The choice for buyers is often stark: Something small near metro centers because home prices are steep, or something an hour or more into the suburbs where bigger homes and lower mortgages are possible -- but with a cost, a daily commute that consumes much of the day.

While the suburbanites' 30-minute commute once evoked sympathetic reactions from co-workers, commutes spanning an hour or longer each way have become routine for millions of workers.

"People do adjust their lives to this and accept it as part of modern life style work," says Anthony Catsimatides, writing for PlanNet.com, an online architecture resource guide. "We become numb to this effect. We plan our lives around it."

Catsimatides says that telecommuting, long touted as the blissful solution to traffic tie-ups and hours-long commutes -- has became easier with today's technologies. At the same time, he argues that the concept has not caught to the extent many had expected.

"One reason for this is because of the habits we've formed over the last hundred years in the work place," he said. "Most bosses don't like to let their employees out of 'site.' But there are those who do understand the importance of quality of life and do set up their office to allow employees to work out of their house."

Ever-worsening out-of-kilter housing prices are surely at the heart of the American commuter nightmare. Who has not witnessed TV reporters, standing in front of modest Silicon Valley bungalows, explaining that the price of the 1500-square foot home behind them has now risen to $500,000 -- or more.

And while the problem in most locations may not be as extreme as in the Silicon Valley area, in many metro regions those not able to pull down six-figure incomes can find it difficult to buy or rent the desirable properties.

In California, some individuals commute four hours a day from the Bay area to the Sacramento Valley. One location has top-paying jobs, while the other offers new homes not priced like a Manhattan penthouses and what many consider a better quality of life. On the other side of the country, people commute from Pennsylvania and West Virginia to jobs in Washington, D.C.

To get those good jobs many people are making surprising sacrifices. As the Sacramento Bee recently reported, some area residents are putting 1400 miles a week on their cars and rising at 3:15 a.m. to kiss a sleeping spouse and kids goodbye.

These warrior-commuters, says the paper, stay awake in cars by listening to talk-radio, doing business on hands-free cell phones, smoking cigarettes and listening to music. Meanwhile, train riders choose between "sleep cars" and "party cars," or just opt to tap away on their laptops.

Dr. Joyce Walsleben with the New York University Sleep Disorder Center, believes those with commutes 75 minutes or longer are more likely to be obese and suffer from hypertension, according to a CNN report.

What trade-offs will you make? A bigger house with a longer drive or a smaller place closer to the office? There's no easy answer -- and in areas of the country with sky-high housing costs there isn't much choice, either.

Published: January 31, 2001

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.