Quote:
Originally Posted by bizaro86
10-20k is $50-$100 per month on a 25 year mortgage at 3.5%.
If you're going to be commuting to Calgary, and you figure it'll take you 15 extra minutes each way, the math works something like this.
(4 weeks/month)*(5 days/week)*(15 minutes/day)*(2 people)/(60 minutes/hour) = 10 hours per month of extra commuting time.
So if your gas and vehicle maintenance was free, you'd be paying yourself $5-$10 hour to commute.
Those are all just estimates, but you probably get the extra money back when you sell your place at some point, so the extra principal in the monthly payment comes back to you eventually.
|
To put it a different way, Okotoks is about 20km from the south end of Calgary, which would be an additional 40km in commute per day.
(4 weeks/month)*(5 days/week)*(40km/day)*(12 months/year) = an ADDITIONAL 9600km/year than if you lived in Auburn Bay (for example).
Let's say you have a car with decent mileage of 7L/100km (40MPG). That would be (7L/100km)*(9600km/year) = an ADDITIONAL 672L/year. At $1.10/L, that's $739.20/year or $61.60/month.
Now that's not including the extra time in your car, the fact that you'll have to maintain your car more regularly, or replace the car sooner.
I would imagine it has to be social suicide. You're not going to want to drive half an hour each way to visit a friend in the north for a couple hours. As mentioned in the Airdrie thread, you would probably lose touch with some people. If you're a guy that likes to go downtown and have drinks with friends, cabbing home is no longer an option unless you want to drop $100.
I can't imagine living in a suburb and commuting into town, let alone living in a town outside the city. Then again, I have it pretty good being a 5 minute drive to work (20 minute bike ride), 5 minute walk to the train, 5-10 minute walk downtown. It's not too difficult to get anywhere in the city. I'll take location over a few extra sq ft any day.