Location vs. square footage

Beth made an interesting post today, posing the question about location vs. square footage. They've been living in the city in Nashville, which I always thought was pretty cool because they came from a fairly rural area growing up (rural relative to what I'm used to, anyway). They're having a baby soon, and she wonders if more space would be worth the trade off of being close to where they work.

Honestly, this is a dance that I've never bothered to do. Granted, once you actually buy property, as I did ten years ago, moving is a lot harder. If I were still working in Cleveland, I certainly wouldn't be able to move (not on Cleveland wages, at least). I had some pretty miserable commutes, the worst being to Progressive on the way other ass end of town. It was just over an hour each way, and I eventually quit because I hated it so much. That, and I decided to write a book. But there were previous jobs where it wasn't a bad drive, even working downtown. Paying for the parking sucked, but it wasn't horrible.

But moving to Seattle, I changed my tone significantly. Being reasonably close to work was a priority, especially with the baby. Our first apartment was about 23 minutes away from the office, and less in the summer when the kids weren't in school. It was the shortest commute I've ever had. Having work not be in the middle of a major city certainly helped with that.

Now we're a bit further out, and my commute is typically 33 minutes. That's still not bad, but it isn't great. I take the company provided bus now and then, which takes longer, but at least I can do anything else, even sleep.

If we do get around to buying a house, and there are too many unknowns to really have a feeling on how that might go down, I think we'd try to find a place closer to Redmond and/or Bellevue. Location does matter, but there are often square footage trade-offs. Even in the somewhat pretentious area we live in now, the per-square-foot price is still lower than in places closer to the city. I personally am pretty content with space around 1,800 sq. ft., which is a little under what my house was, and a little higher than the place we're renting. 2,000 might be nice too, but I don't see a reason to be house poor for rooms that I will use less and have to furnish anyway.