If you live in San Jose, getting to Apple would only be 15-20 minutes.
I once had a coworker who lived an hour and 40 minutes away, literally wasting almost 3.5 hours of their day.
- It's good for the kids: suburban schools perform better.
- It's a sacrifice: a family man is supposed to prioritize his own comfort last.
- It's accessible: we don't look at bankers or tech workers and say how great it is that they're doing so much for the families. That's just classism and privilege at work. Maybe, if we're feeling charitable, natural-born talent. But we, too, could deliver a better life to our families by driving longer hours. We just don't have the stomach for it. So we respect those who do.
Of course no one cares what it's doing to the environment. That really ought to factor in the moral calculus. But right now super-commuting is just about the most virtuous thing an American middle-class adult can do.
A family woman isnt?
"Cheap" housing is at best across the Bay. Commutes from Santa Cruz (itself small and not cheap), the East Bay, or Central Valley are not uncommon. Traffic is insane.
Mean housing price is > $1,000,000. Median gross rent $3,335/mo. Population density is 5,418/mi^2 (compare SF at ~17,000, NYC at ~27k, and Guttenberg, NJ at ~57k/mi^2).
California has had an utterly dysfunctional housing / work / transport policy for the past 50 years. Cupertino makes the state as a whole look sane.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Cupertino-California.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...
Lack of housing / housing affordable at your price point (even if it's high). I don't know the peninsula, but I doubt that 15 minute drive is a 15 minute commute, due to rush hour.
I lived in Sunnyvale for a while. Hour of sitting in bumper to bumper traffic just to get to/from Mountain View on a shuttle.
(1) Ones with family who want rent/buy cheap and they'd live in east bay or somewhere much further south (e.g. Gilroy, South San Jose). Its understandable being its expensive here.
(2) Young (and/or single) 20/30 something people who either dislike living in suburban environment, or just find it "uncool", or just need better social life. They are actually spending more time in commute + spending more money in rent.
I live in San Jose, pretty close to work, but am considering going into category 2 (will use the company shuttles). But if things were perfect, I'm fine with a nice spacious suburban house and save those 3 hours.
A lot of people are married to someone who works in another part of the bay area.
A lot of people buy houses and change jobs later.
And then there are safety issues. I don't feel safe in San Jose.
property prices.
I've been hating commuting with passion for my 15+ years of work, and WFH then back to the office made it worse.
I once visited an apartment complex almost facing my workplace. Going from my bedroom to my office would be around 5 minutes.
Money was the only issue, otherwise I'd have made the move.
My own story is pretty basic. I don’t work for Apple, but the housing near my org is very expensive. Schools aren’t very good. To find the first public schools and safe neighborhood combo, that was 45 minute commute. That was years ago and jobs changed but family is still in same house.
1. Buying a house
2. Renting a better place