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Driving Down Real Estate
Other websites can help homebuyers get a sense of how much driving they're likely to do if they buy a house in a given neighborhood. Walkscore.com shows the distance of a home from amenities such as grocery stores or coffee shops—along with a numeric Walk Score that ranks the property's walkability on a scale of one to 100. (If you live in a typical suburb, brace yourself: My house rated a measly three out of 100 on this ranking.)
The Congress for New Urbanism, a group that advocates a shift toward high-density, walkable urban development, has a page suggesting that home shoppers compare the driving habits and subsequent costs of living in driving-intensive suburbs against life in places where people don't drive so much. For instance, in the Atlanta area, the site contrasts life in Decatur, where the average resident drives 12,254 miles a year, with the typical driving habits of residents of Dacula, who log 22,993 miles a year on average. The site suggests living in Decatur could save someone $275 per month.
As for me, while I'm as fed up with $4-a-gallon gas as everyone else, I'm not planning to relocate because of it. Just for fun, I spent some time on a real-estate website, looking at the kinds of homes I could buy in towns close to Boston. Even if we spent $100,000 more than our current home is worth, we'd be left with something far smaller and not as attractive.
Gas costs are leading me to rethink my commute, however. Even though we bought a home more than a marathon's distance from my office, we did make one brilliant move when we bought our house: It's just two miles from a commuter rail station. I've never been a big fan of Boston's MBTA commuter rail due to its erratic on-time performance and its infrequent evening schedule. But like millions of other Americans, I've begun riding the rails to work in a bid to save money. And if we ever decide to sell our house, I'll be hoping that the magic words "close to train" will help to sway buyers who might be deterred from the long drive to the big city.
Daniel McGinn is a national correspondent at Newsweek and the author of " HOUSE LUST: Americas Obsession with our Homes ."
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: aullman @ 07/26/2008 8:12:08 PM
Comment: There is another option besides moving back to the city to fight the high cost of gas. Rather than move your home, you can move your office. The office does not have to move for everyone ??? just you.
Rather than work in a centralized office, ask your boss if you can work in a remote office. Remote Office Centers provides office facilities, internet and phone systems to workers from different companies in shared centers located in the suburbs. There is a free web site for people who want to find a remote office near where they live.
http://www.remoteofficecenters.com
With the price of fuel as high as it is, people are going to have to move closer to work or move the office closer to home. Sometimes, moving is not an option or it is too expensive an option. The technology is already available. There are office buildings and under utilized commercial real estate facilities all over suburban America. Why drive to work through crowed roadways, when there are plenty of offices located within a mile of where you live?
Posted By: Island Press @ 07/15/2008 1:26:12 PM
Comment: For more from Chris Leinberger about the move from suburbs to cities:
http://blog.islandpress.org/author/christopher (his contributions to Island Press' Eco-Compass Blog),
http://islandpress.org/bookstore/details.php?isbn=9781597261364 (his book, The Option of Urbanism)
Posted By: Island Press @ 07/15/2008 1:23:21 PM
Comment: For those interested in more from Chris Leinberger about the migration from suburbs to cities:
http://blog.islandpress.org/author/christopher (his contributions to Island Press' Eco-Compass Blog)
Or read his book, "The Option of Urbanism" (http://islandpress.org/bookstore/details.php?isbn=9781597261364)