Commuting & The Home Buying Decision

Quick Takeaways

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the commute for many workers, with more offices shifting to remote or hybrid work.
Homebuyers are willing to accept a longer commute for greater affordability.
Distant “zoom towns” have grown in popularity, but the trend may not last.
Access to green commuting options may be an important factor for some buyers.

Prior to the pandemic, commute times had reached an all-time high. As more Americans switched to remote work, they used the time savings to devote more hours to their jobs, home lives, and leisure activities. Now that more offices are reopening for in-person work, some workers are reluctant to return to their former commutes. Other offices have embraced a hybrid work environment, which may have a lasting impact on commuting patterns.

Homebuyer preferences have changed significantly since the pandemic began. The shift to remote or hybrid works means that buyers are more willing to live further from the office. With home prices rising, buyers also prefer the greater affordability of more distant locations.

Some buyers have taken this to an even greater extreme by moving to resort locations in the mountains or near the beach. These “zoom towns” are experiencing population growth they may not be prepared for. Buyers should carefully weigh the pros and cons of zoom towns before buying. Experts warn that the current popularity of zoom towns may be short lived as prices rise and more workers return to the office.

Many workers are choosing green commuting options for health and environmental reasons. Green commuting may include biking, walking, public transit, or a combination. Bike commuting has grown in popularity over the past 20 years, particularly in areas with robust biking infrastructures.

There are a number of websites to help buyers factor in their commute when looking for a home. Buyers can calculate the length of time and financial cost of driving or taking public transit, calculate bikeability and walkability of neighborhoods, and find transportation agencies in their area.

See References for more information.

References

NAR Library & Archives has already done the research for you. References (formerly Field Guides) offer links to articles, eBooks, websites, statistics, and more to provide a comprehensive overview of perspectives. EBSCO articles (E) are available only to NAR members and require the member's nar.realtor login.

Commuting Issues

The Rise of the Super Commuters (Marketplace, Jun. 4, 2024)

“Most Americans are still commuting to work at least some of the time. And distances between work and home are stretching longer and longer. New research out from Stanford finds 40-plus-mile commutes are on the rise as many workers have more flexibility to choose where they live.
And the share of workers traveling 75 miles or more — known as super commuters — is up one-third since the start of the pandemic.”

Commuting is Back – But Not as We Knew It (Financial Times, Mar. 27, 2024)

“Pandemic predictions of the death of the commute were greatly exaggerated, according to Financial Times analysis of transit data. Mandatory returns to the office, restoration of normal public transport services, and, perhaps, a determination on the part of some pandemic-scarred workers to pursue business as usual, have prompted a gradual revival. But with many professionals no longer obliged to attend their workplace daily, the way people slog to work and back is still in flux, posing challenges to policymakers and transport authorities and lifestyle choices for workers themselves.”

Working in an Office Can Harm Your Health – Depending on Where it is and the Length of Your Commute (The Conversation, May 4, 2023)

“Our research project, completed in late 2022, found that a lengthy commute to work is associated with being less physically active, being overweight, and having sleep problems. And, depending on where your office is located, you may also be more likely to drink in excess.”

Surveys Reveal What Some Would Give to End Their Commute (Business News Daily, Feb. 21, 2023)

“Several national and local studies have uncovered strong negative correlations between commuting and job satisfaction (and overall well-being).
Many people would take pay cuts – some small, others substantial – to shorten their commutes.
The shift to remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic reduced commutes and increased employees’ well-being. Employers can also save money by switching teams to half-remote, half-in-person arrangements.”

Commuting’s Impact on Creativity (Harvard Magazine, Sep.-Oct. 2021)

A study of inventors and commute length “revealed that for every 10 miles of added travel distance, the firms that employed those inventors registered 8 percent fewer patents. Even more dramatic, the patents’ quality—measured by the number of times a patent was cited by other inventors—dropped 11 percent with every 10 miles added to an inventors’ commute.”

Commuting and Where to Live

These are the Best US Cities to Live in for Affordable Commutes (Travel and Leisure, Sep. 25, 2024)

“With more and more companies mandating a return to the office, many workers are considering their options when it comes to commuting. And that includes moving to all-new destinations and taking on different jobs just to have a better drive to work…To find out which cities are top-notch, Lyft analyzed data from millions of rides and supplemented its numbers with public data sources to see where travelers "enjoyed the shortest, cheapest, and greenest commutes." It also detailed the cities with the "most vibrant down towns to reward their travels" and looked at everything from drive times to fuel and parking costs, traffic congestion, carpool data, and more. To ensure the comparisons were as fair as possible, the company limited the data to 35 cities in the U.S. with populations over 500,000. It then combined the scores for each city to give it a final ranking.” Top cities include Memphis, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Tucson, and Las Vegas.

Workplace Flexibility May Help Address Affordability Concerns (Fannie Mae, Aug. 30, 2023)

“When coupled with the reported rise in the importance of affordability, it's not surprising to us that respondents expressed a greater willingness to live farther from their current location. Of course, renters indicated the greatest affordability concerns, as well as a willingness to consider areas farther away from their current location. For those considering homeownership, this sort of greater location flexibility increases the odds of finding a home within budget.”

NAR 2023 Community and Transportation Preferences Survey (National Association of REALTORS®, Jun. 27, 2023)

“People under age 50 are much more likely to prioritize a short commute to work, with nearly half of Millennials describing it as very important in deciding where to live. The importance of walkability is also strongly correlated with generation, with half of Millennials seeing it as very important. Gen Z and Millennials also prioritize proximity to public transit more highly than closeness to the highway.”

Realtor.com Commute Time Filter (realtor.com®, Jul. 3, 2019)

Search tool from Realtor.com® allows potential buyers to filter their home search by length of commute during rush hour and off-peak times.

Zoom Towns

Rising Inventory in Some of the Nation’s Hottest Markets Signals Trouble (The Real Deal, Jun. 29, 2024)

“Zoom towns are facing a potential bust, with experts saying their housing markets could be overvalued by as much as 40 percent. Cities like Austin, Texas and Jacksonville, Florida, whose residential real estate markets saw price growth skyrocket in the past four years, could come crashing down, Reventure Consulting CEO Nick Gerli said in an interview on CNBC. “These pandemic boom towns, they just got way too expensive over the last two or three years,” he said. “They’re 20, 30, maybe even 40 percent overvalued in some cases.” Gerli, whose Reventure is a real estate data firm, pointed to markets in Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Arizona where inventory is rising, a leading indicator for price drops. He also pointed to a crash in demand for Airbnbs, which spiked during the pandemic and led many investors to flood key zoom town markets, fueling price growth.”

The Big Zoomtown Backlash (Business Insider, Jan. 24, 2024)

“Remote workers looking for cheaper rent, transplants looking for more space, or people simply looking for a change of pace have turned midsize cities that were once afterthoughts into booming Zoomtowns. After three years of chaos, these places are finally taking the time to breathe and take stock. Maintaining a city's growth and vitality is certainly preferable to stagnation and decay, but it also brings a host of other issues, especially when that growth and vitality come at the expense of vulnerable residents.”

As ‘Zoom Town’ Settlers Are Forced Back to the Office, Many Must Choose: Keep My Job, Or My House? (realtor.com®, Mar. 20, 2023)

“And then big employers like Amazon, Salesforce, and Disney began calling workers who had been able to telecommute back into their offices. Those big, cheap houses that these buyers had clamored for just months before were abruptly less appealing given the long, expensive commutes that many homeowners and renters were facing.

And now the future of those previously hot real estate markets in the most remote suburbs, also known as exurbs, and secondary cities has become uncertain.”

Green Commuting

Cars are King of the Commute. But Employers May Have a Once-in-a-Generation Chance to Change That (Smart Cities Dive, Mar. 27, 2024)

“Historically, private car travel has been the predominant way U.S. workers get to work. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that since 2010, the share of workers who drive to work alone was consistently above 75% but declined beginning in 2020 and sat at about 69% in 2022. The pandemic appears to have boosted remote work; in 2019, fewer than 6% of U.S. employees worked from home, according to BTS, compared with more than 15% in 2022. Car commuting is a chief complaint of workers and job candidates who have resisted RTO, according to Gallup. Aside from the stress of traffic, there are also financial and time considerations. One analysis by economist Adam Ozimek for freelance platform Upwork found that the shift to remote work during the pandemic saved employees an average of 49.6 minutes per day that would have been spent commuting.” However, employers may be able to incentivize alternate modes of community transportation.

First Federal Data on Pandemic-Era Bike Commuting (Bike League, Sep. 15, 2022)

“The story of commuting to work during the Covid-19 pandemic is one of disruption. As we socially distanced, shifted to remote work, and followed public health guidance, many people found new ways to work - most often from home. With the release of 1-year estimates on how people commuted to work in 2021 from the American Community Survey, we can begin to quantify the shift to working from home and the impact of that shift on biking, walking, and transit and how they compare to other types of commutes.”

Commuting by Train Helps Limit Your Carbon Footprint (Edenred, Jun. 15, 2022)

“Public transportation in the form of trains is a much more environmentally friendly way to commute. The use of mass transit in the form of high-speed rails can greatly reduce the impact of CO2 emissions on the environment. Trains also reduce the deterioration of communities’ infrastructure. Furthermore, trains provide personal benefits such as the reduced need for gas and more efficient methods to get to urban jobs.”

The State of Bike Commuting in The US (Bike Adviser, May 2021)

Statistics on bike commuting in the U.S. show that western states have the highest percentages of bike commuters while southeastern states have the lowest. The majority of bike commuters are men, making up 71% of all people who commute by bike.

Commuting Websites

Public Transportation Savings Calculator (Public Transportation.org, 2022)

Tool from the National Alliance of Public Transportation Advocates uses gas mileage, commute length, and fuel cost to calculate the annual savings of using public transportation rather than a car.

Housing + Transportation Affordability Index (Center for Neighborhood Technology)

“The Housing and Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index provides a comprehensive view of affordability that includes both the cost of housing and the cost of transportation at the neighborhood level.”

Walk Score (WalkScore)

Locations are scored by walkability, transit, and bike infrastructure. Enter a work location to calculate the time length of various commuting options.

U.S. Local & State Transit Links (American Public Transportation Association, 2022)

Listing of all transit agencies across the U. S., organized by state. Includes local and regional agencies of every size.

eBooks & Other Resources

eBooks.realtor.org

The following eBooks and digital audiobooks are available to NAR members:

Hello, Bicycle: An Inspired Guide to the Two-Wheeled Life (eBook)

Knack Cycling for Everyone: A Guide to Road, Mountain, and Commuter Biking (eBook)

Will Work from Home (eBook)

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