If only there were parts of Manhattan north of 110th and/or other boroughs nearby. More seriously, lots of the comments here talk about the closeness of relati

If only there were parts of Manhattan north of 110th and/or other boroughs nearby. More seriously, lots of the comments here talk about the closeness of relatives to help with kids and so on. And I get that. But for people not in that situation, I'm never quite clear on the protein folding level computation that seems to go into just finding where you want to live, and then moving linearly out along transit routes until you find a reasonable mix of cost and distance. Let's play a game, can I find homes (not Apartments) near NYC and SF for around $500k (a home a family making around $100k/yr can easily afford...that's two people with $50k/yr jobs) that are around 1 hr daily commute on public transit. Let's let the NYC round begin: [1] Yonkers, estimate is under $500k. Okay, that's a shitty commute to midtown, but I spent 30 seconds figuring out this life quandry. [2] a half hour shaved off the commute [3] if you don't mind other people's houses touching yours and can pay $50k more, daily commute under 1 hr on public transit Mission accomplished - total research time, 5 minutes. Now for the San Francisco round: [4] 30-40 minutes from this ~$500k property to the Castro in SF. [5] - I did this one absolutely blind. Just picked a spot on the map that was about an hour commute by public transport. <$549k. Mission accomplished - total research time, 3 minutes. The first guy in the article, I mean goodness, is there nothing he can do around where he lives so he and his wife can afford a $375k home? A combined income of <$65,000 can afford that house. They each need full-time jobs that pay around $15/hr to make that work. What the hell kind of chef job does he have if he's not breaking $30/hr in NYC? That's small restaurant manager pay. Here's an entire craigslist for their area full of jobs that pay what they need. [6] Now they can both see their kids. 1 - https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/110-Sweetfield-Cir-Yonkers,-New-York_rb/?fromHomePage=true&shouldFireSellPageImplicitClaimGA=false&fromHomePageTab=buy https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/110-Sweetfield-Cir-Yon... 2 - https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/house,mobile_type/2095535544_zpid/2-_baths/399958-899905_price/1475-3319_mp/globalrelevanceex_sort/40.730271,-73.731732,40.723847,-73.745572_rect/16_zm/ https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/house,mobile_type/2095... 3 - https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/house,mobile_type/30646417_zpid/2-_baths/399958-899905_price/1475-3319_mp/globalrelevanceex_sort/40.672676,-73.861712,40.666247,-73.875552_rect/16_zm/ https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/house,mobile_type/3064... 4 - https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Oakland-CA/house,mobile_type/24779863_zpid/13072_rid/2-_baths/399958-899905_price/1475-3319_mp/globalrelevanceex_sort/37.803239,-122.16209,37.749645,-122.272811_rect/13_zm/ https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Oakland-CA/house,mobil... 5 - https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/house,mobile_type/24962942_zpid/2-_baths/399958-549958_price/1475-2028_mp/globalrelevanceex_sort/37.744317,-122.012187,37.637004,-122.23363_rect/12_zm/ https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/house,mobile_type/2496... 6 - https://allentown.craigslist.org/search/fbh https://allentown.craigslist.org/search/fbh