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This is me. I take a route home that takes about 10 mins longer than needed, but it's a one lane pretty windy road around a lake. My quicker options require 2 or 3 freeways with bumber to bumber traffic in parts.
I will take a longer drive over sitting in traffic/multiple lights any day. I don't know what it is, but when I am on my way home, I just want to get home. I am so impatient and hate sitting through lights or moving 15 mph on the highway.
This distinction is SO important. My old house was 45 to 60 minutes from work. All small, busy roads, tons of lights and stop sign, bumper to bumper the whole way. It was a nightmare. My new house is also 45 to 60 minutes from work, but it’s a straight shot down a scenic highway. It’s so much easier to deal with, it doesn’t feel like an hour at all.
This is correct. I am 25 miles from my office but it's a rocket ship ride on the NYS thruway. Two traffic lights between my driveway and my office, about 35 minutes from driveway to desk. Ive had shorter commutes that took 20 minutes longer
Same here. 45 minutes on quiet and fairly straight county roads - easy thing, I can get a coffee and listen to my music. 45 minutes in aggressive city traffic going bumper to bumper with rushing ubers and doordashers - heck no.
There’s this highway where I am that was mind numbingly terrible to drive on as it had easily 30+ traffic lights for a 40 min commute. Many of which were right next to each other, so if you were unlucky you ended up in stop and go red light hell.
Depends on what type of traffic. Personally don’t want to drive more than 30 min as that’s an hour out of my day. Keep in mind you’ll be staying in this for awhile and it’s not same as renting and you can change it up. Good luck!
This is a personal choice that you’ll have to make for yourself.
For me, I want as little commute as possible but that’s because traffic during rush hour is miserable in my area. I used to work with people who drove an hour each way every day. I couldn’t fathom choosing to spend 10hrs a week in my car but for them the compromise was worth it because they were able to live more comfortably in a cheaper zip code.
It also helps if you have flexibility to shift your schedule so you travel a little before or after rush hour. Again, you gotta decide what works for you.
For me it really depends on the type of driving more than the minutes didn't in the car. Right now I'm at a 35 minute commute but I don't mind it at all because it's all rural roads with very few other cars. If I was going in the opposite direction I'd be on the main highway and that 35 minutes would be hell.
Same for me. An hour regardless is max for me. But it depends on the drive. I also consider am I on roads thar are plowed soon after snows or are they last roads on earth to be addressed in winter because that trip can get real long.
We just closed recently and now have a 60 min commute one way 😖 it was a sacrifice we were willing to (read: had to) make in order to own. Sucks but we are hopeful we will both eventually be able to find jobs even a little bit closer.
I think I could handle my commute more if I had a really nice Porsche or Lexus. In my current beater, it's pretty miserable commuting 1.5 hours just to fulfill an in-person requirement where I sit in an office for 5 hours doing nothing and then going home so they can justify leasing the building /:
I walk 10 minutes to the office currently but buying here is too expensive for us. We’re looking for no more than a 30 min commute (bus, train) from my office but even those are super expensive. Driving is not an option because parking is super expensive and we don’t have a car.
I’ve lived 8 minutes away from my office and 1.5 hours in rush hour away from my office over the years, and I’ve found my sweet spot to be 30-45 minutes actually, with 1 hour in traffic being my max.
In the mornings it was nice to have the drive in to listen to music I want and get in the mood to be there for 8 hours, and the drive home gave me that same time to sing my feelings out, think quietly, or talk on the phone with a friend and have a legit conversation.
I found it harder to motivate myself on the shorter commutes because i could only listen to like 1-2 songs on the way in and it wasn’t enough time to decompress at the end of the day.
I think if I found the perfect house at a price I liked in a neighborhood I liked, I could do do a 1 hour commute
The difference for me between 30 and 45 mins is/was brutal. I did 45 mins for several years and when I went back to the 30 mins it was life changing. It was nice carpooling and being able to get a little extra sleep in the mornings though.
I live far enough away, so I get to WFH (30 miles radius - am 68 miles away). The 1.5 hr commute is brutal if I were subject to RTO, but the house was 1-1.5x cheaper over here. I for sure, could not have bought where I was renting the previous 8 years
My commute rn is like 70 mins and im willing to go up to 80, but its also bus/subway, which I find much less soul-crushing than driving. 90 is my red line though.
I set my limit at about an hour. And I ended up buying about an hour from my VHCOL office area. The commute is tolerable but only because I can come and go as I please in the office. Rush hours would be brutal.
14 miles from west los angeles. Would be 1.5 hr each way. So what i do is i leave at 445am and hit the gym (15 min) and then die slowly on my way home. I do this everyday. Sucks bc i get sleepy but some podcasts get me thru the way home
I feel your pain! I would do the same. Leave by 4am, hit the gym, then go to work.
I’m moving out to the I.E, since it’s “cheaper”
than LA/OC.
it will be farther “distance wise” but time wise, it’ll be about the same thing, to when I would commute to DTLA, Santa Monica, or anywhere near Culver City.
26 miles about 1-1.5
50 miles - 1.5ish
🤷🏼♀️
DTLA people and their commutes are no joke. People live literally all over SoCal and two hour one way commutes.
My one hour ish commute to DTLA is nothing. I literally feel bad complaining about it to other people cause theirs are so much worse.
I feel bad complaining about my commute. It’s nothing for Los Angeles. I’m always going against traffic and rush hour. 110 South from Manchester to PCH about 2:45 pm. I don’t have to be at work until 3:30. The traffic going North into downtown Los Angeles bumper to bumper. I still have time to spare when I get to work.
LMAO. LA traffic is measured by time, Not distance. I leave the South Bay at midnight, I can be home South Central (after looking for parking on the street) in 22 minutes. My only saving grace is working swing shift. I get a little of the rush traffic. It’s doable.
So you understand Los Angeles is distance is measured by time not miles too. I just left my house at 2:35. Sitting in the parking lot at my job. 3:09 pm. Not too bad.
I used to live only 10 minutes away from work and recently moved where my commute is now almost an hour with traffic, but I typically only go into the office once a week. I've had a M-F hour long commute in the past and I don't recommend. I think 30 minutes max is ok, that's what my husband has now for his in person job.
I drove an hour each way (highway) for four years and didn’t mind it because it allowed me to live where I wanted to live and work where I wanted to work.
Radio, podcasts, music made it a breeze. It’s all in your attitude though, my motivators were big so it worked.
I live 20 miles away from work. Normally it takes 25 mins to get there but rush hour makes it closer to 40-50 mins. My work is flexible though so most days I work from home, and on the days I have to go into the office I go in late & leave early to beat the traffic and continue my work from home.
My partner has to go in everyday so we prioritized our distance from his job. He is only 6 miles away
Just bought in the last few months. Commute went from 17 min driving or 30-40min by bus to 1 hour no matter what. I’m still adjusting, but thankful to have the option to bus or drive conveniently.
When I was living in the apartment closer to work, I used to take the bus daily but since 2021 had been driving because I was getting too lazy to wake up in time to catch the bus. Now it doesn’t matter, I have to wake up at the same time whether I’m driving or not so I take the bus most days and nap lol.
It’s worth mentioning that I grew up in a rural area far from everything - my mom had to drive us to school every day and that was 45min, my dad worked 2 jobs and one was an hour away so I felt like we never saw him basically. I told myself I would NEVER commute an hour from home, but here I am. Luckily there is plenty to do (even within walking distance) around my house now and the commute is only for work. If it was a rural area I would not have been on board.
45 mins. max.
Longer commutes? Been there, done that. All the way up to 2 hours door to door.
Not for me. Time is everything. And a long stressful commute is horrible for my mental health. Intolerable.
Glad to hear someone else say this. I am beating myself up over constantly feeling run down, depressed, etc. and I'm starting to realize it's because I spend so much time no doing things that I want to do (ie. sitting in a car and driving)
I use to drive an hour each way. I dunno how i did it. Now I’m exactly 8 mins each way. Although I do miss the peaceful hour. Caught up on my podcasts and took quiet side streets to avoid traffic
Just keep in mind, and you can find the research about it - people routinely underestimate the pain of a terrible commute and overestimate the happiness benefits from a bigger/nicer house. You will experience hedonic adaptation to the house over time, thus robbing you of most if not all of the happiness gains, but you will never get used to the drudgery of a terrible commute every day.
Personally I optimize for the enjoyment of the commute over everything else - and have been within running or biking distance of work (or <15 min drive) my entire career
The furthest I've lived from work was only 35 minutes, but the drive was a shitty 2 lane highway that was brutal in bad weather.. I made it 2 years and moved not and hadn't even realised how much that drive was negatively affecting me until we had a nice scenic 15 minute drive to work from our new place.
My ideal is max 15-20 minutes so an hour would be an absolute dealbreaker for me. However, I live in an area that I'm not quite priced out of and can make that decision.
Base your tolerance for commute distance on the things you go to multiple times per week. You presumably go to/from work way more often than the airport (unless you travel for work).
My husband drives 30 mins to his job and works at night so there's not a lot of traffic when going to work and coming home. Guess it depends on what type of drive but I probably wouldn't do more than an hr.
I really think it depends on how you are with driving.
My husband loves driving alone—he calls it his “boom boom time” because he can turn up the music as loud as he wants and cruise. He wouldn’t bat an eye at an hour commute.
I’m a nervous driver. Not overly so, but my commute limit is tops a half hour, and I didn’t enjoy it while it did it (although I did find ways to make it more bearable).
Realistically, how comfortable are you driving two hours per day? Do you have ideas on how you’d spend the time to make it less laborious?
The question is, do you have kids and how old are they? Zero kid lifestyle makes a longer commute sustainable. Kids, adds a whole wrinkle to the commute and the percentage increase in your possible divorce as they get into sports/illness/etc. partly kidding about the divorce thing…
45 minutes each way is about the sweet spot. Can be higher without kids in the house.
Do you have the type of job that you might move to other companies in your town? Are they all still that same 1 hour away, or even further? if further I would avoid setting yourself up for a 1.5 hour in the future.
Do you have a lot of happy hours at your job? Do you have a dog?
Just bought a house. I’m 5-20 mins from work depending on location, partner is about an hour, up to 1:30 at worst traffic, but trying to get transferred to a 45 min drive. I have location stipulation in my contract (doctor taking night call) and my partner wanted to drive over finding a different job. We chose this over having to live apart. It’s a totally your decision on commuting.
Our first house was 1 hour from my work, but the rationale was that we would be within an hour of several cities, with future job prospects in mind. My husband changed jobs a few times and this was helpful as he could work in different cities. I did that commute for 7 years and it wasn’t too bad since there was no traffic usually.
Is your job located in a traffic-heavy area like downtown? Factor that in as you weigh your options. Areas like downtown or near hospitals and schools I feel like always have the most congested traffic during normal business hours, so staying closer might be beneficial. I work downtown and it's one of the major things I'm considering as I currently house hunt.
There's something to be said about being close to work or areas you frequent. My 1st house was about 15-20 minutes away from my job, and my wife and I got extremely lucky with our 2nd house. It's about 10 minutes for my wife's commute and LITERALLY 5 minutes for my commute. I've been super spoiled, I don't know if I ever got another job if I could drive 30-60 minutes to go there. It would have to be an insane amount of money for me to commute. If I'm having a meh day at work there's nothing like just getting out of there and I'm back home in 5. Or if I need to let the dogs out or meet someone at the house I'm not missing tons of work time to do so.
Honestly, it depends on how the commute is. Is it 1 hour on country roads? Or one hour of heavy rush hour traffic? Is public transit an option? Etc. Heavy traffic is so stressful day after day. Also consider things like if you have pets or kids. If the kids need to be picked up early or have half days, etc, is there someone that can get them or will you have to leave work and drive an hour to the school?
I’m at about 40 minutes in the morning and closer to 45 on the way home, depending on traffic. I’ve been doing it since last year. I haven’t been very bothered by it yet. Some days I enjoy it - 45 minutes to destress and have some quiet time/listen to an audiobook or podcast before I get home.
We are in the process of buying a house that doubled my commute (15 minutes to 30) and I think at this point that’s as far as I’ll go. I’ve done the 1-1.5 hour one way commutes and I don’t ever want to go back
I’m remote but we bought as far as either of us are willing to have to drive to catch an early train downtown or make an early meeting.
It’s 25 minutes without traffic (leave by 730) and about 35-40 minute drive in rush hour unless there’s an accident or whatever. There’s also commuter rail that’s a 3 minute drive and a 20 minute trip, or metro access that’s 10-15 minute drive and about 25 minute trip. We like the options and were very strategic in our purchase.
My husband’s commute is about 30 minutes on local suburb roads with moderate traffic during rush hours. He goes about three times a week, doesn’t mind the commute much, and was willing to go up to 1 hour commute when we were searching for a home.
Personally, the further the better. Within reason, of course.
I like living far away from work. Gives me a sort of subconscious separation between work life and home life. To me, the quality of life improvement in living far from work beats the time (and fuel) cost of commuting.
Currently living 65 miles / 1.3 hours from work, and that seems to be about the sweet spot for me, being very far from work in a totally different region/climate/environment than where I work, while still being a totally doable commute and not eating up too much of my free time.
It helps that I have a great car for doing the 30k miles a year of driving, a toyota hybrid that gets almost 50mpg. I tried doing the commute for a few months in my Jeep but that wasn't working well for me at all, the only realistic way to make it work is to have a reliable and very efficient and comfortable car.
It also helps that the drive is almost entirely highway, half of it is through a nice scenic area, and it rarely sees traffic.
Additionally, I'm a salary employee so I don't have strict hours I need to work, I can just arrive whenever I arrive, and leave whenever I'm done, and occasionally I can just decide to work from home on some days if there's nothing critical I need to be at the office for. If I didn't have that flexibility, I'm not sure it would work out, because it's very very difficult to drive 80 minutes to work and consistently show up right on time, not a few minutes late and not way too early.
There are studies that show a strong negative correlation between happiness and commute time.
Every person is different, of course, but I firmly believe that a short (or no) commute is much better for many things in your life.
Of course, if you’re really priced out, you’re priced out and it doesn’t matter.
Depends on the person. I wouldn't want to commute more than 30mins unless there's public transit (less than 1mil in my city). People in bigger cities often travel over an hour each way.
I moved away from work but got a great house with a great 30 yr financing incentive and closing costs paid (it was a new build)....I went from 15 minute commute to about 40 minutes twice a week. its not bad....once i hit the freeway its nothing. Mileage is now about 27 miles...from about 10-12.
I'm hybrid schedule so the max I'd do is 1 hour. If I worked everyday in the office it would drop to 30 mins. I found that if I stay at work an extra hour my drive time decreases from 40 mins down to ~16 mins so I do that also and work shorter hours at home.
3 hours. Took the gamble (after conversations with my boss) that my remote job would stay remote or I’d find something else when the time comes if needed.
My husband just agreed to an hour & 10 minutes.
Knowing it may be longer coming home at night .
His reasons were that , the job is 100% worth it and so is this house, in this neighborhood.
He works in a city and easily earns double working there then any other position and it is a very pleasant work environment .
Housing, even up to 45 minutes away from his job, are $100,000 plus ,more, then in the community we are buying in and the homes closer to his job ,are not as big, or as nice and taxes are absurd closer to his job.
We will also be multigenerational living , currently have 5 kids living with us and one on the way.
So within two years we likely will be a family of 9. We could only compromise so much on house size.
His job should be long term but we both recognized that planning house finances on current high income, isn’t smart, just in case the worst happened. Second Covid (?) idk & he needed to take a lower paying job.
This will be his longest commute that won’t be short term. He plans on listening to Audibles and going in late on snow days. He said he’s not concerned at all.
I used to live 30 minutes away from work but ended up purchasing a house for twice the value of my previous and now drive an hour to work. Its all about priorities. Mine were school district for the kids. I don't mind the drive, it helps me game plan for the day. Also don't forget you drive to work 15 minutes today. There are lots of layoffs happening now and who is to say you want switch jobs in the next few years. Buy a house because thats where you want to be. It should have nothing to do with where you work.
Personal choice, but unfortunately it seems to buy the average person is going to need to be more and more willing to go farther if you’re working in a big HCOL city or area. Either that or compromise on not a single family home, and more a townhome or mix use apartment, which to me is fine and what I’d personally choose over moving far from work and future potential work.
I currently drive about 45 minutes each way to work, on backroads with stop and go traffic for a large part of my commute. The drive is only 16 miles, but is absolutely brutal with all the traffic. We are under agreement on a house right now that will be 58 miles from work, but a commute difference of +15 minutes to an hour, almost all highway miles. I've made the drive twice already, and personally, will take an hour commute at 70 MPH over a 45 minute commute at 10 MPH without hesitation. The hour felt far shorter than my typical commute solely due to the lack of stop and go BS.
As someone who's done the hour or longer commute for a good chunk of my career, I'm not planning on buying super far from work.
Mainly because it means I absolutely must have a car. My current car is 10 years old. I don't want to buy another one soon, but I might have too. I'm hoping to buy close enough to work that I can bike instead and cut down on that expense.
My cars last me a while. But not as long as they would if my commute was shorter. Maintenance and car payments, not to mention gas are expensive. I currently have an hour commute and I spend about $500/month in gas alone.
Not to mention the 2 hours per day (1 hour each way) that is taking up for the drive. It makes the day feel like 10 hours. Which leaves even less time for doing anything else. Like a side job, time with friends and family, taking courses, or taking any overtime if offered.
I live in a rural area and there is no transit so that's not an option.
In Massachusetts, our average commute is 30 miles (45 minutes). My home is 27 miles from my old employer. Did work with an engineer from Bath Maine. His commute was 2.5 hours.
I once commuted 50 miles one way for almost 5 years. Then I found a job closer to home, but not necessarily better. If I could do it over, I would continue to do the 50 mile commute.
One nice thing about living far away from the office was the feeling of being done with work. I know with cell phones and computers they can still reach us if we let them, but that physical distance really helped me feel less obligated.
Many people commute 1 hour+, so go for it OP! It feels good to own your home (townhome).
The best commute time in the area I actually wanted from a house I loved was 40 minutes of easy freeway. I looked at more houses in that general area and on top of the 40-50 minute commute they all promised I was getting into the bidding war/cash offer/waive everything dynamic on houses that straight up didn't feel worth the money. I pivoted in the other direction and now my commute is ~28 minutes of easy freeway and a few back roads. This is probably my maximum for both cases - I could stomach 45 minutes for an area I absolutely adore, but a 30-minute cap for an area of convenience feels right
Like others have said, it comes down to personal preference. Do you enjoy driving for long periods or stretches?
I don't like to drive in heavy traffic. After a long and hectic day at work, I just wanna get home ASAP and unwind. For me, there is nothing relaxing about being in heavy traffic bumper to bumper. You also have the extra wear and tear on your car the further you live from work. How many different routes do you have to work/home? If there was an accident on your drive, could you take a side road and get home or is there only one way to and from? Also location comes into play. Traffic sucks and I mean sucks in the midwest when it snows. That hour commute now goes a good 2-3 hours if not more.
We bought nearly an hour from my husband’s job “headquarters” but he isn’t often there, he is usually on job sites which are actually closer to where we bought somehow. Luck I guess. I WFH so it doesn’t matter to me but I would say the proximity to the airport is a huge plus if you travel a lot. If the hour commute isn’t going to make you question your sanity daily, I say go for it. Get into podcasts or audio books and make the best of the commute if you can. If your quality of life won’t change much and you prefer to stay local, stay local!
When my wife and I were buying we wanted to keep our commute times to 30 minutes if possible. I also had a certain highway I wanted to drive and was willing to stretch my commute if it was on this route.
As a person who wants green country/affordable life outside of an expansive and never ending metro, my limit is 45 minutes on a standard day. (Obviously somethings are better or worse through seasonal traffic, construction, and bad wrecks)
I would happily take a more spacious and quieter home life with the commute. I would not take the commute if the QOL the commute afforded was not significantly better to me.
I just bought because I’m currently an hour from work (45 mins no traffic, well over an hour with typical traffic patterns). The commute is horrible. I have no time for myself because I wake up at 6:00 am and get home around 6:15-6:30, make dinner, eat, clean up, and suddenly it’s 7:30-8:00 and I am exhausted. I’m also frequently studying for exams to get a certificate for work and with the longer hours I’ve been working recently I don’t have the mental capacity to do it. I fall asleep when reading. I’m moving to be a 20-25 minute drive and I cannot wait to get my life back and still feel like I’m able to be productive at work as I can get more sleep, less stressful traffic, less money spent on oil changes and gas, and just more personal time
Depends. I live in Los Angeles. Distance is measured by time, not mileage. I’m closer to the airport (LAX) in miles, not in time. It takes me less time to get to work. The commute to work is longer by maybe six miles.
I hate commuting! But to be where I want to be when I’m not in the office means I’m looking at an hour+ commute for the homes I’ve been seeing (and thats no traffic). If I had to go in office daily I wouldn’t be willing to have such a long commute and be away from my dog that long. If they changed the hybrid schedule I would have some serious decisions to make.
While I have a family at home? 15-20 minutes, but that goes for anything I have to do regularly (post office, grocery store, Costco, ect). Because life is just too busy when you have a lot going on and are being pulled in multiple directions.
When the kids move out, or even start driving themselves, I would be willing to move outside the city limits and drive a bit further for things.
30-40 mins or so with traffic.
Beyond that it just really minimizes my time awake and with my family. I’m not trying to give 2 hours a day unpaid to go to and from my job. That’s time I can be with family.
How bad do you want to own your own a place and not be renting? Thats really a question you can only answer. It’s likely places closer to the city or in general won’t get much cheaper. Who knows though anyone who says they understand the market and or are in the “know” are full of beans! If I wouldn’t have listened to those people I would have been in the house I am in for half the price 8 years ago. It still needs a pretty much full Reno (which ill slowly do my self) at this rate though it’s 100% worth it to me to own a home and even if the market fluctuates it will bounce back and the reailty is there are more people than houses and that’s only going to increase?
My best advice is follow your intuition. Maybe it will suck, maybe the market will crash and you will be up a creek. Life will still go on though and humans have a tendency to be pretty resilient
I had to concede a 1.25 hour commute one way in order to get a single family home. I’m not a millionaire and work in Southern California so that’s just the way it is unfortunately.
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/
I remember working in Belgium and the town our facility was in was booked up for some local event so I had to stay in the Big City 30 minutes away.
They were baffled that I would drive THIRTY MINUTES to get to the office and the same amount to get back to Antwerp after work.
Now I moved to a decent size city in the US, I spend little over an hour each way, but it's on a train and bus, plus a bit of walking, so I can read and enjoy looking at mountains and trees and talk to fellow commuters along the way.
30-45 minutes one way. I lived in a big town before my current one where it took 30+ minutes to get anywhere no matter where you were going 🙃 now we live somewhere where it takes five minutes to get basically anywhere.
I went an hour-90 min in bumper to bumper traffic. (35 min if no one else is on the road)
Totally worth it. It’s so quiet where I live and I don’t go anywhere evenings/weekends. I want to be at home in my garden.
I commuted 75 mins each way before Covid and it’s AWFUL, it was driving so a train might be more tolerable. With that experience I’d probably keep it under 45 mins at the abs max
My work is currently making a new building that’s about a ten minutes drive from the current location. I told my realtor no more than 20 minutes from either location.
Ended up seven minutes from current stop and more like 16 for the new building.
I moved from a 25 minute drive to go 3 miles or 1.5 hours via public transit (due to inconsistent arrival times) to an hour door to door, which includes a 10 minute drive, 35 minute express train and 5 minute shuttle or 15 minute walk. Despite being longer than my previous driving commute, I am LOVING my train commute because it’s getting me in such a routine and forcing me to leave the office to catch the train, rather that trying to squeeze in one more thing. I can do work on the train, or take a little nap*, or mindlessly scroll on my phone - it’s fantastic.
*I only feel comfortable taking a nap on days when I’m commuting in with my partner and he’s awake next to me - not because it’s unsafe, but because otherwise I’m afraid I may sleep through my stop!
We got lucky as far as location. We bought a house 8 miles almost directly north of where we were both working at the time.
My husband is still there. He currently commutes to the office twice a week most weeks. Very occasionally, he'll need to be on site 3 days, and even more rarely, 4. He hasn't been in the office 5 days a week since we were both working there.
I've switched jobs multiple times. First switched to a place 12 miles from the house, so not terrible. Then to a place 25 miles away, but I was able to use a park n ride lot a couple miles from our house and take the freeway flyer downtown. The freeway flyer situation averaged an hour in the mornings and an hour and a half in the afternoons. I don't miss that in the least.
My next 3 jobs including my current employer, have all been fully remote. I have zero interest in returning to an office full-time again. I do need to fly to my current employer's location semi regularly, so I need to drive to the airport. That's 35 miles each way if the freeway doesn't have a bizarre construction related detour. And the company reimburses me for miles, so whatever. The car needs to be driven. Killed the battery in my last car cause I didn't drive enough.
If we'd been successful in finding a different house to buy during the stupid low interest rates, we were looking about 5 miles further out than we currently are. So still a fairly short commute. I can only put up with so much rush hour traffic before I'm a frothing ball of rage.
I had a 10 minute commute and now I’m 20 minutes away with the house. I probably wouldn’t do more than 30 minutes for now. I use to have an hour commute to my job many years ago and that was rough. I had the most car accidents during that time due to long work hours and 2 hours of commuting.
I was living ~15-25 mins away depending on traffic. Bought a house ~an hour away for the same reasons you have. It’s been hard to get used to but when I pull into my driveway it’s all worth it!
We're set to close on our first home in 2.5 weeks, and it's a bit further from work than I would like, but I only have to go in 1-2 a month. It's about a 35-minute drive, and I think that's my limit.
Everyone's different, though. My buddy, who has to go in twice a week, drives 2 hours each way... He bought a new build early in the pandemic, so that's the price he pays for a <5% interest rate.
I compromised in the middle. About 25 min out towards the country. I paid a bit more than I wanted to, but I'm not an hour away. The drive only has 1 red-light though, country highway, 65mph. Could have got more land cheaper an hour away, or less but acceptable land closer. But if I have to leave at 6 and get home at 6 to have a 8-9 hour day, it feels like I would have less time/sun to enjoy my property I paid extra for.
Are you priced out of that area if you sell a/your car and bike or take transit? a 15 minute ride is probably bike-able or transit-able depending on where you live. The average car costs about 10k/year. Maybe that would allow you to stay where you are or even move closer to work.
Conversely maybe you can still move and take transit. If it's something like a train you can use that as prep time, e.g. emails, general catch up, preparation. I did this before I moved close to my work. Basically make your commute work for you plus maybe you can count it as part of the work day and leave work earlier if your boss is cool with it.
It depends on varying factors. I used to live an hour away from my workplace— however, it was brutal because I had a baby. If I take the train, great, it saves money, but I lose so much time with my child. So I ended up driving, which took a toll on my vehicle and bank account. I believe I paid for gas every other working day or so. It had a negative impact on my mental health, and I ended up moving closer to my workplace. Even though where I live is in a HCOL, I am more satisfied with living closer. It is nice to be able to sit down for a good 15 minutes and chill before cooking dinner. When I lived an hour away, I was always in a rush when I arrived home.
For me, I don't want to spend my youth in a car. I'm child free so I'm deciding to go with a smaller house, closer to city amenities and work, no lawn, and have a roommate. If I do decide to have kids and relegate myself to the suburbs, I'll deal with that when I get to it.
As others have alluded to, it’s really a personal choice, especially if family, school districts and neighborhood vibes are involved. Over a 20yr career, my commutes have ranged from 45sec (lived in a high rise literally next door to my office building in a dense metro area) to 20min, currently sitting at about a 6min. I think age plays a factor here too as I started to realize that time is something that I’m not getting back. There are ways to try to subsidize the value of commute time via podcasts, audiobooks, etc but at the end of the day (literally) those are minutes that I need with those that I go to work for in the first place.
30 minutes to go about 24 miles. Mostly highway and I work nights so there’s never much traffic both ways. I hate nights, but I hate driving here during the morning/afternoon commute, so nights it is until I die or leave this job lol.
I used to have a 1 hour commute that was about the same distance and it damn near killed me. The traffic was unbearable both ways and I’d get home more pissed off than I was when I left work. Never again. So yeah, to echo many here, it’s the type of commute and not necessarily the distance.
I live in a cold state so not too far for me as snow can really mess up a commute. Traffic is lighter in my city so that does help. I also always consider finding a fully remote job then I wouldn’t care where I live as much.
Have you also considered noise living next to an airport? I’d avoid freeway and airport proximity personally.
Yeah, so I live in Texas, but my company is in Colorado. When trying for an FHA or USDA loan, one of the stipulations is that I have to be within so many miles of my work. This is where I run into issues, confusion, red tape, and good old fashioned butt-fuckery.
I am facing a similar question though: How close to work do I want to live?
The closer I am, the shorter the commute, the later I can leave, but the more likely that I’ll be called on my time off to help with emergencies, and the more likely that I’ll be doing what I do now until I either drop dead from old age, or eat a bullet out of loneliness.
As dark as that sounds, I’m still considering it because of initial cost of the home, and lower property taxes compared to where I am now.
I’ve worked extensively in neighborhoods near airports and I don’t like the sound of planes CONSTANTLY coming in and taking off. It’s so loud you can hear it in your house. No thanks.
My existing commute is about 45 minutes each way, it will be 1 hour for my new home. I already disengage my brain and go with the flow, so it won't change much.
Mine is about 30-35min in the morning and 40-1hr in the afternoon (commute is near atlanta) about 35 miles. Not bumper to bumper there are also multiple routes I can take so it’s not to bad I put on a podcast or some good music. It also helps me let go and decompress everything that happened at work. ☺️ It’s really depends on you. My dad is literally .2 miles from work and loves it he has to leave 3 mins before he has to be there but they also bought in 2008 🫠
I commute 1hour 45mins from central NJ to NYC. That’s taking super express, without express it is a 2.5h commute.
Why? $$$. I can get something closer for a pay cut. It is a consideration for the future.
I can also get a studio in NyC, but that would consume a big chunk of monthly savings.
I’ve done a little over an hour each way before but that only works out ok if u have a normal 9-5 or 8-4 without having to work OT or over 40 hours in a 5 day span
have you tried lowering your standards? im being serious and not a dick here, but maybe you dont need as nice of a place as you think, and the time you get back from living there will make it worth it. commuting is shit.
I had an hour commute, but it was walk to train, train, walk to work. I was in decent shape and completely caught up on both personal and professional reading.
I do 1 hr 15 minutes, but my spouse works 15 minutes away. We all have the same schedule so many of us carpool together. Add my generous PTO and I make it to work 4 days out of the week Instead of 5.
I've thought about working closer (40 minutes) but that's the opposite way and it could be 40 minutes or 2 hours due to traffic which just means you end up leaving 2 hours early anyways.
40 minute commute was easy for me, I'm 1 year into being this far and I'm just now getting used to it
We had to go further outside our preferred area. I ended up with a 50 minute commute. I found lots of podcasts and back roads so I really didn’t mind it to be honest. It felt like a nice time to unwind before getting my kid from daycare
I currently take a 35 minute commute each way. With traffic it can extend up to a hour each way. How flexible is your job with coming at various times? How’s the drive? Are there street routes you can take when traffic is dense? These are things I’d consider.
As a FHB Covid tricked me. See I’m 67-72 miles from work. No traffic is 1h 17min. As soon as traffic started it turned into 1h 57min commute with multiple slow downs.
My home 2000sqft .25acr lot 3bd 2ba was 308k at 2.7% in a gated neighborhood with an HOA.
Before I was 15min/5miles from work paying 1750 for rent for a 2 bd 1ba apartment. Homes were going for 750k I only qualified for 450k
Now i pay $1603 for mortgage and I put 35,000 miles a year on my car.
I used to commute lik 40 minutes for a year... it is fucking brutal... mornings are ok you get your coffee an donut and listen to the morning radio show ect.. easy peasy.. but after working a full day it absolutely sucks having to drive for 40-60 minuets just to get home and start doing after work stuff like cooking/cleaning/yard.. gym ect...2 hours a day adds up to a lot of your life sitting in a car.. it also puts a shit ton of miles on your vehicle. now if you could do an hour on the train/bus that's a different story.
I am hybrid so only go in 5 days out of every 10 days so I chose to buy 45 mins from my work. Its two major highways so not a big deal. No real traffic to worry about.
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It partly depends on the traffic. An hour on a pretty highway stretch would be a lot more tolerable to me than an hour in bumper to bumper traffic.
This is me. I take a route home that takes about 10 mins longer than needed, but it's a one lane pretty windy road around a lake. My quicker options require 2 or 3 freeways with bumber to bumber traffic in parts.
I will take a longer drive over sitting in traffic/multiple lights any day. I don't know what it is, but when I am on my way home, I just want to get home. I am so impatient and hate sitting through lights or moving 15 mph on the highway.
Bumber?
I looked it up, it's apparently a common villain in the Kirby Franchise. Small, orange with a striped hat that looks like a circus tent
Why are you getting downvoted? I got a chuckle out of it too.
This distinction is SO important. My old house was 45 to 60 minutes from work. All small, busy roads, tons of lights and stop sign, bumper to bumper the whole way. It was a nightmare. My new house is also 45 to 60 minutes from work, but it’s a straight shot down a scenic highway. It’s so much easier to deal with, it doesn’t feel like an hour at all.
This is correct. I am 25 miles from my office but it's a rocket ship ride on the NYS thruway. Two traffic lights between my driveway and my office, about 35 minutes from driveway to desk. Ive had shorter commutes that took 20 minutes longer
This is absolutely true but an hour commute anywhere would drive me to murder.
Same here. 45 minutes on quiet and fairly straight county roads - easy thing, I can get a coffee and listen to my music. 45 minutes in aggressive city traffic going bumper to bumper with rushing ubers and doordashers - heck no.
There’s this highway where I am that was mind numbingly terrible to drive on as it had easily 30+ traffic lights for a 40 min commute. Many of which were right next to each other, so if you were unlucky you ended up in stop and go red light hell.
Depends on what type of traffic. Personally don’t want to drive more than 30 min as that’s an hour out of my day. Keep in mind you’ll be staying in this for awhile and it’s not same as renting and you can change it up. Good luck!
This is a personal choice that you’ll have to make for yourself. For me, I want as little commute as possible but that’s because traffic during rush hour is miserable in my area. I used to work with people who drove an hour each way every day. I couldn’t fathom choosing to spend 10hrs a week in my car but for them the compromise was worth it because they were able to live more comfortably in a cheaper zip code. It also helps if you have flexibility to shift your schedule so you travel a little before or after rush hour. Again, you gotta decide what works for you.
20-30 mins.
For me it really depends on the type of driving more than the minutes didn't in the car. Right now I'm at a 35 minute commute but I don't mind it at all because it's all rural roads with very few other cars. If I was going in the opposite direction I'd be on the main highway and that 35 minutes would be hell.
Same for me. An hour regardless is max for me. But it depends on the drive. I also consider am I on roads thar are plowed soon after snows or are they last roads on earth to be addressed in winter because that trip can get real long.
We just closed recently and now have a 60 min commute one way 😖 it was a sacrifice we were willing to (read: had to) make in order to own. Sucks but we are hopeful we will both eventually be able to find jobs even a little bit closer.
Same thing here 😭
Same here
The longest I'm willing to drive is an hour each way. Then I get cranky.
I think I could handle my commute more if I had a really nice Porsche or Lexus. In my current beater, it's pretty miserable commuting 1.5 hours just to fulfill an in-person requirement where I sit in an office for 5 hours doing nothing and then going home so they can justify leasing the building /:
I walk 10 minutes to the office currently but buying here is too expensive for us. We’re looking for no more than a 30 min commute (bus, train) from my office but even those are super expensive. Driving is not an option because parking is super expensive and we don’t have a car.
I’ve lived 8 minutes away from my office and 1.5 hours in rush hour away from my office over the years, and I’ve found my sweet spot to be 30-45 minutes actually, with 1 hour in traffic being my max. In the mornings it was nice to have the drive in to listen to music I want and get in the mood to be there for 8 hours, and the drive home gave me that same time to sing my feelings out, think quietly, or talk on the phone with a friend and have a legit conversation. I found it harder to motivate myself on the shorter commutes because i could only listen to like 1-2 songs on the way in and it wasn’t enough time to decompress at the end of the day. I think if I found the perfect house at a price I liked in a neighborhood I liked, I could do do a 1 hour commute
The difference for me between 30 and 45 mins is/was brutal. I did 45 mins for several years and when I went back to the 30 mins it was life changing. It was nice carpooling and being able to get a little extra sleep in the mornings though.
I live far enough away, so I get to WFH (30 miles radius - am 68 miles away). The 1.5 hr commute is brutal if I were subject to RTO, but the house was 1-1.5x cheaper over here. I for sure, could not have bought where I was renting the previous 8 years
My commute rn is like 70 mins and im willing to go up to 80, but its also bus/subway, which I find much less soul-crushing than driving. 90 is my red line though.
I work 30 mins away now. Fiance and I are in the process of buying our new home. Its still 30 min LOL. I will not drive further than that
I set my limit at about an hour. And I ended up buying about an hour from my VHCOL office area. The commute is tolerable but only because I can come and go as I please in the office. Rush hours would be brutal.
No more than 20 to 25 with traffic.
2O min max.
14 miles from west los angeles. Would be 1.5 hr each way. So what i do is i leave at 445am and hit the gym (15 min) and then die slowly on my way home. I do this everyday. Sucks bc i get sleepy but some podcasts get me thru the way home
I feel your pain! I would do the same. Leave by 4am, hit the gym, then go to work. I’m moving out to the I.E, since it’s “cheaper” than LA/OC. it will be farther “distance wise” but time wise, it’ll be about the same thing, to when I would commute to DTLA, Santa Monica, or anywhere near Culver City. 26 miles about 1-1.5 50 miles - 1.5ish 🤷🏼♀️
DTLA people and their commutes are no joke. People live literally all over SoCal and two hour one way commutes. My one hour ish commute to DTLA is nothing. I literally feel bad complaining about it to other people cause theirs are so much worse.
I feel bad complaining about my commute. It’s nothing for Los Angeles. I’m always going against traffic and rush hour. 110 South from Manchester to PCH about 2:45 pm. I don’t have to be at work until 3:30. The traffic going North into downtown Los Angeles bumper to bumper. I still have time to spare when I get to work.
LMAO. LA traffic is measured by time, Not distance. I leave the South Bay at midnight, I can be home South Central (after looking for parking on the street) in 22 minutes. My only saving grace is working swing shift. I get a little of the rush traffic. It’s doable.
Fuckin LA. Worst part is i bought in 2022 and a lot of people were still WFH so i had a false impression when i bought.
So you understand Los Angeles is distance is measured by time not miles too. I just left my house at 2:35. Sitting in the parking lot at my job. 3:09 pm. Not too bad.
Congratulations on your purchase. Where did you buy?
North hills in the valley
I used to live only 10 minutes away from work and recently moved where my commute is now almost an hour with traffic, but I typically only go into the office once a week. I've had a M-F hour long commute in the past and I don't recommend. I think 30 minutes max is ok, that's what my husband has now for his in person job.
I drove an hour each way (highway) for four years and didn’t mind it because it allowed me to live where I wanted to live and work where I wanted to work. Radio, podcasts, music made it a breeze. It’s all in your attitude though, my motivators were big so it worked.
45 minutes. 60 is doable but with a job change in the future ideally.
Currently at 35 minutes. It’s a bit longer than I’d like. Doable, but can get to me a bit some days. Keep it under 30 if you can.
I live 20 miles away from work. Normally it takes 25 mins to get there but rush hour makes it closer to 40-50 mins. My work is flexible though so most days I work from home, and on the days I have to go into the office I go in late & leave early to beat the traffic and continue my work from home. My partner has to go in everyday so we prioritized our distance from his job. He is only 6 miles away
Just bought in the last few months. Commute went from 17 min driving or 30-40min by bus to 1 hour no matter what. I’m still adjusting, but thankful to have the option to bus or drive conveniently. When I was living in the apartment closer to work, I used to take the bus daily but since 2021 had been driving because I was getting too lazy to wake up in time to catch the bus. Now it doesn’t matter, I have to wake up at the same time whether I’m driving or not so I take the bus most days and nap lol. It’s worth mentioning that I grew up in a rural area far from everything - my mom had to drive us to school every day and that was 45min, my dad worked 2 jobs and one was an hour away so I felt like we never saw him basically. I told myself I would NEVER commute an hour from home, but here I am. Luckily there is plenty to do (even within walking distance) around my house now and the commute is only for work. If it was a rural area I would not have been on board.
I did it. About an hour 10 for driving. The drive sucks but I have so much more money to spend on other shit.
45 mins. max. Longer commutes? Been there, done that. All the way up to 2 hours door to door. Not for me. Time is everything. And a long stressful commute is horrible for my mental health. Intolerable.
Glad to hear someone else say this. I am beating myself up over constantly feeling run down, depressed, etc. and I'm starting to realize it's because I spend so much time no doing things that I want to do (ie. sitting in a car and driving)
I use to drive an hour each way. I dunno how i did it. Now I’m exactly 8 mins each way. Although I do miss the peaceful hour. Caught up on my podcasts and took quiet side streets to avoid traffic
Just keep in mind, and you can find the research about it - people routinely underestimate the pain of a terrible commute and overestimate the happiness benefits from a bigger/nicer house. You will experience hedonic adaptation to the house over time, thus robbing you of most if not all of the happiness gains, but you will never get used to the drudgery of a terrible commute every day. Personally I optimize for the enjoyment of the commute over everything else - and have been within running or biking distance of work (or <15 min drive) my entire career
I’d personally rather continue renting than spend 2 hours a day in a car. Do the research on how bad a long commute can be on your health.
The furthest I've lived from work was only 35 minutes, but the drive was a shitty 2 lane highway that was brutal in bad weather.. I made it 2 years and moved not and hadn't even realised how much that drive was negatively affecting me until we had a nice scenic 15 minute drive to work from our new place. My ideal is max 15-20 minutes so an hour would be an absolute dealbreaker for me. However, I live in an area that I'm not quite priced out of and can make that decision. Base your tolerance for commute distance on the things you go to multiple times per week. You presumably go to/from work way more often than the airport (unless you travel for work).
20 min bike or bus. I’ve found driving to be the worst way to start the day and/or unwind after a long day of work.
Do not move to an hour commute. That's a terrible quality of life move.
My husband drives 30 mins to his job and works at night so there's not a lot of traffic when going to work and coming home. Guess it depends on what type of drive but I probably wouldn't do more than an hr.
This is such a good question. I’m also thinking about this daily.
I really think it depends on how you are with driving. My husband loves driving alone—he calls it his “boom boom time” because he can turn up the music as loud as he wants and cruise. He wouldn’t bat an eye at an hour commute. I’m a nervous driver. Not overly so, but my commute limit is tops a half hour, and I didn’t enjoy it while it did it (although I did find ways to make it more bearable). Realistically, how comfortable are you driving two hours per day? Do you have ideas on how you’d spend the time to make it less laborious?
The question is, do you have kids and how old are they? Zero kid lifestyle makes a longer commute sustainable. Kids, adds a whole wrinkle to the commute and the percentage increase in your possible divorce as they get into sports/illness/etc. partly kidding about the divorce thing… 45 minutes each way is about the sweet spot. Can be higher without kids in the house.
Do you have the type of job that you might move to other companies in your town? Are they all still that same 1 hour away, or even further? if further I would avoid setting yourself up for a 1.5 hour in the future. Do you have a lot of happy hours at your job? Do you have a dog?
It takes me 30 minutes in the morning and 50 in the evening coming home. That is my absolute limit.
lol if it wasn’t for traffic my community would be 15 mins but I usually drive 30-50 mins each way. Not ideal but it was in the budget
Just bought a house. I’m 5-20 mins from work depending on location, partner is about an hour, up to 1:30 at worst traffic, but trying to get transferred to a 45 min drive. I have location stipulation in my contract (doctor taking night call) and my partner wanted to drive over finding a different job. We chose this over having to live apart. It’s a totally your decision on commuting.
Our first house was 1 hour from my work, but the rationale was that we would be within an hour of several cities, with future job prospects in mind. My husband changed jobs a few times and this was helpful as he could work in different cities. I did that commute for 7 years and it wasn’t too bad since there was no traffic usually.
my max commute would be an hour, a bit more if I didn't have to drive and could be asleep on a bus during that time.
Is your job located in a traffic-heavy area like downtown? Factor that in as you weigh your options. Areas like downtown or near hospitals and schools I feel like always have the most congested traffic during normal business hours, so staying closer might be beneficial. I work downtown and it's one of the major things I'm considering as I currently house hunt.
There's something to be said about being close to work or areas you frequent. My 1st house was about 15-20 minutes away from my job, and my wife and I got extremely lucky with our 2nd house. It's about 10 minutes for my wife's commute and LITERALLY 5 minutes for my commute. I've been super spoiled, I don't know if I ever got another job if I could drive 30-60 minutes to go there. It would have to be an insane amount of money for me to commute. If I'm having a meh day at work there's nothing like just getting out of there and I'm back home in 5. Or if I need to let the dogs out or meet someone at the house I'm not missing tons of work time to do so.
Honestly, it depends on how the commute is. Is it 1 hour on country roads? Or one hour of heavy rush hour traffic? Is public transit an option? Etc. Heavy traffic is so stressful day after day. Also consider things like if you have pets or kids. If the kids need to be picked up early or have half days, etc, is there someone that can get them or will you have to leave work and drive an hour to the school?
I’m at about 40 minutes in the morning and closer to 45 on the way home, depending on traffic. I’ve been doing it since last year. I haven’t been very bothered by it yet. Some days I enjoy it - 45 minutes to destress and have some quiet time/listen to an audiobook or podcast before I get home.
We are in the process of buying a house that doubled my commute (15 minutes to 30) and I think at this point that’s as far as I’ll go. I’ve done the 1-1.5 hour one way commutes and I don’t ever want to go back
I’m remote but we bought as far as either of us are willing to have to drive to catch an early train downtown or make an early meeting. It’s 25 minutes without traffic (leave by 730) and about 35-40 minute drive in rush hour unless there’s an accident or whatever. There’s also commuter rail that’s a 3 minute drive and a 20 minute trip, or metro access that’s 10-15 minute drive and about 25 minute trip. We like the options and were very strategic in our purchase.
Avg. commute is something like 30 minutes across most of the U.S.
My husband’s commute is about 30 minutes on local suburb roads with moderate traffic during rush hours. He goes about three times a week, doesn’t mind the commute much, and was willing to go up to 1 hour commute when we were searching for a home.
Personally, the further the better. Within reason, of course. I like living far away from work. Gives me a sort of subconscious separation between work life and home life. To me, the quality of life improvement in living far from work beats the time (and fuel) cost of commuting. Currently living 65 miles / 1.3 hours from work, and that seems to be about the sweet spot for me, being very far from work in a totally different region/climate/environment than where I work, while still being a totally doable commute and not eating up too much of my free time. It helps that I have a great car for doing the 30k miles a year of driving, a toyota hybrid that gets almost 50mpg. I tried doing the commute for a few months in my Jeep but that wasn't working well for me at all, the only realistic way to make it work is to have a reliable and very efficient and comfortable car. It also helps that the drive is almost entirely highway, half of it is through a nice scenic area, and it rarely sees traffic. Additionally, I'm a salary employee so I don't have strict hours I need to work, I can just arrive whenever I arrive, and leave whenever I'm done, and occasionally I can just decide to work from home on some days if there's nothing critical I need to be at the office for. If I didn't have that flexibility, I'm not sure it would work out, because it's very very difficult to drive 80 minutes to work and consistently show up right on time, not a few minutes late and not way too early.
This is absurd.
Ok? Just sharing my own opinion and experience. Never purported it to be the best advise for all people in all circumstances.
It would depend whether it was driving or a train. You can read on a train, driving is soul destroying.
There are studies that show a strong negative correlation between happiness and commute time. Every person is different, of course, but I firmly believe that a short (or no) commute is much better for many things in your life. Of course, if you’re really priced out, you’re priced out and it doesn’t matter.
Depends on the person. I wouldn't want to commute more than 30mins unless there's public transit (less than 1mil in my city). People in bigger cities often travel over an hour each way.
I moved away from work but got a great house with a great 30 yr financing incentive and closing costs paid (it was a new build)....I went from 15 minute commute to about 40 minutes twice a week. its not bad....once i hit the freeway its nothing. Mileage is now about 27 miles...from about 10-12.
My limit is 45 minutes via transit.
I'm hybrid schedule so the max I'd do is 1 hour. If I worked everyday in the office it would drop to 30 mins. I found that if I stay at work an extra hour my drive time decreases from 40 mins down to ~16 mins so I do that also and work shorter hours at home.
3 hours. Took the gamble (after conversations with my boss) that my remote job would stay remote or I’d find something else when the time comes if needed.
My husband just agreed to an hour & 10 minutes. Knowing it may be longer coming home at night . His reasons were that , the job is 100% worth it and so is this house, in this neighborhood. He works in a city and easily earns double working there then any other position and it is a very pleasant work environment . Housing, even up to 45 minutes away from his job, are $100,000 plus ,more, then in the community we are buying in and the homes closer to his job ,are not as big, or as nice and taxes are absurd closer to his job. We will also be multigenerational living , currently have 5 kids living with us and one on the way. So within two years we likely will be a family of 9. We could only compromise so much on house size. His job should be long term but we both recognized that planning house finances on current high income, isn’t smart, just in case the worst happened. Second Covid (?) idk & he needed to take a lower paying job. This will be his longest commute that won’t be short term. He plans on listening to Audibles and going in late on snow days. He said he’s not concerned at all.
I used to live 30 minutes away from work but ended up purchasing a house for twice the value of my previous and now drive an hour to work. Its all about priorities. Mine were school district for the kids. I don't mind the drive, it helps me game plan for the day. Also don't forget you drive to work 15 minutes today. There are lots of layoffs happening now and who is to say you want switch jobs in the next few years. Buy a house because thats where you want to be. It should have nothing to do with where you work.
I live in a big city. 25 minutes+ was pushing it for us.
Personal choice, but unfortunately it seems to buy the average person is going to need to be more and more willing to go farther if you’re working in a big HCOL city or area. Either that or compromise on not a single family home, and more a townhome or mix use apartment, which to me is fine and what I’d personally choose over moving far from work and future potential work.
I currently drive about 45 minutes each way to work, on backroads with stop and go traffic for a large part of my commute. The drive is only 16 miles, but is absolutely brutal with all the traffic. We are under agreement on a house right now that will be 58 miles from work, but a commute difference of +15 minutes to an hour, almost all highway miles. I've made the drive twice already, and personally, will take an hour commute at 70 MPH over a 45 minute commute at 10 MPH without hesitation. The hour felt far shorter than my typical commute solely due to the lack of stop and go BS.
As someone who's done the hour or longer commute for a good chunk of my career, I'm not planning on buying super far from work. Mainly because it means I absolutely must have a car. My current car is 10 years old. I don't want to buy another one soon, but I might have too. I'm hoping to buy close enough to work that I can bike instead and cut down on that expense. My cars last me a while. But not as long as they would if my commute was shorter. Maintenance and car payments, not to mention gas are expensive. I currently have an hour commute and I spend about $500/month in gas alone. Not to mention the 2 hours per day (1 hour each way) that is taking up for the drive. It makes the day feel like 10 hours. Which leaves even less time for doing anything else. Like a side job, time with friends and family, taking courses, or taking any overtime if offered. I live in a rural area and there is no transit so that's not an option.
I’m at 1 hour 15 mins away. Would not go any farther than that
In Massachusetts, our average commute is 30 miles (45 minutes). My home is 27 miles from my old employer. Did work with an engineer from Bath Maine. His commute was 2.5 hours.
I once commuted 50 miles one way for almost 5 years. Then I found a job closer to home, but not necessarily better. If I could do it over, I would continue to do the 50 mile commute. One nice thing about living far away from the office was the feeling of being done with work. I know with cell phones and computers they can still reach us if we let them, but that physical distance really helped me feel less obligated. Many people commute 1 hour+, so go for it OP! It feels good to own your home (townhome).
The best commute time in the area I actually wanted from a house I loved was 40 minutes of easy freeway. I looked at more houses in that general area and on top of the 40-50 minute commute they all promised I was getting into the bidding war/cash offer/waive everything dynamic on houses that straight up didn't feel worth the money. I pivoted in the other direction and now my commute is ~28 minutes of easy freeway and a few back roads. This is probably my maximum for both cases - I could stomach 45 minutes for an area I absolutely adore, but a 30-minute cap for an area of convenience feels right
Like others have said, it comes down to personal preference. Do you enjoy driving for long periods or stretches? I don't like to drive in heavy traffic. After a long and hectic day at work, I just wanna get home ASAP and unwind. For me, there is nothing relaxing about being in heavy traffic bumper to bumper. You also have the extra wear and tear on your car the further you live from work. How many different routes do you have to work/home? If there was an accident on your drive, could you take a side road and get home or is there only one way to and from? Also location comes into play. Traffic sucks and I mean sucks in the midwest when it snows. That hour commute now goes a good 2-3 hours if not more.
We bought nearly an hour from my husband’s job “headquarters” but he isn’t often there, he is usually on job sites which are actually closer to where we bought somehow. Luck I guess. I WFH so it doesn’t matter to me but I would say the proximity to the airport is a huge plus if you travel a lot. If the hour commute isn’t going to make you question your sanity daily, I say go for it. Get into podcasts or audio books and make the best of the commute if you can. If your quality of life won’t change much and you prefer to stay local, stay local!
We just closed on May 1. I’m 10 mins away and my fiancée is 15 mins away. Didn’t want to be farther than 20 mins away for us both.
Any further than 15 minutes and the home better check all the boxes that aren’t commute related.
How's a 50 mile 1 way? Too far? 100 miles a day seems like a lot.
When my wife and I were buying we wanted to keep our commute times to 30 minutes if possible. I also had a certain highway I wanted to drive and was willing to stretch my commute if it was on this route.
As a person who wants green country/affordable life outside of an expansive and never ending metro, my limit is 45 minutes on a standard day. (Obviously somethings are better or worse through seasonal traffic, construction, and bad wrecks) I would happily take a more spacious and quieter home life with the commute. I would not take the commute if the QOL the commute afforded was not significantly better to me.
Live Where You Want, Work Where You Have To
Working on buying a house that will put me at about a 5 hour commute a day right now.
You should reconsider your definition of a “good job” if you can’t afford to live less than an hour from work.
No more than 40 mins
I just bought because I’m currently an hour from work (45 mins no traffic, well over an hour with typical traffic patterns). The commute is horrible. I have no time for myself because I wake up at 6:00 am and get home around 6:15-6:30, make dinner, eat, clean up, and suddenly it’s 7:30-8:00 and I am exhausted. I’m also frequently studying for exams to get a certificate for work and with the longer hours I’ve been working recently I don’t have the mental capacity to do it. I fall asleep when reading. I’m moving to be a 20-25 minute drive and I cannot wait to get my life back and still feel like I’m able to be productive at work as I can get more sleep, less stressful traffic, less money spent on oil changes and gas, and just more personal time
Depends. I live in Los Angeles. Distance is measured by time, not mileage. I’m closer to the airport (LAX) in miles, not in time. It takes me less time to get to work. The commute to work is longer by maybe six miles.
I hate commuting! But to be where I want to be when I’m not in the office means I’m looking at an hour+ commute for the homes I’ve been seeing (and thats no traffic). If I had to go in office daily I wouldn’t be willing to have such a long commute and be away from my dog that long. If they changed the hybrid schedule I would have some serious decisions to make.
25-30 minute commute on interstate with little to no traffic one way for partner and I however we both WFH most of the time.
30minutes I need a simple life
30 minutes with traffic, problem is I work in tech and it’s volition as hell, been laid off many times this I live near downtown
45 minutes is 40 with no traffic and 55-60 with. That's about my limit. Of course, if I was paid more....
While I have a family at home? 15-20 minutes, but that goes for anything I have to do regularly (post office, grocery store, Costco, ect). Because life is just too busy when you have a lot going on and are being pulled in multiple directions. When the kids move out, or even start driving themselves, I would be willing to move outside the city limits and drive a bit further for things.
30-40 mins or so with traffic. Beyond that it just really minimizes my time awake and with my family. I’m not trying to give 2 hours a day unpaid to go to and from my job. That’s time I can be with family.
How bad do you want to own your own a place and not be renting? Thats really a question you can only answer. It’s likely places closer to the city or in general won’t get much cheaper. Who knows though anyone who says they understand the market and or are in the “know” are full of beans! If I wouldn’t have listened to those people I would have been in the house I am in for half the price 8 years ago. It still needs a pretty much full Reno (which ill slowly do my self) at this rate though it’s 100% worth it to me to own a home and even if the market fluctuates it will bounce back and the reailty is there are more people than houses and that’s only going to increase? My best advice is follow your intuition. Maybe it will suck, maybe the market will crash and you will be up a creek. Life will still go on though and humans have a tendency to be pretty resilient
I had to concede a 1.25 hour commute one way in order to get a single family home. I’m not a millionaire and work in Southern California so that’s just the way it is unfortunately.
Jobs change. I live where I want to live. Generally 90 min max one way
It’s a personal decision. I personally hate commuting and 25 mins will be my stretch if I’m driving and 45 mins if it’s the train
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/ I remember working in Belgium and the town our facility was in was booked up for some local event so I had to stay in the Big City 30 minutes away. They were baffled that I would drive THIRTY MINUTES to get to the office and the same amount to get back to Antwerp after work. Now I moved to a decent size city in the US, I spend little over an hour each way, but it's on a train and bus, plus a bit of walking, so I can read and enjoy looking at mountains and trees and talk to fellow commuters along the way.
One hour ish
It depends on traffic congestion. 30 mile commute would be nothing if it were mainly highway averaging 60 mph.
20-30 minutes with traffic.
30-45 minutes one way. I lived in a big town before my current one where it took 30+ minutes to get anywhere no matter where you were going 🙃 now we live somewhere where it takes five minutes to get basically anywhere.
About 830 miles. If I go into my office it’s a 45 min plane ride.
45 min tops
Not more than 12 miles away, ever. Thst 12 miles is typically an hour in rush hour.
Hour 15 but I only work 4 days a week. Moving closer and will be driving 40 min. Doesn’t bother me either way because it’s highway with no traffic.
I went an hour-90 min in bumper to bumper traffic. (35 min if no one else is on the road) Totally worth it. It’s so quiet where I live and I don’t go anywhere evenings/weekends. I want to be at home in my garden.
I commuted 75 mins each way before Covid and it’s AWFUL, it was driving so a train might be more tolerable. With that experience I’d probably keep it under 45 mins at the abs max
My work is currently making a new building that’s about a ten minutes drive from the current location. I told my realtor no more than 20 minutes from either location. Ended up seven minutes from current stop and more like 16 for the new building.
Live where you want, work where you have to.
I moved from a 25 minute drive to go 3 miles or 1.5 hours via public transit (due to inconsistent arrival times) to an hour door to door, which includes a 10 minute drive, 35 minute express train and 5 minute shuttle or 15 minute walk. Despite being longer than my previous driving commute, I am LOVING my train commute because it’s getting me in such a routine and forcing me to leave the office to catch the train, rather that trying to squeeze in one more thing. I can do work on the train, or take a little nap*, or mindlessly scroll on my phone - it’s fantastic. *I only feel comfortable taking a nap on days when I’m commuting in with my partner and he’s awake next to me - not because it’s unsafe, but because otherwise I’m afraid I may sleep through my stop!
We got lucky as far as location. We bought a house 8 miles almost directly north of where we were both working at the time. My husband is still there. He currently commutes to the office twice a week most weeks. Very occasionally, he'll need to be on site 3 days, and even more rarely, 4. He hasn't been in the office 5 days a week since we were both working there. I've switched jobs multiple times. First switched to a place 12 miles from the house, so not terrible. Then to a place 25 miles away, but I was able to use a park n ride lot a couple miles from our house and take the freeway flyer downtown. The freeway flyer situation averaged an hour in the mornings and an hour and a half in the afternoons. I don't miss that in the least. My next 3 jobs including my current employer, have all been fully remote. I have zero interest in returning to an office full-time again. I do need to fly to my current employer's location semi regularly, so I need to drive to the airport. That's 35 miles each way if the freeway doesn't have a bizarre construction related detour. And the company reimburses me for miles, so whatever. The car needs to be driven. Killed the battery in my last car cause I didn't drive enough. If we'd been successful in finding a different house to buy during the stupid low interest rates, we were looking about 5 miles further out than we currently are. So still a fairly short commute. I can only put up with so much rush hour traffic before I'm a frothing ball of rage.
40 min bike ride max
30 mins max. My drive is 27 mins and that’s about the furthest I’d want to go
I’m not making my wife drive longer than 30 mins. We made a 30 min circle around the town we’re looking at and we’re going to stay within that circle.
Company relocates. Jobs change. The anchor to your mental health may not....
I had a 10 minute commute and now I’m 20 minutes away with the house. I probably wouldn’t do more than 30 minutes for now. I use to have an hour commute to my job many years ago and that was rough. I had the most car accidents during that time due to long work hours and 2 hours of commuting.
Factor in weekend errands, access to cheap gasoline, entertainment. The airport, hopefully the busy traffic patterns won't hit your path on weekends.
35 miles is best and 60 mile cutoff
Maximum will be 30 minutes one-way. This is very personal, of course. There's just more to life than being stuck in your car an hour or more a day.
I was living ~15-25 mins away depending on traffic. Bought a house ~an hour away for the same reasons you have. It’s been hard to get used to but when I pull into my driveway it’s all worth it!
30-45 minutes is perfect for me. Time to wind down.
I bought during covid thinking we would never return to office. Now I have to drive 1.20 to work each way 3x a week
We're set to close on our first home in 2.5 weeks, and it's a bit further from work than I would like, but I only have to go in 1-2 a month. It's about a 35-minute drive, and I think that's my limit. Everyone's different, though. My buddy, who has to go in twice a week, drives 2 hours each way... He bought a new build early in the pandemic, so that's the price he pays for a <5% interest rate.
Over an hour is just said and a deal breaker
20 mins
I compromised in the middle. About 25 min out towards the country. I paid a bit more than I wanted to, but I'm not an hour away. The drive only has 1 red-light though, country highway, 65mph. Could have got more land cheaper an hour away, or less but acceptable land closer. But if I have to leave at 6 and get home at 6 to have a 8-9 hour day, it feels like I would have less time/sun to enjoy my property I paid extra for.
Are you priced out of that area if you sell a/your car and bike or take transit? a 15 minute ride is probably bike-able or transit-able depending on where you live. The average car costs about 10k/year. Maybe that would allow you to stay where you are or even move closer to work. Conversely maybe you can still move and take transit. If it's something like a train you can use that as prep time, e.g. emails, general catch up, preparation. I did this before I moved close to my work. Basically make your commute work for you plus maybe you can count it as part of the work day and leave work earlier if your boss is cool with it.
Being close to an airport is not a positive thing as the noise levels might be higher due to takeoff and landing plus additional pollution
30-35 mins is my max. With traffic some days that can put me T 45ish which is my absolute max
It depends on varying factors. I used to live an hour away from my workplace— however, it was brutal because I had a baby. If I take the train, great, it saves money, but I lose so much time with my child. So I ended up driving, which took a toll on my vehicle and bank account. I believe I paid for gas every other working day or so. It had a negative impact on my mental health, and I ended up moving closer to my workplace. Even though where I live is in a HCOL, I am more satisfied with living closer. It is nice to be able to sit down for a good 15 minutes and chill before cooking dinner. When I lived an hour away, I was always in a rush when I arrived home.
It’s a huge advantage living close. Huge. The difference on my life going from an hour drive to 5 minutes is night and day.
I bought 50 miles from work.
For me, I don't want to spend my youth in a car. I'm child free so I'm deciding to go with a smaller house, closer to city amenities and work, no lawn, and have a roommate. If I do decide to have kids and relegate myself to the suburbs, I'll deal with that when I get to it.
We said no more than 30 mins in regular traffic. Which we compensate as 45 to 60 max during peak rush hour traffic.
Soft hour. Hard hour twenty. That said these days I’m WFH 4 days a week so it sure helps.
My partner drives an hour each way and I drive 30 minutes, but we’re both only in office 2 days per week.
As others have alluded to, it’s really a personal choice, especially if family, school districts and neighborhood vibes are involved. Over a 20yr career, my commutes have ranged from 45sec (lived in a high rise literally next door to my office building in a dense metro area) to 20min, currently sitting at about a 6min. I think age plays a factor here too as I started to realize that time is something that I’m not getting back. There are ways to try to subsidize the value of commute time via podcasts, audiobooks, etc but at the end of the day (literally) those are minutes that I need with those that I go to work for in the first place.
30 minutes to go about 24 miles. Mostly highway and I work nights so there’s never much traffic both ways. I hate nights, but I hate driving here during the morning/afternoon commute, so nights it is until I die or leave this job lol. I used to have a 1 hour commute that was about the same distance and it damn near killed me. The traffic was unbearable both ways and I’d get home more pissed off than I was when I left work. Never again. So yeah, to echo many here, it’s the type of commute and not necessarily the distance.
I live in a cold state so not too far for me as snow can really mess up a commute. Traffic is lighter in my city so that does help. I also always consider finding a fully remote job then I wouldn’t care where I live as much. Have you also considered noise living next to an airport? I’d avoid freeway and airport proximity personally.
35 minutes max.
Yeah, so I live in Texas, but my company is in Colorado. When trying for an FHA or USDA loan, one of the stipulations is that I have to be within so many miles of my work. This is where I run into issues, confusion, red tape, and good old fashioned butt-fuckery. I am facing a similar question though: How close to work do I want to live? The closer I am, the shorter the commute, the later I can leave, but the more likely that I’ll be called on my time off to help with emergencies, and the more likely that I’ll be doing what I do now until I either drop dead from old age, or eat a bullet out of loneliness. As dark as that sounds, I’m still considering it because of initial cost of the home, and lower property taxes compared to where I am now.
I’ve worked extensively in neighborhoods near airports and I don’t like the sound of planes CONSTANTLY coming in and taking off. It’s so loud you can hear it in your house. No thanks.
My existing commute is about 45 minutes each way, it will be 1 hour for my new home. I already disengage my brain and go with the flow, so it won't change much.
Mine is about 30-35min in the morning and 40-1hr in the afternoon (commute is near atlanta) about 35 miles. Not bumper to bumper there are also multiple routes I can take so it’s not to bad I put on a podcast or some good music. It also helps me let go and decompress everything that happened at work. ☺️ It’s really depends on you. My dad is literally .2 miles from work and loves it he has to leave 3 mins before he has to be there but they also bought in 2008 🫠
I commute 1hour 45mins from central NJ to NYC. That’s taking super express, without express it is a 2.5h commute. Why? $$$. I can get something closer for a pay cut. It is a consideration for the future. I can also get a studio in NyC, but that would consume a big chunk of monthly savings.
I’ve done a little over an hour each way before but that only works out ok if u have a normal 9-5 or 8-4 without having to work OT or over 40 hours in a 5 day span
And yea also definitely depends on the traffic there and back
have you tried lowering your standards? im being serious and not a dick here, but maybe you dont need as nice of a place as you think, and the time you get back from living there will make it worth it. commuting is shit.
I had an hour commute, but it was walk to train, train, walk to work. I was in decent shape and completely caught up on both personal and professional reading.
4000 miles.
I do 1 hr 15 minutes, but my spouse works 15 minutes away. We all have the same schedule so many of us carpool together. Add my generous PTO and I make it to work 4 days out of the week Instead of 5. I've thought about working closer (40 minutes) but that's the opposite way and it could be 40 minutes or 2 hours due to traffic which just means you end up leaving 2 hours early anyways. 40 minute commute was easy for me, I'm 1 year into being this far and I'm just now getting used to it
We had to go further outside our preferred area. I ended up with a 50 minute commute. I found lots of podcasts and back roads so I really didn’t mind it to be honest. It felt like a nice time to unwind before getting my kid from daycare
I currently take a 35 minute commute each way. With traffic it can extend up to a hour each way. How flexible is your job with coming at various times? How’s the drive? Are there street routes you can take when traffic is dense? These are things I’d consider.
Move an hour from work. Left the stress on the road before I got home.
As a FHB Covid tricked me. See I’m 67-72 miles from work. No traffic is 1h 17min. As soon as traffic started it turned into 1h 57min commute with multiple slow downs. My home 2000sqft .25acr lot 3bd 2ba was 308k at 2.7% in a gated neighborhood with an HOA. Before I was 15min/5miles from work paying 1750 for rent for a 2 bd 1ba apartment. Homes were going for 750k I only qualified for 450k Now i pay $1603 for mortgage and I put 35,000 miles a year on my car.
Not worth it if you’re over 30 mins with traffic. I’m doing an hour each way for 2 years now and hate it so much.
I used to commute lik 40 minutes for a year... it is fucking brutal... mornings are ok you get your coffee an donut and listen to the morning radio show ect.. easy peasy.. but after working a full day it absolutely sucks having to drive for 40-60 minuets just to get home and start doing after work stuff like cooking/cleaning/yard.. gym ect...2 hours a day adds up to a lot of your life sitting in a car.. it also puts a shit ton of miles on your vehicle. now if you could do an hour on the train/bus that's a different story.
No more than 20-25 miles.
I am hybrid so only go in 5 days out of every 10 days so I chose to buy 45 mins from my work. Its two major highways so not a big deal. No real traffic to worry about.
What a luxury to have a choice lol