Second generation is why we chose to buy our house out in the middle of nowhere. I know somebody tha

There was an excellent piece in the Slog on Monday , based on both NYU work and a US Census graphic , showing that the Seattle area both ranks 10th in longest commutes, and that we have the 3rd fastest growth for long commutes.  The census piece introduced me to the term megacommuter, someone that commutes universal studios orlando hotels over 90 minutes and 50 miles each way.  One out of every 122 full time workers in the US is a megacommuter , and 10.8 million in the US commute more than an hour each way.  With so many megacommuters out there, I ve decided to address them directly.
I don t know your situation. universal studios orlando hotels I can think of at least a few tragic life situations that would keep me commuting with over 20% of my waking, universal studios orlando hotels non-working life(1).  But if you re similar to a friend of mine that commuted this far just to have a large home, I d like to make sure you have really thought through universal studios orlando hotels your choice.
Let s take a look at the money you re spending on this commute.  Looking at only tangible vehicle costs, ignoring softer numbers like the increased number of accidents you ll be in, the cost of your reduced health from increased hours of sitting, etc., you ll spend around $220,000 over the length of a 30 year mortgage universal studios orlando hotels by driving 50 miles each way(2).
Now let s look at these 15+ hours a week you re spending universal studios orlando hotels commuting.  If you plowed just half of those back into work by living close by, and made the median income in Seattle of $61,000, over those same 30 years you d make an extra $229,000 after taking a third out for taxes and assuming universal studios orlando hotels no bonus for overtime or promotion for all of your dedication(3).  But rather than working those hours you could spend time with your family, start a hobby, or go to school.  Or you could take 293 extra weeks of vacation(4).
I won t even try to persuade you with greenhouse gas numbers, or try to convince you that owning a home in the far suburbs universal studios orlando hotels helps destroy farms and forests and that everything from the roads that bring you home to  your water treatment to the power lines that serve your home have a much larger impact than they would near a city.  You either aren t interested in these arguments, or they come second to other factors in your life.
If knowing all of this doesn t change anything, universal studios orlando hotels you still want your large house at any cost, that s fine.  This isn t a wrong choice, and you re welcome to it.  But if you d consider another way, might I propose a new strategy?  Consider moving as close to your work as you can afford, even if it means living in a smaller home for a while.  Use the money you save in your commute to pay off your mortgage faster, build up equity in your home, and trade up to a larger universal studios orlando hotels home in a few years.  As a bonus, if you use that $220,000 you d waste commuting over the 30 years on home, you ll convert it from an expense to an investment and much of it will be available when you retire.
(1) 40 hour work week, 8*7=56 hours of sleep a week, leaves 72 hours a week.  A 90 minute commute each way eats up 15 of these hours.  Note 72 hours doesn t represent total free time I didn t count eating, brushing teeth, shopping, etc.
(2) 26,000 miles/yr /30 mpg car * $4 gal = $3,467 in fuel a year.  Assuming a lifespan of 200k miles you d go through a $20k new car every 7.7 years ($2,600 a year).  Estimating $600 in insurance and $700 in maintenance a year (probably low for this many miles).  Total = $7,370 per year * 30 years = $221,000.
(3) $61,000 / 52 weeks / 40 hrs = $29.33/hr.  Time wasted commuting = 15 hrs/wk universal studios orlando hotels * 52 weeks/yr universal studios orlando hotels * 30 years = 23,400 hours wasted.  Using half of that: 11,700 hrs * $29.33/hr = $343,000.  Reduce that by a third and you get $229,000.
(4) Assuming your work is somewhat flexible, allowing universal studios orlando hotels you to work overtime in exchange for time off.  That s 23,400 hours of comp time you d rack up over 30 years, and you only need 40 for each week off.  I ll cut that in half as well to adjust for your new commute.  That said, I m guessing you won t be able to take them all at once.
My first thought universal studios orlando hotels on this is there may be a new market for bringing back old-fashioned residential hotels people who live so far away from where they work that staying in a room near work Monday through Thursday nights and only commuting home for weekends may not only save time and aggravation but money too.
This comes across as fairly condescending; I suspect most supercommuters know all this (they re living it, after all). I would also assume that you can t really tell a story about supercommuters in 2013 without addressing the role of the bursting universal studios orlando hotels of the housing bubble: people get a new job far away, but can t move b/c they re underwater. All but one of the people I know who qualify as supercommuters fit this story stuck in a home they can t sell without writing a huge check to the bank. In such a situation, waiting it out until the recovery universal studios orlando hotels + increased equity allows you to move without defaulting seems like a plausible way to address a very less than ideal situation.
I could absolutely universal studios orlando hotels see that Megacommuters know the time impacts they re hard to miss. But I don t imagine most have done the cost calculation. This post stemmed originally from someone with a 100 mile commute, and I ran the numbers that worked out to $500k+ over 30 years. This was surprisingly universal studios orlando hotels large, and I thought I d share.
I m pretty sure the commutes are the result universal studios orlando hotels of logical universal studios orlando hotels economic choices. All told, transportation costs are not all that expensive relative to the cost of a cheaper house or the value of a better job. You can argue whether we as a society universal studios orlando hotels price the externalities of travel well enough, but don t assume people are acting illogically.
None of the megacommuters universal studios orlando hotels I work with are doing it by choice. They all were reassigned universal studios orlando hotels to our Central District location by a district/regional manager, universal studios orlando hotels and told to take it or leave it. They hate/resent it, and are very vocal about how much time/money it s costing them (commuting in their body-on-frame SUV, of course) but the reality is that Seattle is where the open jobs are, not Lakewood or Snohomish.
They have no interest in moving (and the ones that do get sticker shock and never consider it again, ever, ha ha), and always say this is just temporary, until they find work closer to home, but then they stay, and stay, and stay. And drive, drive, drive.
A half-hour outside universal studios orlando hotels of Lakewood, that s where. We ve had a couple of guys from the Eatonville/orting area, some guys from around Sultan, and one from Stanwood. At my last job there were a couple people from Mount Vernon, as well.
How is locating in Eatonville or Stanwood not a choice? I can t imagine anyone moving out there to look for work. And there are plenty of places with comparable universal studios orlando hotels housing costs much closer. BTW, Sultan is only 40 miles from DT Seattle. Stanwood sneeks universal studios orlando hotels in to the megacommute range at 53 miles . Bring up the map and look at the area encompassed by a 50 mile radius.
Then the company expands and opens new locations, mostly in and around Seattle where the economy is strongest, and/or locations in Seattle need to staff up to handle increased business. Employee X is already trained and experienced, so he s transferred from his current position in Lakewood to the new or expanded location in the CD, and told he can either take the position or take a walk.
This situation is exacerbated universal studios orlando hotels by the low wage nature of the work the highest paid positions on-site are only about $35k/yr, with most in the low 20 s, and there are approximately zero applicants from the Seattle area who are willing to accept these wages, so the vast majority universal studios orlando hotels of the full-time universal studios orlando hotels positions are filled by transferring universal studios orlando hotels employees from outer locations (where an empty position can be much more easily filled with a new hire).
Bernie, has it ever occurred to you that someone universal studios orlando hotels might just be from the place you re dismissing as no where? That the land/house they live in may have been in their family for generations? That some of these places may have been settled long before what is now the big city was the big city? There was a time when places like Port Townsend or Tacoma held more cache than Seattle does now.
More generally, there are many factors that lead one to the choice to super-commute. The fact that jobs are scarce universal studios orlando hotels is the bigger one. Not all choices are made by strict accounting reasons. The sense of where home is regardless of where one works is a rational choice even if it isn t a dollars and cents one. Where family is anchored, attachment to community (and yes, despite Jane Jacobs scoffing, community does exist outside of big cities)
On a personal universal studios orlando hotels anecdote My current commute by public transit is between 1hour 5 and 1 hour 40 minutes depending on route choices and traffic. That s to go 7 miles! I could make that trip in 20 minutes or less in a car. And the best I could expect when other parts of Link is completed would be a 40 minute commute.
universal studios orlando hotels Second generation is why we chose to buy our house out in the middle of nowhere. I know somebody that has kept the family homestead, honest to gosh real homestead land out past Orting. But they don t live there because commuting to Seattle would be foolish. There are people that moved their families to Phoenix and commute to LA but that involves maintaining universal studios orlando hotels an apartment and flying universal studios orlando hotels home on weekends. Commuting over 50 miles in the Puget Sound region is rare and involves exceptional universal studios orlando hotels circumstances. It s not a choice people make because they can t afford to live somewhere closer.
That is exactly my situation exactly. I d use transit more if it was consistently 65 minutes. The not knowing if I ll be home at just past 6PM or almost 7PM is a deal breaker. And FWIW 1:40 for 7 miles isn t much faster than walking! Metro has the ability to fix this and save money doing it. But instead they cry for more tax dollars so they can continue to prioritize crappy coverage everywhere above decent service anywhere.
universal studios orlando hotels Eatonville to Lakewoood is a 45 minute commute. That s a little beyond perfectly reasonable (double the norm) and if they re willing to do that th