Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Location is Time or Money

Using data from over 175,000 rentals from the real estate listing service StreetEasy, the site FiveThirtyEight asks the question:
How much would you be willing to pay to shave a minute off your commute? For New Yorkers, the answer appears to be around $56 per month. That’s how much more New Yorkers pay in rent, on average, for a one-bedroom apartment that’s a minute closer by subway to Manhattan’s main business districts.
They plot median monthly rental versus commuting time to the 42nd Street and Chambers Street subway stations. They fit, what appear to be non-parametric regressions, curves to four different groups of rentals: studios, and 1- ,2- , and 3-bedroom apartments. As expected, rental prices fall with a longer commute. From the 1-bedroom curve they estimate that, on average, a one minute shorter commute costs around $56 more a month.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the information provided! Needless to say that time is money and if you live in a big city you need to save your time to make more money. Thus, I understand why New Yorkers are ready to pay more to be closer to subway. I have an experience of living in a big city and I know that it’s important to save every minute. I was also ready to pay additional $ to have an apartment in a better location. I even used online money service with quick approval to get extra money to afford an apartment in next to the city center.