Commute costs ... money, time, stress, family time (Fort Worth, Plano: new home, unemployed)

[happycrow]

Agreed, Globe. Mine *used* to be 13 minutes flat, rain, shine, any time of day. It's doubled this year.

[TheOverdog]

Mine *used* to be 13 minutes flat, rain, shine, any time of day. It's doubled this year.

Mine too! I live just 5 miles from work and my commute sometimes touches 30 minutes now. I don't want to get much closer to work as I certainly don't want to see my dumpy office park building out my bedroom window. That would be too depressing.

[Obamney1]

You can always find a floor plan where bedroom windows face the opposite direction. :-)

[loveplano]

Speaking of commuting can someone please let me now how is the commuting from

75075 to DFW Airport / Dallas Love Field
75033 to DFW Airport / Dallas Love Field

Hubby's job near DFW Airport and mine will be near Love Field.

[happycrow]

Loveplano,

If you're truly concerned about commutes, Irving is a MUCH better bet than Frisco is. Will you be 8-5ing it, or something else? Makes a notable difference.

[biafra4life]

Originally Posted by globe9

Made sure to buy my house not too far from work. 10 minute commute every day right down Greenville. A coworker lives in Keller and it sometimes takes him 2 hours to get home. Sure he has a bigger house than I do, but that would never be worth the commute for me.

Part of the problem with this approach (which sounds fine in theory) is that due to the spread out nature of the major work centers in the metroplex, a location that was good today could turn into a terrible one if there is a job change. One coworker told me of her last job which was based in Downtown Dallas (she lives in Desoto). Great commute. Then the job was relocated to McKinney. Say hello to nightmare commute. She got laid off. Only job she could find was the present one (in Addison). Equally crappy commute. It's not easy to hold out for perfect job in ideal location when bills need to be paid.

While it's generally not a good idea to deliberately choose to live far from the job, sometimes it's just the reality people face. Another coworker was house hunting. Her husband worked by the airport, and she worked in Addison. Budget was $200K. They wanted 4 beds, 2 baths, at least 2700 sq ft (with 4 kids they needed the space). under 5 years old, good schools. She could find NOTHING in Coppell, Valley Ranch, Grapevine...there were only a few in the nice parts of Lewisville. They were barely able to squeeze into Keller by the skin of their teeth, which works as long as they stay in their present jobs. Any change to just about anywhere else will become a horrible commute.

Now with that same $200K, they could have found a LOT more in McKinney, Frisco,etc. So it becomes a matter of tradeoffs...get a nice house but suffer bad commute (which can be alleviated somewhat by working from home), or get a nice commute but crappy living conditions (old, dilapidated house, bad schools, crime etc)?? Some would say take the crappy commute, but different folks have different priorities.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by biafra4life

Part of the problem with this approach (which sounds fine in theory) is that due to the spread out nature of the major work centers in the metroplex, a location that was good today could turn into a terrible one if there is a job change. One coworker told me of her last job which was based in Downtown Dallas (she lives in Desoto). Great commute. Then the job was relocated to McKinney. Say hello to nightmare commute. She got laid off. Only job she could find was the present one (in Addison). Equally crappy commute. It's not easy to hold out for perfect job in ideal location when bills need to be paid.

While it's generally not a good idea to deliberately choose to live far from the job, sometimes it's just the reality people face. Another coworker was house hunting. Her husband worked by the airport, and she worked in Addison. Budget was $200K. They wanted 4 beds, 2 baths, at least 2700 sq ft (with 4 kids they needed the space). under 5 years old, good schools. She could find NOTHING in Coppell, Valley Ranch, Grapevine...there were only a few in the nice parts of Lewisville. They were barely able to squeeze into Keller by the skin of their teeth, which works as long as they stay in their present jobs. Any change to just about anywhere else will become a horrible commute.

Now with that same $200K, they could have found a LOT more in McKinney, Frisco,etc. So it becomes a matter of tradeoffs...get a nice house but suffer bad commute (which can be alleviated somewhat by working from home), or get a nice commute but crappy living conditions (old, dilapidated house, bad schools, crime etc)?? Some would say take the crappy commute, but different folks have different priorities.

This is one of the reasons I live in Richardson; it's a good solid central location for commuting. It's not an ideal commute everywhere, but it offers a decent/tolerable commute to almost anywhere in Dallas proper, Plano to the north, or Addison to the west. Most of the time that I've lived in Richardson, I have commuted to jobs south of me on the 75 corridor which is perfect.

[stephwin]

This is why I count down the days until summer. It cuts a good 7 minutes off my commute time because I don't have to go through school zones and deal with parents on their way to school to drop their kids off.

We are in Frisco and my husband works in Denton and me in Plano. It was the best middle ground we could find. He loves summer time too because there are less kids on their way to UNT/TWU that he has to deal with as well.

[globe9]

I'm in Richarson as well, so centrally located to many areas, which is why we love it. I don't even take 75 or 635 anywhere most of the time. I use surface streets. It amazes me to see the traffic stopped on 75 when I leave work, but Greenville heading back towards home is a breeze. It's never taken me more than 15 minutes to get home.
I get what you're saying, but I'd take a lower paying job before I had to work at a place that was an hour or two commute away. My time is valuable to me as is my sanity. I would go crazy sitting in traffic for that long.
Also, just b/c my house isn't brand new does not make it a "crappy living condition". It is not dilapidated, in a bad crime area, or in a bad school area. I love my area. I guess different folks do have different priorities. I'd rather see my kids after work than be sitting in a car on the highway until 7pm while they wait for mommy or daddy to get home. But at least they'll have a big, new house to comfort them

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by globe9

I'm in Richarson as well, so centrally located to many areas, which is why we love it. I don't even take 75 or 635 anywhere most of the time. I use surface streets. It amazes me to see the traffic stopped on 75 when I leave work, but Greenville heading back towards home is a breeze. It's never taken me more than 15 minutes to get home.
I get what you're saying, but I'd take a lower paying job before I had to work at a place that was an hour or two commute away. My time is valuable to me as is my sanity. I would go crazy sitting in traffic for that long.
Also, just b/c my house isn't brand new does not make it a "crappy living condition". It is not dilapidated, in a bad crime area, or in a bad school area. I love my area. I guess different folks do have different priorities. I'd rather see my kids after work than be sitting in a car on the highway until 7pm while they wait for mommy or daddy to get home. But at least they'll have a big, new house to comfort them

LOL exactly...as I'm exiting at Belt Line in the afternoon, I'm hoping that the rest of the schmucks on Central enjoy the next 40-60 minutes it'll take them to get to that brand-new "efficient" house in Allen or McKinney, while my car's off the road not burning gas and not churning pollution into the air.