definitely have better ways to spend my time than sitting in traffic.
My apologies....it's only 48 minutes as of 6 years ago.....yes it is a waste of time, yes I'd rather be doing something else, yes I'd rather spend time with the family and pay less for gas....but my argument wasn't disputing any of those things, it was that most people especially now do not have any control where they work relative to where they live and if they fall in love with a house / neighborhood a longer commute should not hinder their decision to live there.
Why does everyone put such an emphasis on living close to where your work is? Don't forget, a ton of people move to Charlotte from major cities where sitting and rotting in traffic is a daily ritual. I drove 30 miles 1 way to work and took 45 minutes to get to work in the morning and 1 hour 15 minutes to get home. If I just loved Concord and my job was in Steele Creek....I would have lived in Concord....who cares about traffic if you love your neighborhood and your home?
Well, maybe some people DO mind sitting in all that traffic and that's a main reason why they want to move? Obviously, if someone mentions that THEY want a commute time of <= X, it's important to THEM, even if it's not important to YOU. I can't imagine why anyone would not want to minimize the amount of time they spent doing nothing in their car, especially with gas prices going up and traffic skyrocketing in the Charlotte area. If someone's coming from a major city with a long commute, why not take the lower housing cost as a reason to avoid it this time around?
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Doesn't the average personin the U.S. commute 1 hour per day anyway?
That's not what I've seen--I thought it was around 25 mins. Because mine is 30-35 and I remember being surprised that mine was longer than "average". Remember, you said "the whole US", not "selected major cities where people commute in from several counties away".
My apologies....it's only 48 minutes as of 6 years ago.....yes it is a waste of time, yes I'd rather be doing something else, yes I'd rather spend time with the family and pay less for gas....but my argument wasn't disputing any of those things, it was that most people especially now do not have any control where they work relative to where they live and if they fall in love with a house / neighborhood a longer commute should not hinder their decision to live there.
You are creating a Red Herring. We are talking specifically about the Charlotte area.
People move to Charlotte because they can escape this hell. It's baffling why you are suggesting that it doesn't make sense to first look at the neighborhoods near where you work (or will be working) when doing a home search. This metro has great neighborhoods in every direction so there is no reason to accept that one must accept 1 hour commutes in order to move to Charlotte.
You are creating a Red Herring. We are talking specifically about the Charlotte area.
People move to Charlotte because they can escape this hell. It's baffling why you are suggesting that it doesn't make sense to first look at the neighborhoods near where you work (or will be working) when doing a home search. This metro has great neighborhoods in every direction so there is no reason to accept that one must accept 1 hour commutes in order to move to Charlotte.
It does make sense to do that and I never said that shouldn't be part of someones moving down process...but you are assuming that everyone will just love the area that someone works in. Also if they come to Charlotte to "escape the hell", why do 4 out of 5 posters on the CHARLOTTE board ask a new person who is thinking of moving here "where are you going to be working, this way we can suggest some neighborhoods because you don't want to commute in Charlotte"?
Go ask the people rotting on Independence everyday how long their commute is. Even the people that ride the train....46 minutes roundtrip from South Blvd. to the city....that's not counting the drive to and from the station.
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Of everyone I know in my family and friends, both in NC and in other states, only 1-2 have an 1hr+ commute - and that is only because she lives way out in the country on 100+ acre farm.
