Would you move to Northern VA if you were a Blue Collar Worker? (Charlottesville: homes, school)

[ChristineVA]

My husband is a blue collar working make just at or slightly above $100,000. He also gets free/paid family healthcare through his union. Many people in his field live out in Front Royal and West Virginia and "commute" to the work here because it is very low paid where they live or there is not enough of it.

I don't think that living in a lower COL area actually works out for blue collar the way you are thinking it does.

I also have family members that are welders and, yep, it's better here.

[boyd888]

[quote=Heavy Investment;45025353]made $50,000 a year, you would need to make $85,377.00 to have the same standard of living in Fairfax VA. That is a seventy percent increase. So you are telling me that the wages for skilled blue collar workers are 70% more in Fairfax than Richmond?

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70%? Look at the numbers the only significant difference is housing (which is the main problem with these calculators). Other than that there's barely a 10% difference between the two places. Many commute into Fairfax from cheaper places just fine. Plenty of older blue collar workers are married with houses bought long ago so even that is not a huge factor for them.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by Heavy Investment

Moving into a new home has put me in contact with lots of skilled blue collar workers. Plumbers, Electricians, people who remodel your home, painters, Air Conditioner repair professionals, etc.

If you read the Washington media, you would believe that nearly everyone in the greater DC area is a college educated professional making significantly more than $100K a year. But that is just not true.

But the high wage workers and tight development rules have created a very high cost of living and harsh culture in the area. To me if you were a skilled blue collar worker, you would do better in a regular town like Richmond or Roanoke, or Norfolk. There would be plenty of work for you but your standard of living would be much higher.

Why would a blue collar worker move to Northern VA?

There are blue collar workers everywhere. And some blue collar workers do make enough to live in DC. A lot of blue collar workers are self employed and do well.

You could live in a regular town but keep in mind that the opportunities for self employed workers to earn more might be higher in an area like the DC metro. So there are different ways of looking at this. You may have people in Norfolk that need to have the work done, but can't afford the work, or what you're charging them to do the work. I only say this because Norfolk has areas as poor as the better, rich, well to do areas of the city. This isn't as Black and White as you are putting it.

[goofy328]

The bigger question is if it is worth it for anyone.

Take HR for example, where I live. Commutes aren't necessarily any better, particularly for people traveling from the Peninsula to the Southside. And that traffic is only going to continue to get worse as this area overbuilds. Plus the area is becoming more vertical, and the public transportation is several decades behind where it needs to be to accommodate this.

And you could live in a neighborhood far beneath your means in this region, but why would you want to? Affordable neighborhoods in this part of Virginia are slums, unless you live in a city like Chesapeake or Virginia Beach, and those are not as urban, or unless you live in a city like Suffolk and that is too country/rural.

Things may be different in Richmond, but leave HR out of this equation.

[Heavy Investment]

Lots of the blue collar workers I talked to said they were forced to commute from places like Warrenton, Front Royal or Winchester to survive financially. Sure they may make a few more dollars if they work inside the beltway in Northern VA but would it be worth it physically and emotionally if they had to drive two hours each way to work.

In a regular town like Atlanta, Tulsa, Houston or Dallas they could live close to the work and have a higher standard of living.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by Heavy Investment

Lots of the blue collar workers I talked to said they were forced to commute from places like Warrenton, Front Royal or Winchester to survive financially.

I think this statement is missing "and have the size/ type of housing they prefer" at the end. Because the extra cost to commute added to a housing budget would enable one to live closer in. Just not in a newer 4 bedroom SFH on a half acre of land.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by Heavy Investment

Lots of the blue collar workers I talked to said they were forced to commute from places like Warrenton, Front Royal or Winchester to survive financially. Sure they may make a few more dollars if they work inside the beltway in Northern VA but would it be worth it physically and emotionally if they had to drive two hours each way to work.

In a regular town like Atlanta, Tulsa, Houston or Dallas they could live close to the work and have a higher standard of living.

You can't be serious. Those cities have worse commutes that Northern Virginia. Atlanta in particular.

[Fallout Zone]

A lot of the blue-collar tradespeople seem to live in the medium-distance suburbs and they can choose whether to service the areas that might be problematic to get to. I imagine that this does make a multi-tiered cost structure where Arlington residents may end up paying more for the same work because there may be less competition.

[Ffxdata]

Why is everyone convinced that Houston and Dallas are cheap and/or don't have commutes?

Houston, for example, has huge commutes. People commute 25 or more miles each way typically.

Title of article: Houston's horrible commute is recognized: Ranked second worst, only behind notorious Atlanta
Houston's horrible commute is recognized: Ranked second worst, onl... - CultureMap Houston

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is also low on the commuting index list, with an average driving time of 26.6 minutes. Approximately 22.5 percent of Dallas area residents travel 14 minutes or less and more than 17 percent commute 45 minutes or more.

[whiskeytangofoxtrotalpha]

I grew up in a family that owned several homes, a fishing cabin in upstate NY, Condo in Flagler Beach Fla, new cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles, and a 3 story home in the country worth about 1.2 million.

My family were commericial and residential electrical contractors.