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Old 02-18-2011, 08:36 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,259,082 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmyev View Post
IT folks, Teachers or Nurses may be able to find jobs just about anywhere, but when you're a specialist like a metallurgist, geologist, or a geophysicist, you're really pretty limited in your job options.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KC6ZLV View Post
It depends on your career. I've done a variety of IT work over the years. When I moved back to Sacramento in 1998 I found a job and sought out a place close to where I work. My employer decided to move the jobs 22 miles out into the burbs. At the time rent was higher out there and it was difficult to find a place to rent that wasn't an apartment in a megaplex with no trees. After that job I worked closer to Downtown Sacramento. Had I moved 22 miles away I would have had to commute about 19 miles back into Sacramento. After than job I worked in various areas around the metro area and none of them were near Downtown. I ended up with a what I thought would be a steady job in Rocklin. After several years I reluctantly started looking for a place in Rocklin or Roseville because I hate commuting to work and back. Well, that job is gone. I've worked a few temp jobs around the area and declined one job in Folsom. I would have had to commute from Rocklin to Roseville had I moved there two years ago and taken the job in Folsom.

It is also the other way around. Using San Francisco as an example, most IT workers who work near Downtown there are forced to live 10-35 miles away because they can't afford to live close to their work location.
Yes and no to the IT and nursing jobs. DH is in IT and I am a nurse. He had some similar experiences as KC6ZLV; he had one job for 15 years that kept moving around. Shortly before he was laid off from that job (another unfortunate aspect of IT), the office was 30 miles away in a mountain community; it took an hour to get there. He found another job, this one only 7 miles from our home. He's been in this job about 10 years, but now they're consolidating offices and guess who gets to move? The new office will probably be about 15 miles away.

As for nursing, I've worked anywhere from 3 to 17 miles from home. There is not near the "nursing shortage" you read about in the media. Sometimes you have to compromise. Right now, I work 4 1/2 miles from home, but a lot of my co-workers live farther away.
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Old 02-18-2011, 08:58 PM
 
8,680 posts, read 17,206,810 times
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Commute times are a chicken-and-egg issue: does sprawl allow us to commute to more remote workplaces, or has sprawl resulted in more widely dispersed workplaces that force longer commutes?
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Old 02-18-2011, 09:11 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,259,082 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by wburg View Post
Commute times are a chicken-and-egg issue: does sprawl allow us to commute to more remote workplaces, or has sprawl resulted in more widely dispersed workplaces that force longer commutes?
Well, for nursing, it's the former, I think. There are people all over. Wherever there are people, there are nurses. In metro Denver, there are several IT "nodes" plus numerous individual offices all over. Don't know what that says.
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Old 02-19-2011, 02:42 AM
 
Location: Sacramento, Placerville
2,511 posts, read 6,269,396 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wburg View Post
Commute times are a chicken-and-egg issue: does sprawl allow us to commute to more remote workplaces, or has sprawl resulted in more widely dispersed workplaces that force longer commutes?
It's a combination of both and that economics has changed from the days when most business transactions were done downtown. We have become a much more urbanized society than we were prior to WWII. Commutes weren't really an issue then. Certain businesses were in cities the others were agriculturally related. The shift to the cities is part of the blame and I don't see high-density as a solution. I'm thinking of examples such as Buenos Aires, Tokyo, and other high-density cities where people travel miles to jobs simply because the jobs are in the cities, the cities are large, and not everyone has the ability to live close to work.

I suppose some sort of planning based on a sector or multiple-nuclei based urban model could mitigate the number of longer commutes by encouraging related businesses like the IT sector to locate in the smaller business districts outside of the CBD, or along designated corridors so people working in IT would live in a certain area and not end up working 30 miles away from where they live if they had to change jobs. The problem with this is some business sectors, like health, need to be spread throughout a metro area and national companies aren't going to care about anything other than their bottom line and will transfer an employee across town if they think they are going to make a dollar or two out of the process.
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Old 02-19-2011, 12:50 PM
 
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It seems like at some point in our past, there was more of an assumption that workers would stay in one place for longer--why buy a house with a 30 year mortgage when your job might be in another city next year? What is the advantage of home ownership when people have to remain so mobile to follow the jobs?
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Old 02-19-2011, 02:17 PM
nei nei won $500 in our forum's Most Engaging Poster Contest - Thirteenth Edition (Jan-Feb 2015). 

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Location: Western Massachusetts
46,009 posts, read 53,204,802 times
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How long a commute do residents of Tokyo have?
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Old 02-19-2011, 03:57 PM
 
Location: Sacramento, Placerville
2,511 posts, read 6,269,396 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wburg View Post
It seems like at some point in our past, there was more of an assumption that workers would stay in one place for longer--why buy a house with a 30 year mortgage when your job might be in another city next year? What is the advantage of home ownership when people have to remain so mobile to follow the jobs?
During the industrial era many people live in company housing which was located next to their employer. People also lived with their extended families in the same place for generations. Of course, California didn't see this kind of development. One a professional level, doctors and lawyers lived close to downtown. Now they are spread out because hospitals are located everywhere. Lawyers and accountants aren't going to pay a premium price for office space and have migrated to the suburbs. Salespeople are going to work near their customer base and will probably live there as well. Society is also a lot more complex. In the past only professionals would need a lawyer. Today it is fairly easy to find yourself in a situation where you need to seek counsel.

Assuming the next job is in the same metro area it could very well be cheaper to buy a house than to rent, assuming a modest home is purchased with a responsible financing scheme. I'm looking for a house right now. Depending on the price, I'll put down as much as the loan will allow or I'll pay cash. I figure my housing expenses will be about $300 to $400 a month. The best one can do with rent in this area is about $650 a month in a ghetto-plex, or a tiny studio in Midtown. A two-bedroom is going to be around $850, more like $1000 a month. At that price you can qualify for about a $150,000 loan. Even if I had to commute 60 miles to work it would be cheaper unless gas went up over about $6.50 a gallon. I tend to think prices on everything will go up if gas gets that expensive. Especially housing close to major employment centers. So, I don't think high gas prices are going to accomplish much more than shift demographics to who can afford to pay more to have a shorter commute.

Additionally, you don't have to put up with smelling smoke from other tenants, their hip-hop blaring through the walls, and other annoyances which vary depending one who lives near you.

You can also have hobbies in your own home that are quite often not possible when you rent. I like gardening and amateur radio. For some reason most landlords have an aversion to tenants who garden. Just about all of them have issues with antennas, even if they don't touch the building.

You also don't have to put up with broken appliances and poor, or no maintenance and carpet which hasn't been replaced since Ronald Reagan was in office. Of course I'll have to pay for these items. But they will get fixed. And as I see it I'm paying rent to have things maintained here and the landlord hasn't even bothered to pay the city utility bill, which is now has a $3,480 outstanding balance.

Last edited by KC6ZLV; 02-19-2011 at 04:19 PM..
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Old 02-19-2011, 04:03 PM
 
8,680 posts, read 17,206,810 times
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Well, you still have to put up with broken appliances and things that haven't been fixed, the difference is that you're the one who has to fix it. Having been a renter and a homeowner, I like being a homeowner better too, but home ownership has its own set of hassles--you can't blame the landlord for not fixing things anymore, and neighbor issues don't go away entirely. That's as true in the suburbs as it is in the city--I have suburban friends who have to deal with neighbors' music quite frequently (the annoying neighbor in question plays their hip-hop in the backyard, which blasts through my friends' exterior walls quite effectively.)
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Old 02-19-2011, 04:16 PM
nei nei won $500 in our forum's Most Engaging Poster Contest - Thirteenth Edition (Jan-Feb 2015). 

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Location: Western Massachusetts
46,009 posts, read 53,204,802 times
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Did you include property taxes in the homeownership costs?
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Old 02-20-2011, 12:54 AM
 
Location: Sacramento, Placerville
2,511 posts, read 6,269,396 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wburg View Post
Well, you still have to put up with broken appliances and things that haven't been fixed, the difference is that you're the one who has to fix it. Having been a renter and a homeowner, I like being a homeowner better too, but home ownership has its own set of hassles--you can't blame the landlord for not fixing things anymore, and neighbor issues don't go away entirely. That's as true in the suburbs as it is in the city--I have suburban friends who have to deal with neighbors' music quite frequently (the annoying neighbor in question plays their hip-hop in the backyard, which blasts through my friends' exterior walls quite effectively.)

Sure, but when I fix it it gets fixed the right way.

I'm aware there is still issues with noise in any neighbourhood. The difference with single-family residential areas is you two to three neighbors in close proximity, depending on the distances between houses. In apartments you will have many more.


Quote:
Originally Posted by nei View Post
Did you include property taxes in the homeownership costs?
Of course. Remember, I'm in California. A $150000 house will have property taxes of about $1500 a year plus local and district levies.
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