Melanie_Alnwick's Blog

More and more working families are finding out that the calculation of moving further out to get a bigger, more affordable home -- isn't paying off anymore.    It's not just the high gas prices, but the decreased fuel efficiency because of traffic congestion.  Because of that, the Federal Highway Administration's cost per mile has tripled since 2000.   It' a bit of a complicated formula to explain... but it's now 20 cents per mile.   So how do you figure the cost of your commute?    I had Scott Bernstein of the Center for Neighborhood Technology explain it to me.    He says you take the number of miles you drive in a year... divide it by 20 (cents per mile) ... then multiply it by price per gallon.    For the average DC household, it looks something like this:

21,614 miles / 20 = 1030.7 

1030.7 x 4.00 = $4122.8

That's the variable cost.   Feds say the fixed cost of owning a car  is $5068.  So for the average DC commuter... the cost per year is $9130.     But if you drill down further and look city dwellers vs. exurb drivers... there's a several thousand dollar difference.   Someone in Arlington who drives only 14,230 miles spends $7914.. while a Loudoun county commuter at 25,155 miles spends $10,099. (double it if you're a two-commuter family)

So, you think you're saving money by moving further out, when the percentage of your income you spend for housing and transportation together... is much greater.  Not so great of a deal anymore.

Use this website... to look at all kinds of interesting factors related to commuting costs -- and to figure out what your cost for transportation & housing together are.