Buyers Would Drive Farther to Own a House

Southern California home shoppers who now commute a median 24 minutes to work have indicated they would be willing to increase that to 34 minutes to own a single-family home--but would commute only 23 minutes for an apartment conversion.

They were surveyed by Great Western Real Estate (formerly Walker & Lee) over two months throughout Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. A survey in 1982 found that home buyers with a median commute of 21 minutes would increase it to only 27 minutes for a single-family home.

The primary motivating factors were given as tax advantages and investment potential, the desire to live in a better neighborhood, a larger house, for new design features and for energy efficiency and better schools.