Buying a house by the ocean and renting a small room because of long commute. Are we crazy? (Boston: real estate, rent)

[gdbuick]

Here is our story on which I’m looking for feedback from others that may have done or possibly considered this before. We would like to buy a home in the Marion/Mattapoisett area. We currently have a home an hour away from there now. My wife and two children who are entering high school spend our summers by the water in Wareham for the last 15 years in a row at our relative’s home. Unfortunately my job in the Burlington, MA area that I have been at for some 25 years is too far away ( 75 miles one way) to commute daily from work to Wareham area especially with RT 128 traffic prevents such a move possible without a crash pad by work. However, because I work an alternating two week compressed work week schedule (Sun/Mon/Tues) 1 week and then Sun/Mon/Tues/Wed the second week we are considering renting a small room so I can stay there a few nights a week and avoid an unbearable commute home each work day. We realize in addition to paying extra renting approx. $300/month on top of a mortgage payment is not the greatest financial strategy, nor is being away from the family several nights each week ideal. All the family is on board to move by the water. We are interested and very much like the Marion/Mattapoisett area because of the great school system and family nearby. We are looking in the 350-420K range which we are aware doesn’t buy much in that area. The tradeoff would be living by the salty sea now versus waiting for retirement and a great school system for our kids. Feedback please..

[kingeorge]

I do understand sentiment of staying near family and where you are used to go, but in my humble opinion, this is highly impractical unless you are already figured out, your kids' college and your retirement expenses. Your kids will not be kids for a very long time, and will be soon out of the house. By going with this plan you can be committing a financial suicide once college or a health emergency, or even disability enters the picture.
I would recommend to look at North Shore which has lot to offer, including excellent schools and much more sane commute.
Hope it helps.

[gdbuick]

Originally Posted by kingeorge

I do understand sentiment of staying near family and where you are used to go, but in my humble opinion, this is highly impractical unless you are already figured out, your kids' college and your retirement expenses. Your kids will not be kids for a very long time, and will be soon out of the house. By going with this plan you can be committing a financial suicide once college or a health emergency, or even disability enters the picture.
I would recommend to look at North Shore which has lot to offer, including excellent schools and much more sane commute.
Hope it helps.

Thanks for the reply and I love the quote "financial suicide" which is one of my main concerns to avoid. You have some very valid points. In regards to college or retirement I will have to face both of those whether I move or not. We were not planning on buying a more expensive home so mortgage wise we would stay pretty much the same. The extra rent money per month is the major killer as that money would do much better put towards our existing mortgage principal. I do have some funds saved up for college and retirement but you can never have enough. Today's interest rates being so low were also reasons for considering this move now. We have not considered the North Shore.

[sfosyd]

I would look at Gloucester/Rockport because that commute is really not that bad to Burlington. I personally think it is worth it to live by the water, I commute from NYC every chance I get! Good luck.

[unit731]

If the children are college material then all excess funds should be placed for them.

[maggiekate]

I lived on the Cape a few years back as in the seventys and many people who lived there and did the long commute
into Boston for work. Some also drove into Lynn and yes it was brutal but the Boston people took the bus and did
learn to sleep. The driving would be the worse in all the traffic and when stormy weather. Have you thought of Plymouth
it really is a big choice.

[charolastra00]

I'm also a little curious where you got the $300 a month number. You would be looking at closer to $500 plus utilities unless you were willing to live at a crash pad near the airport - but your commute would still be awful. When finding a new roommate, we had several people who either traveled a lot for work or had homes elsewhere (also the case of one of my boyfriend's roommates). All were planning on paying full rent and splitting utilities evenly wherever they went because there are not many people who are willing to reduce the rent for people who will not be around much.

Stay where you are, put that extra money into a college fund but encourage your kids to aim for merit scholarships, and hope that in 4 years that you won't need to be out of pocket much for their educations. Then you can consider this plan.

[maggiekate]

I had a thought are you friendly with anyone at work who has a house and would let you rent an extra room from them.
Or a church in the area who may know of a couple or person who had children leave and might let you rent a room.
They would get extra income and you would have your room.

[raveabouttoast]

I know some people that do this to cut down on a bad commute. It works out quite well for them.

If you include the cost of gas that you'd save, the $300/month for the room might be reduced a good amount. And more importantly, it would be a lot less stressful.

[Cape Cod Todd]

It seems that most folks are against your idea but I think that life is short and if you and your family would enjoy that house by the water than go for it. The price of course being that you would be away from your family during the week.
When my wife and I were first married I had a job that didn't make sense to commute to on a daily basis so I had a crash pad. Living apart during the week wasn't fun but we considered it as part of the job and then we had the happy homecomings Friday night to look forward to. Military families have it alot worse.
This arrangement worked for us for 2+ years but then again we didn't have kids.
I own a Real Estate company on Cape Cod and time has shown us that houses on the water go up and up in price so if you can afford your dream home by the water now I would say go for it because when the economy comes back strong guess what the prices will go up.