Long commute causes buyer’s remorse: how gas prices are affecting life in the exurbs.
‘œRemorse goes to sleep during a prosperous period and wakes up in adversity.’ ‘“ Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Awhile back, a journalist was looking for stories from our readers experiencing buyer’s remorse in the wake of higher gas prices. He wanted to know if anyone bought a house in the exurbs when gas was 3 bucks a gallon and found themselves rethinking their decision now that the price is closer to $5.00.
When his colleague beat him to the punch with this article: Fuel Prices Shift Math for Life in Far Suburbs, I decided to print a story from one of our readers here instead. This comes from Addie Compton:
I bought my modest rowhouse in Baltimore in 2005 at the exact height of the real estate boom here. My home is in southwestern Baltimore city and I work in a DC suburb in Prince George’s County. It’s an hour commute, when traffic is moving well. And it is all highway commuting. My girlfriend works in DC proper – I drop her off at the subway before going in to work myself. There is a subway stop near where I work. However it is a 2 hour train ride with several transfers (from commuter rail to two different subway lines). I’m not willing to do that.
I would have loved to live closer. I looked in DC and the Maryland suburbs. However, there was literally nothing in my price range when I started looking. I bought my 3 bedroom, 1 bath house for $150,000. (I won’t live in Virginia.) Everything was $200,000 and above – usually much, much above. And this includes marginal neighborhoods with bad schools and significant crime problems. (Prices have not dropped much here. There is still very little available for $150,000 or below.)
So I started looking in Baltimore city. I had lived in the city 10 years before and loved it. I still really enjoy Baltimore. My choices three years ago were buy in Baltimore or not buy at all and continue renting.
I don’t exactly have buyer’s remorse. I do have carbon guilt for all the carbon my five days a week, two hours a day driving. Otherwise, I live in a small house in a city, eat local as much as possible, recycle and so on. My impact, barring driving, is less than the average American. And while the high gas prices are brutal, we make enough that they are not a crushing burden.
However, my girlfriend and I cannot move until we have a significant down payment. Much of that down payment will come from the sale of our current home. And while I did not overpay for my home, it is not appreciating quickly anymore. We could sell it right now for $150,000 or slightly more ($155,000 or so). (During the craziness, Zillow.com rated it as worth over $200,000 which I knew was inflated.) I need my home to be worth $180,000 or more in order to have enough for a down payment to move into the DC metro market.
I don’t regret buying the house but I’m not happy about my carbon footprint. And I’m stuck.
Apparently, homeowners don’t have the lock on regret. Our very own Jennifer indicated she has renter’s remorse after they chose to rent in Silver Spring (a suburb of DC), though she works in the District. With gas costs, she notes commuting has become a major expense.
What’s next? Christopher B. Leinberger at The Atlantic Monthly declares the suburbs could become The Next Slum by suggesting that:
The subprime crisis is just the tip of the iceberg. Fundamental changes in American life may turn today’s McMansions into tomorrow’s tenements.
So what do you think? At one time, did the longer commute seem a worthwhile trade off and now it’s killing your monthly budget? Are you changing your lifestyle to accommodate this added expense? Please feel free to share your experience below.
I chose to rent in the NoVA suburbs because it’s hundreds of dollars per month cheaper than comparable places in Alexandria or Arlington. But I work in Tysons Corner, a NoVA suburb not exactly known for its public transit, so I’d be driving to work regardless of where I live.
I don’t regret living in the Land of McMansions, but once I can afford it I think I’m going to move closer to civilization.
I really don’t see how nobody saw this coming. Although the material cost of a house far away was lower at one point, I don’t think that everyone just denied that travel costs would ever go up. It’s almost like moving that far (an hour or more) outside your work city and lacking a car altogether – not a typically good move. The same thing is rising in central and south Florida, where everyone moved into the ‘burbs the next county over and now is feeling the real pain from the decision. It’s an unfortunate confluence of events, but it seems like a lot of people were trying to ride one too many waves of good luck that since has disappeared.
We decided to pay significantly more in rent (in Southwest Austin) to live close to work. I am a ten minute drive away and my gf is within walking distance. We did it to avoid long commutes for time’s sake, and we are very happy with our decision since gas prices have gone up. We are planning to buy in the next year and are faced with the same problems as everyone: can’t afford to buy in our neighborhood, don’t want to live further south (or north) because of the commute. Good topic.
I’m in the opposite situation- my office is in the burbs, but I live/own in the city. I don’t regret the choice that I made- carbon, cost, etc, because my partner and I made the concious choice to live in a less expensive, smaller house in a gentrifying neighborhood so that we could afford to enjoy a social life in our community.
Excellent question, Nina. From an environmental standpoint, I think it’s really for the best that people are having to question their fossil fuel consumption. Not to mention the fact that these McMansions leave their own carbon footprint.
I don’t own yet. But part of the decision factor will definitely be accessibility to public transit.
I think this is going to return the burbs/rural areas to what they were like when my parents were young.
Basicly two types of people lived in the rural areas…the Wealthy/Very Well To Do and the Very Low Income/Poverty.
The Wealthy/Very Well To Do had large homes and usually servants. Most of the rest of the people were Farmers or worked the land for others and thus incomes were comparatively low and would be considered today Very Low Income or Poverty Stricken.
What we had for a Middle Class lived in the City/Urban areas where their occupations had work close by that did not entail lots of travel..relatively speaking. They MIGHT be able to afford a small place in the Rural Areas as a Weekend or Vacation retreat but did not as a rule live there full time.
The advent of the automobile and paved roads made living in rural areas full time feasible however the escalating cost of this Private Transportation may reverse the tide.
~ Roland
Addie herself said she has the option to use public transport, even if it’s inconvenient compared to just driving herself. And yes, you’re still leaving a footprint, but it’s less than hauling just yourself in a probably 5-seater vehicle. If she feels that guilty, then dump the car and use the train! She could get more done on the train than while driving anyway (like reading).
I agree with folks who say in some ways this isn’t a bad thing, as it will force us to cut down on driving. However, the problem in DC, and many other US cities, is that the public transportation system is inadequate. In my case, I CAN’T use public transportation to get directly to work because Georgetown (where I work) doesn’t have a Metro stop (the nearest stop is a good half-hour walk away). In good weather, I do take it and use the walk to burn some post-pregnancy blubber instead of fossil fuels, but in bad weather, or if I’m with my kid, that just doesn’t work. I’d really like to see the US re-invest in public transportation. On a positive note, Metro ridership in the DC area has gone way up since this latest spike in gas prices!
Addie Compton is an idiot. Making blanket statements like ‘I won’t live in NoVA’ is really stupid. I used to make remarks like that till I saw I could afford to buy in VA and have a decent commute. As a lifelong Yankee, and damned proud of it, I resigned myself to living in a progressive community in Virginia and subsequently, I also pay a lot less in taxes than I do in Maryland.
This a person that is not flexible in their thinking and limiting themselves with a silly whim.
As for Jennifer, renting in Silver Spring might be a pain in terms of the cost of gas, but if she moved into DC and kept her car, she’d still have the car to maintain. Often it’s not the price of gas that is most costly, but the initial cost of the car itself. If she tallies the cost of her car with the latest price of gas, vs moving into DC and a smaller fuel bill, she might find that the marginal cost between her options is quite small.
The bus in Georgetown is quite cheap. She’s not considering that the university’s blue bus costs a quarter or 50 cents and is open to the public. Why not try the Blue Bus instead? It goes from Foggy Bottom to Rosslyn, Metro to Metro.
Again, not being flexible enough. There is more than Metro in this world. There is the Metrobus, the Georgetown University Shuttle/Blue Bus, or bicycle.
Oh BTW, I do know of which I speak. I used to live in Bolton Hill in Baltimore and commute to Silver Spring (north side near Beltsville) and before that, my company was off Democracy Blvd.
People used to be shocked when I told them my commute was about 30 minutes, city to city. Gas was cheaper then. ($2.50)
Really, I don’t think it’s the cost of gas so much as the cost of sitting in the car. I used to sit for an hour waiting to cross Key Bridge to my rental in Georgetown. Eventually I moved to VA to shorten my commute by time, and therefore by fuel.
I am also facing a decision about housing in the DC area. Right now I live and work off the Metro’s Red Line. I am super spoiled by this and cannot even consider having a longer commute. I worked in Reston for a year and HATED driving to work. It could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Now, I know my trip will be 30 minutes door to door, including the 10 minute walk to the train station.
I also got rid of my car completely about a year and a half ago. The good thing about being in a city is that there are things like Zip Car for times when having a personal car is helpful. That’s why I don’t want to move. But I also don’t want to live in a 1 bedroom basement apartment forever! I want to buy a house and start a family soon. I just cannot fathom the costs of buying in my neighborhood (Takoma). I would love to stay here but can’t see how we’ll ever afford to buy something. I don’t mind small spaces, and would actually prefer a smaller house. Even so, Addie’s right – the prospect of something inhabitable for under $200,000 is a joke.
The biggest thing for me is having a short, calm commute. The absolute ideal would be a walkable/bikable one. Toward that goal, I am willing to rent longer. We may have to move to another larger rental when we have a child before being able to buy a house. But that’s OK. I’m not going to sacrifice my sanity for homeownership by buying somewhere that will cause me headaches to get to work.
I wanted to expand on something in my post that people have commented on – the “I won’t live in Virginia.” I just do not care for Virginia, even northern Virginia, which is more liberal than the rest of the state. I don’t feel comfortable there.
One major reason I do not feel comfortable there is the viciously anti-gay legislation and decision that erupts out of the Virginia legislature and courts on a predictable basis. Google “Virginia” and “lesbian” or “gay” and you will find plenty to peruse.
Maryland is far from perfect but it is profoundly more welcoming than Virginia. And not just for gay folks, Hispanic people are leaving Prince William County because of the illegal immigrant witch hunt there. Maryland has a decent chance of passing a marriage equality law in the near future. That will not happen in Virginia for generations.
Yes, I have the option to use public transportion in the MARC trains and then the DC Metro system. I’m grateful that they are there and they should be greatly expanded.
However, I do not work in DC itself. I work south and east of the city. An hours ride on the MARC train and then another hours ride on the Metro each way is too long for me.
An hour is as long as I am willing to go on public transportation to get to a job. An hour is as long as I am willing to commute, period. I wake up at 5:30 am and I’m not home until 6:30 pm. Riding the trains means getting up around 5 am and not getting home until 7:30 or 8 pm. I want a life; I want to see my girlfriend and my dogs. So yes, I have the option to ride public transportation but it’s a crappy option.
It’s great to hear lots of DC/VA/MD folks weighing in!
I have to second Addie about the crappyness of the public transportation options.
I’m on the red line, so the nearest stop to G-town is Dupont Circle. There is a bus that’s free, but it’s been rerouted recently (due to noise complaints), so it now adds a forty minute chunk of time to my commute (assuming I don’t have to wait…and wait…and wait for it, as I so often do)–it’s actually faster to walk.
The point isn’t that there aren’t public transportation options, but that there aren’t enough _good_ ones. And this is a bigger problem than just DC (which relative to other US cities has a fairly decent one); the US hasn’t invested in its public transportation the way they have in Europe and much of Asia.
Great post, Nina-look at all the debate it’s generated!
Part of this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance.
Public transportation is a chicken/egg problem. Over and over, we were told “Americans won’t use public transportation” so there was/is little political will to create or maintain public transportation networks. Waiting until the public networks are in fabulous shape before using them is as short-sighted as the current administration’s thinking.
Use the public transportation once a week right now! Or consider if you can go car-free on a non-work day. So, it’s inconvenient. Boo-hoo. Will your life be in danger by this? I doubt it. Will your life be enriched by getting a personal look at people you wouldn’t ordinarily think about? There is a micro-possibility that it will.
Public transportation is a step-child even in New York City, as much of the rest of the state doesn’t want to contribute money to them weirdos in the city. But the mere fact that many middle-income people do in fact use the public transportation options here gives us a heads-up because these people talk and vote “public commutation.”