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Map Housing & Transportation Costs for Your Area

housing affordability

It's the modern home buyer quandry:

Do I want to pay more for the home to live closer work/school?

or

Do I want to pay less to live further away?

Lately I'm performing the following searches:

Homes close to work/school (usually re-sale)

Homes further away at bargain value pricing (often new homes)

We look at each and calculate cost and time savings vs. expenses and time lost.

Each buyer is different- some will want to buy as much house as possible while others want less time on the road.

Wouldn't it be great to see a visual representation of home affordability vs. transportation costs?

The Center for Neighborhood Technology thinks so.

They've developed the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index.

This allows you to see each component separately or together.

Give it a try.

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Chuck Willman is a real estate agent and founder of USAvest... a nationwide network of investment mined individuals with and interest in real estate.

Posted by Chuck Willman, Arizona Realtor® 480.292.0600 on 04/28/2008 06:44 PM

Comments (17)

Transportation Costs in the ActiveRain Channel

housing, transportation, investing

Originally posted at: Arizona Real Estate Specialists: Map Housing & Transportation Costs for Your Area

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17 Comments on Map Housing & Transportation Costs for Your Area

APR

2008

Great tool, and more important every day. I paid $4.05 per gallon today!

I noticed I was paying more than I've paid for a taxi not so long ago... maybe I should be chauffeured?

I fell under the category of buy more of a home and commute, and I can tell you for me that does not work.

Chuck-Congrats on your gold star You have been getting some of those lately! Good for you. This is one that needs to get bookmarked! Thanks!

Mike- with fuel prices rising, I'm guessing probably less each day? The silver lining in this is the hope of a larger equity run-up when housing improves. The other option being finding work closer to home... which can happen more easily where the population increases also attract jobs.

Katerina- I'm as surprised as anybody more surprised than everybody about this. :-)

Thanks for another great site. I need another 24 hours in a day to be able to use all this stuff

I've been spreadsheeting fuel costs and time )opportunity) costs for living farther from work for my clients for a couple of years. You are right that the compromises are different for different people. Luckily, here in the Atlanta area, companies and jobs are everywhere, so there isn't one hub... there are about 4 major ones and several more secondary hub areas.

Congratulations on being featured, Chuck! Are more metros going to be added to these sites soon? I like the info, just would like to see more places to be able to use as comparisons. Thanks for the good stuff.

Interesting website Chuck. Thanks for the tip. I'll use it for my area.

APR

2008

Russ- maybe during the long commute? :-)

Lane- Me too... although we do have definite zones we also have a few far flung cities that have great home prices and great distances... it's best to try to find the happy medium.

Kent- I would guess that they'll add more metros... a suggestion at the site may be all it would take.

Wayne- Hope you find it useful.

Thanks for the resource. It has some good data. All the best.

Bob & Carolin- thanks for popping by... did you notice the correlation (in our valley) between living closer to major transit routes and affordability?

This is a wonderful tool. I tried it out for my area, but "no data available" :-(. I guess tool-less is being better than tooth-less in Alabama hahaha :-) You share so much info and it is appreciated!

Mara- you're so funny. :-)

APR

2008

Chuck - I actually did commute to Phoenix Sky Harbor for many years from the east valley and it's so not my bag! However with that said, I like the dollar per square foot that the far east valley offers on homes. I am thinking if I can stay pretty mobile with a decent mobile office, I can take advantage of some of the great deals out east! But that drive.....oh let me think about this again. Nice tool you have shared. Nice Gold Star my friend!

I think the higher the gas gets, the more it will seem like the better deal to live closer! Especially if they figure out how much money they'll be saving in gas!

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