Twin Cities residents are realizing that the seemingly affordable homes bought far from the region's core are not quite as affordable when transportation costs -- which have escalated as a result of high gas prices -- are taken into account.
"'The old maxim, "Drive till we can afford it," may be softening,' said Michael Noonan, division president for one of the top national home builders operating in the Twin Cities area and a vice president of the Builders Association of the Twin Cities. 'The rising cost of gas is adding a dimension that people didn't used to consider as carefully as they do today.'"
This reality has been verified by research that has put a price tag on the costs of transportation in neighborhoods across the country, in order to develop a new measure of housing affordability, one that takes into account the cost of transportation.
Research in the Twin Cities "...placed a typical Farmington family's monthly transportation costs at $941. That compares to $715 in Fridley and $446 in the Longfellow and Seward areas of Minneapolis." In general, community characteristics like walkability, transit access, and proximity to local services and amenities help to keep transportation costs down, arguing for the importance of integrated housing, land use, and transportation policies that channel development into existing communities along transit corridors and promote mixed-uses and mixed-incomes.
Thanks to Kara Heffernan
FULL STORY: Computing the commute
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