moving to the burbs: is the commute worth it?

kgb1411

DH and I want to move soon, and are looking around.  It looks like for the price of a 30-40 minute commute, we could have a great house in a beautiful neighborhood, close to a park, swimming pool nearby, and a nice yard we could put a swingset in.

For the same $$ we would get a smaller, older house, w/o much of a yard in a worse neighborhood (not like people would break into our house, but not the kind of place where all of the kids play out on the street together either).  BUT we would cut down on the driving significantly. 

Right now I only spend about 4 hours a day with LO.  I hate to cut it down to 3 hours, but the house and the nieghborhood seem so nice. 

Daycare would be at work.  Any thoughts?   

Temp159135562506975

where do you live that a 30-40 min commute is considered long?  Around here that is a very good/easy commute (i'm in the NYC area)....so yeah- to me, i'd MUCH rather have that commute and bigger house/better area, than just be closer to my job.

 

ElopeToHawaii

I have a 35 minute commute and DH has a 40 minute commute. We live in the DC metro area so that's pretty common.  He goes to work super early to beat the traffic and I have a reverse commute so I don't usually hit much traffic.  If I was sitting in traffic for 40 minutes I might go insane.

Unless your daycare is in your building (which would be awesome) I suggest you look for someplace close to home.  If you are sick and need to stay home you will not want to drive 40 minutes to drop the baby at daycare. Plus, you turn him/her into a commuter with you and they'd much rather be playing at daycare while you are driving.

2-Step

I haven't had my baby yet, but DH and I went through this about 2 years ago when we bought our house. We almost bought close to work in an older neighborhood with small house and yard, but ended up going with the suburbs and a 40 minute commute time. We were VERY nervous about it at the time. I have to say I am soooo happy that we made the decision we did. Even with the commute and having to put LO in daycare for a bit longer, I just feel so much better about raising my child here. We are near parks and an elementary school and I feel like there is a sense of community where the kids play in the streets and feel safe. I think if we would have bought closer to work we would already be ready to move to give LO a better place to grow up, plus with the housing market in the dump, I am really happy we got a house big enough where we can grow our family and in a good school district so we don't have to feel stressed about needing to move soon. Thats just my 2 cents!

jacobs32

ElopeToHawaii:

Unless your daycare is in your building (which would be awesome) I suggest you look for someplace close to home.  If you are sick and need to stay home you will not want to drive 40 minutes to drop the baby at daycare. Plus, you turn him/her into a commuter with you and they'd much rather be playing at daycare while you are driving.

I also commute about 40 minutes and DH about 20. We opted for a daycare close to my work.  I'd much rather have DS in the car with me to talk to than at daycare for an extra 1-1.5 hours a day.  If I don't go in to work he'll stay home with me or DH will drive the extra 20 minutes to drop him off.

katydid2007

I tend to think in very practical terms when it comes to real estate. I'd pick the best location and by that I mean the one that's most in demand. If you decide that you don't like the area for whatever reason or you need to sell, you want to be able to sell without waiting a year.

 

 

Bella427

We were in the same situation and chose the older house in an up and coming neighborhood.  My commute is 10 minutes.  I figure the bigger the house, the more I have to clean anyway!

grrlygirl

For us it was. ?The commute isn't my favorite, but when we're home we are in heaven. I don't like the noise of the city or surrounding areas, so being ?further away was a good choice.

ShufflerChick

A job is easier to change than a house. You may not always be at that particular job, while the house is probably a longer term investment. While the commute should be reasonable (and 40 min is about average where I live near NYC), it is only one factor among many. Personally, I would choose the nicer house in a nicer neighborhood because it would payoff for far longer as your child grows up.