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Also it's annoying how CT has such a "NY Commuter" stereotype. Only ONE town is within 30 minutes of NYC (Greenwich).
Other than the panhandle NYC is too far to commute daily (even from the town of Fairfield it's an hour and a half one way, let alone New Haven or Waterbury)
Common sense should tell people to live close to where they work, then they wouldn't have horrible commute times. From the NW side of Houston coming down 290 to the SE side in peak traffic can take an hour or more, and the normal route is 15 miles or just over 20 minutes in light traffic.
But the problem is that people switch jobs and still have to pay their mortgage or stick out their rental lease.
People aren't simply going to move every time they switch jobs.
A lot of times people don't choose to leave their job, but their employer makes the choice for them.
And sometimes the new job isn't close to where you live.
My husband looks forward to the day when we can pick up and move closer to where he works. However, the higher priority at this moment is to provide our son with stability and create an environment where all of us can have good friendships and relationships with other people in our community.
But the problem is that people switch jobs and still have to pay their mortgage or stick out their rental lease.
People aren't simply going to move every time they switch jobs.
A lot of times people don't choose to leave their job, but their employer makes the choice for them.
And sometimes the new job isn't close to where you live.
My husband looks forward to the day when we can pick up and move closer to where he works. However, the higher priority at this moment is to provide our son with stability and create an environment where all of us can have good friendships and relationships with other people in our community.
Moving isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
Also in a lot of cities it's just simply out of the majority's price range to live close to work. I.e. A family of 4 could struggle to afford a home within easy public transit commute to Manhattan. The Westside of LA has a ton of jobs, but it's ridiculous expensive. There is basically nothing affordable within the Bay Area anymore, forcing people to commute from the Central Valley. Not everyone can voluntarily live as close as they'd like to the office.
I personally know people who commute here by airplane from TX, AZ, NV, UT and the high desert area of SoCal. They crash at friends and relatives' homes during the week and then fly or drive home on weekends.
My niece is one of them. She works at the Oculus division of Facebook. Anyhow each member of her department received a stipend of $75K-$100K from the company to find a place to live. She was living in a 2bd apt in Fremont with her husband and 3 kids and that cost $3000 a month. They decided to buy a house in Utah(theyd never be able to afford a house like that here), he would stay at home with the kids and she would fly here to work Monday-Friday.
It's really quite sad and not healthy for relationships.
I personally know people who commute here by airplane from TX, AZ, NV, UT and the high desert area of SoCal. They crash at friends and relatives' homes during the week and then fly or drive home on weekends.
My niece is one of them. She works at the Oculus division of Facebook. Anyhow each member of her department received a stipend of $75K-$100K from the company to find a place to live. She was living in a 2bd apt in Fremont with her husband and 3 kids and that cost $3000 a month. They decided to buy a house in Utah(theyd never be able to afford a house like that here), he would stay at home with the kids and she would fly here to work Monday-Friday.
It's really quite sad and not healthy for relationships.
That blows my mind. I can't imagine any job being worth that kind of lifestyle - her segment of the market must be super competitive.
That blows my mind. I can't imagine any job being worth that kind of lifestyle - her segment of the market must be super competitive.
+1. Sometimes I wonder if it's more about ego? I have to work for Google, Facebook, etc. I know it's great on the resume and there could be financial benefits, but this is getting crazy.
+1. Sometimes I wonder if it's more about ego? I have to work for Google, Facebook, etc. I know it's great on the resume and there could be financial benefits, but this is getting crazy.
I think it's partly that and partly that many people from the Bay or people that have moved there and love it refuse to admit that any other place can even be remotely cool or good. Plenty of people in NYC willingly admit they're over it and move to a cheaper urban city like Philly or to the suburban cities like Atlanta and Raleigh or to the Miami area. It's expensive here, but people realize it and will move. From my time spent living in SF and knowing people from SF and the Bay as a whole, they seem entirely brainwashed sometimes into believing that the Bay is the only good place to live in the entire world, so they refuse to live anywhere else. By commuting via plane far away, they get to stay part of the Bay culture and workforce.
I used to work in non-profit in SF. One of our clients was being evicted from public housing for the umpteenth time because she fell asleep while her kid was in the bathtub and the water flooded the apartment and the two below her. The city declined to ever house her again because she had been evicted so many times and they were only helping her so she could keep her child. But they were fed up with her this time. We told her we could get her into Daly City or Oakland housing so she could commute into SF for work but she adamantly refused to leave the city limits of SF and called us useless for not being able to help her stay in the city limits. So it's also that mentality that makes people stay, where no matter what the reality is, they need name recognition of where they live I guess to show off to others or seem cool? Idk.
Then it's also the job. I'm sure if you work in tech in the Bay, it can't be that hard to downgrade from there. Like if you work for Google in the Bay, a small tech firm in another state would probably love your experience and you can now afford the pay cut. But people see prestige in the name of their company and could also be thinking "the next promotion is mine" and they'll be able to afford it better.
Also, anyone ever see that clip that was going around social media of the budgeting of a family living in SF? Mom was at SF State and lived in some kinda subsidized campus housing with her husband and two kids? They had so many frivolous costs that could've been avoided, but like many young people that care about their image, she had to go out and buy her coffee every morning instead of brewing a pot at home for like 25 cents. The family drove a newer Prius. They ate lunch together which is cute, but they bought the lunch out instead of making something at home and bringing it to work/school. Maybe if they didn't live a lifestyle that revolved around buying so many pointless things, they could live more comfortably. That coffee is probably $4 every morning and a lunch for two people out in SF is probably minimum $25 depending on what they're getting. Round that up to $30 and they spend $30 per day on stuff that could've cost just a few bucks at home. Considering this month has 22 work days, that's $660 they would've spent in April 2019. Over a year, that would be almost $8,000 they could save by literally just making coffee and not eating lunches out. Then add in the costs of owning a car in SF when like why bother even living in SF and being in a semi-urban city if you're not going to take advantage of the public transit options?
So, I think people budget extremely poorly also. I'm not rich, but I budget well, I bring lunch to work most days, I make my coffee at home unless the office provides it. I drive as little as possible, but work requires me to own one. Lyft/Uber is my last resort. I live alone in a very nice new studio because I budget well.
But the problem is that people switch jobs and still have to pay their mortgage or stick out their rental lease.
People aren't simply going to move every time they switch jobs.
A lot of times people don't choose to leave their job, but their employer makes the choice for them.
And sometimes the new job isn't close to where you live.
My husband looks forward to the day when we can pick up and move closer to where he works. However, the higher priority at this moment is to provide our son with stability and create an environment where all of us can have good friendships and relationships with other people in our community.
Moving isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
Thanks for injecting a much needed sense of reality on this page. I forget that there's a lot of 20 and 30 somethings on this forum that don't have nearly as many ties to where they live than people who are older. It's much easier to move when you can fit everything you own in one or two bags as opposed to a lot of large moving trucks.
It's easy to tell someone to move when you don't really own any property, don't have kids, don't have any fixed responsibilities tied to one place. The vast majority of relocations in the US are the local kind - usually from one apartment to another, from a house to an apartment, from a house to another house - usually within 50 miles of where they last moved.
And the idea that moving from one place to another will make you suddenly a financial genius is absolutely hilarious. I guarantee you that if you made bad decisions in City X, you will continue to in City Y. You don't become a new person all of a sudden.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker
+1. Sometimes I wonder if it's more about ego? I have to work for Google, Facebook, etc. I know it's great on the resume and there could be financial benefits, but this is getting crazy.
Yeah, that sounds like a personal issue. At that point, you have to give it up for that person though because you know its not being done out of necessity but something deeper. Probably ego.
A better question for this thread would be to discuss our own actual commutes. Anybody can pontificate and conjure up terribly long commutes in major cities. But who is actually commuting a long way?
And distance vs time is an interesting one. I've heard of people driving 70 miles having shorter commute times than people going 15.
In Mexico City, commutes of 6-8 hours one way are not unheard of, especially coming from the outskirts in Mexico State.
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