It's not uncommon to hear these stories in LA because the math generally works out very favorably. That 280k house in Riverside easily goes for 2-3x where he works in Norwalk. If you could effectively triple your pay by "working" an extra 3 hours a day, would you do it? Especially if those extra commute hours are by train where you could be doing a wide variety of leisure activities, like reading, games, crocheting. No part time second job that I know of can be more enjoyable than a hobby on a train.