mad anthony

Rants, politics, and thoughts on politics, technology, life,
and stuff from a generally politically conservative Baltimoron.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Maybe a 3 hour commute each way wouldn't be so bad...

Sometimes when it's slow at work, I'll browse the Long and Foster web site and look at how little house I can afford. I think I'm reduced to buying a refrigerator box, although with current housing prices I may have to lower that to a shoe box.

By a long chain of events, I noticed a bungalow for sale in Cumberland, MD, listed by the state. Kind of run down, but also priced at $34,000 - or about the cost of a low-end Mercedes. In Baltimore, that would probably be a $150,000 house.

So out of curiousity I plug the zip code into the Long and Foster site, and realize why you always hear real estate agents talk about "location, location, location". Houses in the middle of nowhere are cheap. Like 75% off cheap.

For example, for $165,000 I could buy a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, brick and vinyl "raised ranch" with a 1 car garage and large driveway, on half an acre. In Baltimore, $165,000 will get you a run-down bungalow (if you are lucky) or a mediocre rowhouse. A house like that in the Baltimore area would probably go for $300,000 or more - and would not sit on a half-acre.

There is one minor problem. Cumberland, MD is in the middle of nowhere. The above mentioned house is 148.45 miles from my job - 2.5 hours according to MapQuest.

Many Baltimore-ians are starting to move to southern PA, which is probably about an hour drive, and one guy I work with is thinking about moving to York, which is probably an hour and a half. And plenty of people commute to DC from Baltimore, which probably takes at least 2 hours each way. And I like driving, and 70 is pretty much an empty, straight road that you can get pretty fast on. So maybe this isn't such a crazy idea.

Then again, I have enough trouble getting to my job on time with a 10 minute commute, so a 3 hour commute might be a problem. And I can kiss what little of my social life exists goodbye if I live in the middle of nowhere. And I would basically be screwed when it snows. And I would spend a ton of money on gas and wear and tear on the car. And it would be pretty difficult to fit in my night MBA classes and 6 hours of commute time into my schedule.

But it would be very nice to have a four bedroom house with a garage and a driveway - I could start a car collection! I wonder if Cumberland has high speed internet access...

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