House price/commute trade off?

[Duchess]

TL:DR How much more would you pay for a house that is closer to work?

MMM argues that because of the costs associated with commuting, we should be willing to pay more for a home closer to work (or find a job closer to where we live). My family and I may be moving to a new town for work. This would give us the opportunity to live much closer to work and to go from two cars (one diesel, one electric) to just the electric car. However, to buy a home equivalent to our current one close to our potential new workplaces would cost about £100k more - and we'd hoped for a bit more space with our next move.

We might not end up moving but if we do, housing is proving to be one of our biggest conundrums. For us there seem to be so many factors to take into account in terms of finances, quality of life and schooling for our little one. In https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/ MMM reckons that you should be willing to pay $19,500 more for a home that is one mile close to work. What figure would you put on that in the UK?

[PhilB]

If the cost and time of commuting were the only issues then you could easily have a go at calculating a rate.  In reality though there are so many other factors that impact your quality of life.  If you live a long way from work it makes it much harder to have social relationships with your coworkers outside of work which may or may not be important to you.  On the other hand your work may not be somewhere you would actually enjoy living irrespective of any price differences. 
You've identified schooling as a key issue.  There are issues around what kind of lifestyle you want your kids to have - open spaces and greenery or lots of infrastructure and activities?
Finally there seems to be an ever growing trend towards telecommuting in more and more jobs.  That can not only decrease your commuting time / costs, but also put a premium on having a suitable desk to work from at home.

The balance will be different for everyone.  I ended up with a five hour round trip after my work moved which was way too long - but that translated to an ever-increasing amount of time working from home and a quality of life (for us) way better than being back in London.

It's a horribly complex decision and one I wish you luck in sorting out.

[Dicey]

Im not in the UK, and I don't go to work any more, but DH still does. When we got married seven years ago, we did exactly this. We sold both of our houses and bought one that's 3.5 blocks from his work. It was about $200k more than we had hoped to pay, but it has been totally worth it. DH walks to work every day. We are in a desirable school district, which is irrelevant for us, but is good for resale.

The reason it's been "worth it", besides the fact that the house is lovely, is appreciation. The demand for homes in this desirable area has forced the price up nearly $500k since we bought it. Just another facet to consider.

[cerat0n1a]

MMM reckons that you should be willing to pay $19,500 more for a home that is one mile close to work. What figure would you put on that in the UK?

Personally, I would have paid a lot more than £20k to be a mile closer to work.  In my case, my 12 minute commute turned over the space of 20 years to be anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes, without me moving house or changing job - just the massive growth in jobs and housing in Cambridge over that time had a serious impact on traffic.

As PhilB said though, there are lots of other considerations besides journey times. One could make the argument that if you spend that extra £100k, you'd be getting the money back when you sell up, so it's not really a cost. But that assumes that the price differential is still there when you sell up and that you'd actually move away from the higher cost area at some time in the future.

[Duchess]

Thanks all for your comments. Lots of food for thought. The chance to gain back more time for non-work activities is very appealing!