This is the question posed on CityNerd video titled “Walkable Cities But They Keep Getting More Affordable”
If you ditched your car, could you afford to leave the suburbs for a great urban neighborhood?
Ray Delahanty answers the question in the 26 biggest US cities.
The analysis assumes the all-in cost of owning and operating a car is $1,000 per month, including purchase, insurance, fuel, and maintenance.
In the city, transportation costs might total about $250 per month for transit passes, biking, ride-hailing, and other small expenses.
This results in an effective $750 per month increase in the housing budget for city center residents who do not own a car.
The results of the video are quite interesting, as you can get more m² in walkable areas in most cities
Nope I would have to triple or quadruple my costs for housing to move to an urban environment. Also then I would be surrounded by other people in close proximity a lot of the time. Currently I pay less than 1k/mo for mortgage, and there’s only about 3 or less people per acre of land surrounding me. Costs for 1 car amount to roughly $800/mo including payment, insurance, and fuel.
You may not need a car in the urban environment. Of course it would depend on the city. If it was Tokyo, a big yes for me. You’ll get less space but being able to walk to get everything I need is going to be good for my health in the long term.
If this is a con for you instead of a pro, you may be lost.
Everyone has their preferences. I can understand the desire for a more isolated lifestyle and I think there should be a place for that in our society.
Exactly. It’s just that that lifestyle shouldn’t be subsidized is all.
Most everybody has something subsidized. Lets not play the “why should i have to pay for it” game. Leads to dark places.
Fair enough.
Let’s just subsidize urban areas at the same rate as suburbs for the past century then.
I’m sorry, but have you met people?
I live in the suburbs, in a neighborhood and even then my neighbors are too close. Kids across the street out playing basketball at 11:30 at night. Neighbor behind my house burns their yard trash on any day that’s halfway decent to be outside, meaning my wife can’t be out there due to her asthma. A family on the next street over have parties several times a year where music is blasting so loud I can hear it in my bedroom until 2am. Even with these annoyances it is still a much more peaceful place to live than when I was living in apartments in the city.
In my experience living in a small urban center has way less annoying neighbour interactions than in suburbia where people have the illusion of isolation. Kids play basketball at the designated basketball courts by the community center, a neighbour burning trash woukd have the fire department 5min away come over asap (although wood based fires are allowed and fine). Most people party at the bars. No hoas, no tiny tyrants, way less street racing at 3am, less car traffic in general.
Yeah you can’t choose your neighbors. I need an acre to live comfortably, apartments are for kids (imo). My own garage, garden, apple tree, chickens. I’m sure a lot of people from cities would be hugely envious of that. I just dont get the sardine life of cities. Unless you like going to bars every night, no thanks. Not to mention all the homeless drug addicts (which is super sad, but also scary to be near with a family).
I had a hard time understanding why this was even included until I got to the end and realized it’s on the con list