>> It's a very high cost of living area. I dont know about Portland, but I live in suburbs of NY. Even an hour away, what you save in rent you end up giving up

>> It's a very high cost of living area. I dont know about Portland, but I live in suburbs of NY. Even an hour away, what you save in rent you end up giving up in the entire drive-park-ride-subway shuffle. - You have to drive to the train station (pay for car, insurance, gas). Homes walking distance to train station are extra premium costs. - You have to pay to park at the station (~$10/day for me) - You have to pay for the rail ticket ($37 roundtrip / day for me) - You have to pay for the subway/bus from the rail station to the office ($5.50 / day) All-in, on RTO day trip costs $53 not including the car. Its not huge for a tech worker, but for many people this is prohibitive. https://www.njtransit.com/fares https://www.njtransit.com/fares You can use pre-tax FSA transit accounts, but 1/3 of the time the cards dont work and you pay out of pocket. Then you cannot reimburse because FSA providers like HealthEquity do not allow transit post-reimbursement, even when their cards malfunction. Then, you lose the balance if you dont (cant) spend your balance in time. The entire system is set up to squeeze people.