Don’t Forget Your Commute When Buying

The metrics of mileage are often overlooked during the home-buying process. With few homebuyers planning to flee city living for the suburbs, making the effort to spend a dark winter’s week purposely practising the actual (new) commute during peak travel times. When reality kicks in it can be quite painful to adjust to.

Research performed by CAA regarding the cost of commuting has determined that a fair figure to use is 45 cents per km. With the average commute near 40km for many Canadians, this is a $36.00 daily cost, excluding parking. That is just a financial cost – the average of one hour per day spent alone in a car has a social cost to it as well.

Admittedly there are public transport options that save money, although if one still owns a car it still costs money even when parked, but the financial savings usually come with a significant time cost as well as inflexibility around running errands along the way home.

Ten hours per week commuting means less socializing, family time, relaxing, and more.

Ten hours per week goes a long way. Some might be inclined to work those extra two hours, which even at a reasonable $20.00 per hr is an extra $10,400 per year gross income, less the expenses of commuting: $7920.00 ($36.00 x 220 working days). The extra earnings, combined with the added savings, may well make staying closer to your workplace the more affordable option. Perhaps spending the hours focused on career, or on your personal life, rather than commuting is a sensible plan. If we apply this to a double-income household, and were the wage closer to $25.00 per hr for those extra two hrs per day, the purchasing power increases that much more. Food for thought during today’s hour-long commute.

Courtesy: Dominion Lending Centres