Jobs and rising home values drive traffic, which can push people to live farther and farther from the office.
The resulting commutes are a burden for more than just the road warriors.
“When parents are taking an hour and a half out of their day to commute, that’s less time with their children,” Mel Martinez, a former U.S. senator and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, said at a recent Housing Roadmap event in Miami. “How good is that for the community?”
Miami is not the worst place in the country for rush hour: The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates the average (mean) in Miami-Dade County is 29 minutes.
That’s not Skagway, AK (4.4 minutes), but it’s also not parts of New York City and Washington, DC (40 minutes and up).
But it’s getting worse. As people with thick wallets, including overseas investors, snatch up housing near Miami’s urban core, working-class families are surprised at how far they have to travel to find something affordable.
‘Nothing happily habitable in my price range’
Ana Maria Szolodko remembers her dismay upon realizing how much time she would have to spend in the car — at least an hour each way — to afford her own home.
“There was nothing I’d consider happily habitable in my price range within a short driving distance from work,” said the Miami-area history teacher. “Anything in my price range, I was looking at 25 or 30 grand in repairs.”
Two years ago, Szolodko landed an end-unit townhouse on a green belt in a community with 24-hour security. She loves it despite the road jockeying.
“I’m not suggesting that living in a 600-square-foot apartment closer to work wouldn’t work for some people. It just isn’t for me,” she said.
Avoiding rush hour helps, according to Rebekah Monson, who can shave 30 minutes off her commute by waiting until later in the morning to leave home. That brings the drive time down to 40 minutes.
“If I didn’t love our house, I don’t know that it would be worth it,” Monson says of hours spent in the car. But home means “avocado trees, a mango tree, I get to have my dogs.”
Buying a house she and her wife could afford also means being able to remodel and make it theirs. They’ve tackled the kitchen, bathrooms, new paint and a couple of windows. “The only thing left is the floors.”
Trading money for time
Christian Duque drives 42.6 miles each way for work. Not that he’s counting.
“I left the office at 6 p.m., and it’s 7:08 now, so I probably have another seven minutes tonight, and that’s on a good day,” the hospital supervisor said during a recent slog home.
But he and his wife don’t cry much over not being able to afford Miami. They don’t like the place.
“It’s overpriced, overcrowded and has a lot of traffic,” said the guy well versed in that last part. “You don’t have the same quality of life as you have here in Broward County.”
Still, 15 years of a grueling commute can wear on a person, even if he likes his condo — and his mortgage being under $700 a month.
Duque talks about moving closer to town like it’s a foregone, forlorn conclusion.
“We know we’re going to end up paying at least $2,000 [a month] for something similar in Miami, and it’s going to be an older property, and we’ll have to spend a lot of money fixing it up,” Duque said. “We’re always in this dilemma.”
Related:
- Hyper-Gentrification Comes to Miami
- Before & After: 4 Millennials Rescue a Detroit Home From Decay
- Sarah’s Story: College Debt Keeps Affordable Housing Pro From Buying a Home
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