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Comment by walshemj | Hacker News Reader

Doesn't work for major cities an example from the UK 2 bed flat in Bedford a 35/50 min commute is £115,000 red lion square near our office its £625,000.

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There are lot more factors at play than simple cost of housing. Financially speaking, there's the cost of commuting to be factored in, which depending on whether you drive or use public transit might or might not be substantial. More significantly, there's comfort: would you rather live in the middle of the city, or the burbs? How much is it worth to you to be able to bike to work?

I've made a point of living biking distance from every job I've had. It's definitely cost me much more in rent than it's saved me in automobile costs because of the astronomical price of living in an urban center (downtown San Francisco and Manhattan, in my case), but for me the financial aspect was dwarfed by quality-of-life preferences (and the good fortune to be in a situation where I could make such a trade-off).

I made the same decision when we moved to Cambridge (UK). It's a really, really big cycling town and there's a noticable drop off in property prices once you go beyond about a half-hour cycle commute to the science/business park part of the city. The A14 (the main commuter road to that part of Cambridge) is basically a carpark during peak times, and I can cycle to work on (relatively) quiet cycle paths in less than half the time it would take me to drive.

And even if it did work out somehow (take all the hours spent commuting, work out their value, etc.) the chance of an average person getting a deposit saved and a mortgage on the remainder on a £600k property is next to zero even if you were earning £100k, say.

35 minutes from Bedford to Holborn!? Do you sleep under the platform and have a private zipline from the station to your office?

Oops I meant Bedford to st pancras the midland mainlines intercity 125 are 35 min station to station.

First capital connect is a bit longer (50-55 min) I normally catch 7:30 and am in the office at 8:40.

It boils down to what factors you chose to treat as fixed. To each his own (obviously) but I think that most people undervalue the long commute and (comparatively) overvalue the hassle of changing jobs or moving.

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