Dry Run: Map Commute Before Signing

It happens rarely, but often enough to be a sobering lesson for home buyers.

An eager buyer visits a desirable community on a tranquil Sunday, becomes enamored of a home and signs the papers. Then the first Monday after he moves in, he heads for work, only to discover that the commute is longer or more agonizing than anticipated.

“What he didn’t know was that on that calm Sunday, everybody was resting up for the two-hour highway joust that comes on Monday morning,” said Peter G. Miller, host of the real estate desk for America Online.

“Commuting is a serious issue--because people are spending more time on the job, away from home, away from family, away from leisure and there’s a tremendous amount of pressure. We didn’t see that 20 years ago,” he said.

To complicate matters, more commuting is now suburb-to-suburb, since many of the jobs created in this economy are not in traditional commercial or financial centers, said Donna States, a broker-associate in the Palos Verdes Estates office of the Prudential-Jon Douglas Co. And that means commuters are less likely to have the option of using mass-transit systems easily.

What’s more, as States pointed out, “there’s always the potential for an unusual situation on any road.” Perhaps your commute requires you to navigate through airport traffic or a central business district prone to unexpected congestion. Or maybe you’re intending to use an interstate highway, which carries not only commuters but also business and vacation travelers, and can have its own maddening backups.

Although many home buyers are intensely conscious of the commuting issue, few take a systematic approach by trying a prospective commute. Especially vulnerable to mistakes are first-time buyers or those moving to a new metropolitan area.

Real estate experts urge home buyers to try the commute between a prospective neighborhood and their jobs before they purchase. Miller stresses the importance of simulating the two-way commute on at least one business day at the actual times you’d be making the drive.

Granted, the ritual of trying a commute can be an annoying one. “But consider the alternative. You may be commuting on that road for a decade, and you don’t want to be surprised by the traffic,” Miller said.

A less arduous--though also less reliable--way to learn about your potential commute is to survey associates at your place of employment or quiz neighbors in the new community. If others are making virtually the same commute at roughly the same time periods, you can get a good feel for what you’ll face.

Even so, individual variables make it wiser to try the commute yourself rather than rely on the testimony of others. Some personality types handle long or stressful commutes better than others. What doesn’t bother your work associate could annoy you no end, said Miller, author of “Buy Your First Home Now” (HarperCollins, 1996).

Stress is a major factor for many who have long commutes or who rely on heavily traveled highways, where anger and frustration are prevalent among drivers.

“You see more aggressive drivers in this generation than the last. People don’t have any other outlet for their anxieties,” Miller said.

If you discover that a main artery you’ll be using is a high-anxiety zone, your real estate agent may be able to suggest reliable alternatives that still make it plausible to buy a home in the neighborhood of your choice, States said.

Here are three other pointers related to commuting and home buying.

No. 1: Consider a potential commute in context with other factors.

“Everybody wants everything. They would love to be just walking distance to work and still have a big, beautiful house in a neighborhood with nice schools. But most people must make trade-offs,” said Shirley Saydiman, an agent in the Mission Viejo office of Re/Max South County.

One of the more excruciating choices many buyers face is between a larger, newer home that’s in a distant suburb and one that is older and smaller yet closer to work, Saydiman said.

“It’s worth the commute,” is an expression Saydiman hears more often among buyers she serves who are searching for the amenities and tranquillity offered in many a distant suburb.

No. 2: Consider living between two employment centers to hedge your bets.

It’s no secret that people in the labor force change jobs more often than they used to, and frequently with little notice. On the other hand, it can be costly to trade homes often.

But by positioning yourself between two commercial centers, you’ll stand a better chance of finding a new job nearby if you should lose your present position, States said.

No. 3: Think of the commute you’ll face in the future as well as in the present.

It’s not enough to get a snapshot version of the commute you’d confront if you moved into your favored neighborhood today. You must also think about the future. In our dynamic society, employment patterns are constantly shifting as some commercial hubs gain jobs while others lose them.

Obviously, no one can make perfect predictions about job growth. But it’s often possible to obtain good information on where local governments are trying to channel growth through planning and zoning offices, Miller said.

He also suggests you call the economic-development office that serves the communities you’re considering and ask if they’re expected to become stronger or weaker job centers. At the same time, ask if any large-scale employers are about to open offices in the region and, if so, what road improvements are planned that would serve the new workers.

Traffic flow is a supply-demand situation. To get a good sense of what your future commute would look like, you need to estimate how many drivers will be entering the area, as well as whether new or improved highways will be there to serve them, Miller said.

But hard as you may try, remember that assessing your future commute is an imperfect science. “Life is full of risks,” he said. “The only thing you can try to do is better your odds.”

Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.