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Pretty good article on some local effects of high gas prices on commutes and real estate. People with exceptional commutes are getting hit hard and reconsidering their lifestyle.
newsobserver.com | Commuters longing to live near work (http://www.newsobserver.com/news/growth/traffic/gas/story/1165412.html - broken link)
Quote:
The Triangle has largely avoided the malaise of many other regions. While home sales and construction have slowed in the region, home values have held up. But there are signs that the edges might be softening.
Of the 30 top-selling residential communities in June, six experienced both a drop in average price per square foot and a widening gap between asking price and closing price from a year ago, data from the Triangle Multiple Listing Service show. Those losing ground were in Holly Springs, Apex, Wake Forest and far northeast Raleigh -- communities away from the region's biggest employment hubs.
Interesting to see this metric (top 30 communities avg price/sqft). A lot more informative that some of the info we typically see, like avg home price.
Good article there. We just moved from N. Raleigh to northern Durham and our combined round trip commute mileage decreased from almost 100 daily to about 40! Not only will this save us tremendously in gas expenses, it will also give us a lot more time together as a family. Also, living closer to work will now give me a very doable bike commute, so I'm in the process of building up a commuter bike and hope to start riding some later this week. With the bike commute thrown in, we should be able to get our combined daily mileage down to around 22 miles!
I am not surprised to see this article. I've been living by the live-close-to-work philosophy, as well as the live-opposite-rush-hour-traffic philosophy, ever since I started working, (and lived in a town with horrific traffic and not decent public transport).
It has always been unrealistic to think that ever longer commutes would be sustainable forever.
We chose SW Durham for our home because of its close proximity to RTP. Hubby and I commute together, and our round-trip commute to and from work (both of us) is about 14 miles per day.
We moved to Morrisville in order to be close to work in RTP a couple years ago. So glad we made that decision. Less time wasting gas, and more time enjoying life!
One of our reasons for buying in Brightleaf (Extreme SE Durham, near Brier Creek and RDU) was that we feel like the best investment bet for the future are areas within the triangle, not on the outside of it. Knowing that we could commute to downtown Durham or Raleigh or RTP all within a matter of 20 minutes tops is huge for us.
My wife and I read the article this morning and couldn’t help thinking how relative the term “close to work” is. When we lived in the DC area my wife was only 20 miles from her job in Washington but the commute took her a little more than an hour and fifteen minutes on a good day. She works here in Morrisville which is roughly 25 miles away from our Wake Forest home but the trip now only takes her 45 minutes.
There’s no doubt that attitudes are going to have to change with the new reality of 4 dollar a gallon gas. People who can relocate closer to their work probably will, just like people that can trade their vehicle for something more fuel efficient will. It’s just going to depend on what the most practical or cost effective choice is.
Raleigh makes choosing a little easier though as not all jobs are centrally located. Some people work in RTP, others in Downtown and yet many others work in the outlying areas. With that in mind I fully expect to see towns on the periphery of Raleigh continue to flourish although at a much more sensible pace. As I’ve said before, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
My wife and I read the article this morning and couldn’t help thinking how relative the term “close to work” is. When we lived in the DC area my wife was only 20 miles from her job in Washington but the commute took her a little more than an hour and fifteen minutes on a good day. She works here in Morrisville which is roughly 25 miles away from our Wake Forest home but the trip now only takes her 45 minutes.
There’s no doubt that attitudes are going to have to change with the new reality of 4 dollar a gallon gas. People who can relocate closer to their work probably will, just like people that can trade their vehicle for something more fuel efficient will. It’s just going to depend on what the most practical or cost effective choice is.
Raleigh makes choosing a little easier though as not all jobs are centrally located. Some people work in RTP, others in Downtown and yet many others work in the outlying areas. With that in mind I fully expect to see towns on the periphery of Raleigh continue to flourish although at a much more sensible pace. As I’ve said before, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The thing about living and working in around and about places like Washington, NYC, etc. is that you can live a distance away and have a long commute, but there are alternatives to taking cars to work. Much more cost-effective alternatives. (I used to think my $60/month T pass was expensive!)
Raleigh's lack of a center makes it more difficult to get any sort of widespread use of public transportation. If you are a professional working in NYC and live in a suburb of NYC, you can change to other jobs and still keep the same car-less commute. If you do the same here, you're going to have a much different commute, and there's a good chance (well, 50-50 at least) that it will be a longer commute and, even if you could previously use public transportation to get to your old job, you wouldn't be able to do so at your new job.
Probably a bit to late to curb a lot of the sprawl that is going on here.
As anti-sprawl as I am, I think the current situation and economy could be an opportunity for some of the already sprawled smaller towns and bedroom communities to start thinking more dense for the future. They could potentially court some decent companies to their areas if they plan things right. It would be a smart way for the area to grow in such a way to utilize the existing sprawl to create a variety of business centers. This would also help commutes in that it would disperse the rush hour traffic even further, plus there would be existing residential communities in place that could become "close" to the new places of work.
Or maybe I am just dreaming!
By they way, go Gators!!
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Convenient truth
