If you want space - perhaps you have children - you'll easily trade commute time. Don't forget big houses are way more expensive in dense areas, dwarfing transp

If you want space - perhaps you have children - you'll easily trade commute time. Don't forget big houses are way more expensive in dense areas, dwarfing transport costs. Mortgage on a central house vs suburbs is in the region of 5x to 10x more expensive (London prices), not 50 bucks. The reason is simple. You can fit 5 to 10x more people in the land area of a big house in a city, at least.