Dream Apartment vs. Shorter Commute: What Would You Do?

Consider this apartment situation:

You are currently living in your dream apartment, with a wonderful landlord. Your rent includes covered parking, laundry, utilities, and wireless internet. You have a beautiful little backyard space to hold your dinner parties. You are paying a very fair market rate for this gem of a place. You never worry about anything to do with the apartment – all repairs are done same-day or in one-day. Basically, you’ve hit the apartment + landlord jackpot.

You receive a great job offer, however, in a city 30 miles away. If there were no traffic, it’d take you 30-35 minutes each way. At a minimum, the round trip commute would be an hour a day. If there were traffic or accidents, it could take over 2 hours, easily. Fortunately, you are going against traffic for most of the way, so your drive is usually very smooth. Still, your car insurance would increase quite significantly because your expected mileage per year would shoot through the roof. Your car will have more wear-and-tear. You will spend more on gas and possibly repairs.

Should you stay in your apartment or move?

You’ve always thought that you’d take a shorter commute, no questions asked. But now you’re not so sure. You can move about 15-20 miles closer to work, where apartments are a little cheaper (a studio can be had for around $800). Added in the utilities, you’ll probably be paying the same amount as you are currently paying or at most $50 cheaper. You cannot find a comparable studio for the same price you’re paying now, if you can find one at all. You will never find a landlord as great as the one you have now.

But if you move, you will have a much more predictable commute (and the peace of mind that comes with it), lower gas prices, lower insurance premiums, and less wear-and-tear on your car. You would love to stay in your current apartment. You would love to have a short commute. You cannot have both.

Dream apartment vs. shorter commute – which would you choose?

image credit: sfgate.com

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