Would you Spend $1,000 a Month on Gas? Why Gas Prices are hurting the Inland Empire: A Case Study of Commuting.
Last week a rather important event occurred. The Ford F-Series trucks were overthrown from their throne of number one best selling vehicle after decades of sales dominance. In another sign of the times the cars that replaced the empty chair are fuel efficient vehicles. This is rather important since it appears that we are reaching a tipping point in terms of fuel prices. Every year we hear consumers complain about fuel costs but rarely do anything to change their behavior. It appears the biggest motivator for changing behavior is simply making people go flat broke:
“(Ford) After decades of sales domination, the Ford F-Series was outdone as the best-selling vehicle in America in May by four Japanese cars — a development that symbolizes the difficulty Ford Motor Co.’s turnaround now faces.
The F-Series, which is built at factories in Dearborn, Kansas City, Mo., and Louisville, Ky., represents about one-fourth of the company’s total sales.
In May, F-Series sales plummeted 30.6%, to 42,973, as customers continued to reject trucks in favor of more affordable, fuel-efficient cars.
“It is a sign of the times,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s group vice president for marketing and communications. “But it is not surprising, given the fuel price. We have never seen $4.20-a-gallon gas.”
With the additional announcement that the Hummer line may be sold or discontinued, it seems like we are heading to a new landscape in the automotive industry. In today’s article we are going to examine this trend on how higher fuel prices are hurting places in the suburbs and the trend of buying bigger places in the boonies simply to own a piece of real estate in Southern California. This may be a thing of the past.
Commuting from Temecula to Costa Mesa
Temecula is a city in southwestern Riverside County. In recent years, it has been booming with new home construction. The population has been growing as well over this time:
Much of this population boom was also based on those in surrounding high priced areas that wanted the ability to purchase a nice large sized home, but were not able to afford it in expensive San Diego and Orange Counties. In fact, I know a few folks that make the commute from Costa Mesa and Irvine to Temecula everyday. Their desire was to purchase a new home for their growing family. They were willing to brave the arduous commute each day for the dream of having a large home.
Although these folks are doing well, many others are not. In our case example today we are going to examine how the commute from Temecula to Costa Mesa will cost someone who may have purchased a F-150 in previous years. Here are our basic assumptions:
Auto and Driving Details:
Year: 1999
F-150 XLT supercab
27 Gallon tank
Average MPG: 14
Full Tank Range: 378
Total Commute distance: 69 Miles One-way (138 Roundtrip)
Many of you not from the area may think this is absurd but this is actually a rather common occurrence. Since many folks were in the construction industry (and many simply like trucks) the F-150 is a very common auto here in Southern California. Some bought for necessity and others simply bought because they like the idea of having a truck. Yet this is another example on how people are learning to separate their wants and needs and that is why the F-Series is no longer the top selling line in the United States.
Now let us run the numbers for how much money is spent on fuel each month:
5-day miles driven: 690 miles
Weekend driving: 75 miles
Total Monthly miles driven: (690 + 75) * 4 = 3,060
Current Cost per gallon Riverside County: $4.40
Total Fuel Cost per month: (3,060/14) = 218 gallons needed per month
218 * $4.4 = $961 per month on fuel
Compare this number to one year ago when fuel averaged $3.14
218 * $3.14 = $684 per month one year ago
The cost to commute the same distance went up a stunning 40 percent in one year. At the same time, many of these folks were tied to the real estate industry so you have a double hit. First, more money is going out of the budget for fuel while income is quickly decreasing.
This is why it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that 15 percent of homes in this area may be bank owned or in some stage of foreclosure:
“(LA Times) From the start — Temecula was incorporated in 1989 — the city was protective of its image.
Residents are prohibited from working on their cars, in most cases, in front of their own houses. Stores that sell spray paint are required to keep it under lock, though graffiti is almost nonexistent. Behind City Hall, there is a “sign jail” full of political ads and business ads that were yanked because they violated Temecula’s strict sign rules.
Based largely on that image, the population has nearly doubled again this decade, rising from about 57,000 in 2000 to 101,000 today — 14 new residents a day.
Today, said Rich Johnston, Temecula’s deputy director of building and safety and code enforcement, as many as 15% of Temecula’s 22,500 single-family homes are bank-owned or in some stage of foreclosure.”
Now you understand why Temecula is down nearly 30 percent on a year over year basis:
Median Price April 2007: $459,000
Median Price April 2008: $329,000
Suddenly a nice new home construction can be seen as an albatross and a Real Home of Genius once you factor the brutal commute. Let us run a quick expense budget for someone that bought a nice home at the peak for $500,000 and is making this commute:
PITI: $3,517 (zero down at 6 percent fixed)
Fuel Cost: $961 per month
Auto Insurance: $120 per month
Housing upkeep (pool, landscaping, minor touch ups): $100 per month
Food: $500 per month
Utilities: $100 per month
Total: $5,298 per month
We’ll leave this budget at a very basic level. I’m sure you can add additional things like cable, cell phones, internet access, and all other items but even at this basic level, we have a budget that consumes $63,576 per year. This budget leaves no room for savings either. Keep in mind that total auto costs take up 20 percent of the entire budget even though our government BLS friends like it to make up a smaller number. Also, we are not assuming an auto payment which if you look around, many new cars are simply leased or under a loan which means folks have another monthly drain on their budget.
Now you see why ridiculously long commutes may be a thing of the past. You can forget about these areas if fuel hits $5 or $6 per gallon. California itself is still trying to reconcile high unemployment and these areas are the hardest hit. It may be time to rethink how city planners organize cities and the cultural obsessions with big cars may be reaching its end.
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41 Responses to “Would you Spend $1,000 a Month on Gas? Why Gas Prices are hurting the Inland Empire: A Case Study of Commuting.”
69 miles each way. That’s got to be 90 minutes, at least, each way in traffic. 3 hours a day sitting in your car. Madness. To think that this was ever considered a good idea…
I am getting fitted for a bike. I now spend $60 every week and a half on gas and that’s too much. My commute is 10 miles each way. I have nothing to lose but some excess weight.
I dare say that MOST truck sales over the past few years (never mind SUV) have been for lifestyle and image, not for work. I see a tremendous number of them on the roads still, with no work signage and a single driver.
These fuel costs are going to slam the lowest wage employees, and businesses are likely to start seeing high turnover as people look for work closer to home, especially in part time positions.
s.
very comprehensive post, thanks!
really nailed it right from the beginning with: “It appears the biggest motivator for changing behavior is simply making people go flat broke:”
“Residents are prohibited from working on their cars, in most cases, in front of their own houses.” I think that sums up allot of what is wrong with the present mindset. Work and residence are not allowed anywhere near each other. Historically villages were clusters of working families surrounded by either the fields they managed or the businesses they ran ( often in the same building as they lived ). Now appearance is all that matters, and any appearance that a person might actually not be independently wealthy is to be denied even at the expense of their own future well being.
As to the decline of the F series, I own one that is old enough to be useful as a truck. If you can’t put a sheet of plywood in the back and close the tailgate then it’s a car with bad fuel economy, and rotten handling. I also own a VW jetta for 90% of my driving, when I don’t need a truck.The newer F series with short boxes, crew cabs etc. was a way of saying ” I’m so well off that I can burn money ” . A triumph of image over sense.
I tend to believe that higher gas prices are a really strong argument in favor of renting. Renting allows the flexibility to change locations when you change jobs, thus reducing ridiculous fuel expenses. Of course if housing prices ever became financially in line with reality again, this might require some reconsideration. But it’s a point in favor of renting for sure.
My 11 mile each way commute still only requires a fill up every 2 weeks. A small fuel efficient car is what makes this possible. If gas prices become untenable even with a fuel efficient car, a fairly short commute, and an ok salary, I plan to just give the landlord the one month notice and up and move closer to work.
I have been saying this for some time now, communities far away from transit will become less atractive. This article drives one more nail in that coffen
I don’t want to nitpick your figures but $100/month for utilities? What they got no airconditioning? A septic tank instead of sewer? A well instead of municipal water. Temecula has a daytime high in the summer in the mid 90’s and night time low in the 50’s. In January the overnight low is in the mid thirties though a very pleasant daytime high in the mid sixties.Oh and a pool, which you include for maintenance purposes has a circulating pump. Maybe a 1-1.5 horsepower motor if it is a small pool. No, I’m afraid a typical new house with modern appliances, A/C, electric heat ( or gas if available) and sewer and water is going
to be paying about 2 or 3 times that in utilities in Temecula. And it is going up.
I’m seeing electric utilities requesting 15-20 % rate hikes all over the east coast
now and they have basically use coal and nuclear power for base load generation. Sempra, the San Diego utility is heavy on natural gas fired power plants. Very expensive. They are only used for peaking power in the East.
Comment by Cod Peace: I am getting fitted for a bike. I now spend $60 every week and a half on gas and that’s too much. My commute is 10 miles each way. I have nothing to lose but some excess weight.
I Live in Chapel Hill, NC and work in the transplant unit at UNC Hospitals…we call people like you…DONORS as in ORGAN DONORS. We got two new ones this week. Keep up the good work.
I read “138 mile round trip commute”, “14 mpg” which is generous – try actual is closer to 11-12 mpg on a good day, and “$4.40 per gallon”. Taking just those numbers, that is $44.40 A DAY! or $222 a week or $962 a month – just to get to work and back and forget doing errands or going anywhere. Think your monthly estimate is a little low Doc. Add another 75 miles on the weekend and you are at $1064 a MONTH – $103 more than you estimated. It takes so much to fire up those large vehicles and to accelerate that 138 miles is really more like 140 in fuel usage.
*****In 2003 when gas was $1.25 and early 2004 when it was $1.50 -1.75, the cost was sort of manageable. Now it has basically tripled.
****I do have very large extended cab pickup with a full length bed- 1 ton body on a 1 1/2 ton frame with a 454 hp engine and its gas gauge bears a close resmblance to the second hand of a watch as it inhales 1 gal per 10 miles (with or without a load in the bed or anything hooked to the hitch.). It is only used for the jobs for which it was designed – towing large and heavy objects, and hauling a lot of stuff in the bed. It is not driven just to drive it nor is it used for any other purposes than the ones listed. It is tucked up under its cover (most garages are too short) and is meticulously maintained. Those kind of heavy pickups are good for nearly 500,000 miles and I will be dead before I ever get that many miles on it.
****What we use to run aound in are little declasse dowdy boring Escort wagons that get 32mpg around town and 35-36mpg and which haul as much as an SUV. We bought these cars 4 years ago because I kept insisting that we would see $4 and $5 a gallon gas. (Econ degree does come in handy – I relied upon the increasing glocal demand in reaching that conclusion.) I have noticed recently that the same Escort wagons are now going on Ebay for 2 to 2 1/2 times what I paid back then. Guess I had better start locking it, eh? (BTW, even at $5 a gallon for gas, I would have to drive a Prius 1,000,000 miles to break even on the cost of vehicle plus fuel as compared to the cost of the little wagons plus fuel – and that wouldn’t include replacing those $5000 battery packs in the Prius.)
*****I have always said that I would never entrust my money to any financial advisor who drove a Hummer or huge SUV or a show-off type pickup. My reasoning was that anyone who would (a) spend $40,000 – $80,000 on something that would rust and (b) waste that much money on gas to run those fuel hogs was a financial moron and shouldn’t be entrusted with the financial aspects of running a lemonade stand in the front yard.
I remember the 70s and everyone got serious about the cost of fuel and made lifestyle changes: My brother sold his Z-28 and bought a Datsun B-210 in ’75. I got rid of a 66 Impala SS and bought a 4-speed Capri. The speed limit changed to 55, rationing, etc.
Teens are endowed by the knowledge fairy with all wisdom in the universe and can’t learn without experiencing it for themselves, so they have to learn the same lesson for themself. In this case, the consequences are so serious that for the first time since the depression many rational people are beginning to question whether our whole concept of capitalism is sustainable over the long-term. If we have to start a war and print money everytime a ponzi scheme unwinds (Pets.com? Billions for Kuhala Lumpur? Subprime? Banks in 80’s lending money to their friends?) then I’m not sure it is.
The subprime is not even the problem–it is the canary in the mine. Those people couldn’t pay their rent every month, so their going to pay their mortgage every month (insert laugh track here)? That was just an early warning that something was rotten in Denmark. So the subprime canary problem is contained? Is it safe to go in the mine? Leahman should have stayed in the cotton business. Maybe that smell is rotten cotton…
Hmmmm, a $500,000 home in Temecula and the electricity to power all the appliances AND air conditioning costs only $100 / month? I doubt that has been true since the city itself was incorporated! You may want to quadruple that for summer prices. The power almost assuredly is sourced from a fossil fuel burn.
I’m moving to only 5 miles away from my work and I’m still seriously considering getting a scooter. (..and why not since I’ll only be a few miles from the beach. Man I love renting!)
Contractors prefer the diesel pickups (18mpg) due to the tax-subsidies of driving a truck over 7500 lbs gross. Remember that IRS freebie?
They will, and do, drive Ortega Hiway (see map) which is somewhat more direct. Another alternalte is the 241 toll way (add $7 per trip).
It is 1 1/2 to 2 hrs from Costa Mesa to Corona, which is only half way on the trip specified.
On the subject of cars I once knew a freshly minted divorcee from a fairly wealthy man. She got a generous amount of alimony but soon was complaining
that she could’t make ends meet. She had a Corvette AND an Escalade. I said,
why don’t you get rid of one of your cars. She said, I can’t, I leased them! At least our big pickup driver, hopefully, was not that dumb. You’re going to take a beating on trading those big boys in these days but at least you can get rid of it and buy a more sensible commute car.
Bigger is better no more. $5/gallon gas is coming here soon. I’d bet that a year from now the car dealers won’t be able give some SUV away for free. Car rental places already have a hard time renting those monstosities.
This kind of a commute is not at all uncommon. People commute from Lancaster to Long Beach! My commute is only 12 miles, but I’m still using a gallon of gas every day just to travel to work and back (the round trip of 24 miles uses almost a gallon in my ’02 Corolla). I also live in a rent-controlled apartment, where I’ve been for the last 11 years. If I could move closer to work I would, but my rent would increase by at least $500/month, which would break my budget. These gas woes are going to continue to weigh heavily on cities at the outskirts. I predict that it will get worse before it gets better, if it ever does improve!
Diesel fuel is over $5 a gallon.
Just the tip of the proverbial iceberg Doc. Cheap energy is indeed the elixir of the American Lifestyle.
I don’t understand the point you are trying to make about the monthly and annual budget. What’s the big deal if you spend more than you make? Just get a frickin’ Heloc or run up your credit card.
What are you , some sort of commie. Jeez, get with the freedom-loving, capitalist program, you pinko. It’s guys like you who made prices and the stock market drop. Just borrow some money and buy something; it’s what an American does!
Yikes
With the barebones (really, really barebones) budget shown, these people need $100K in income to cover the expenses shown and income taxes. Do you really think it’s the extra $300 a month in gas costs that are going to drive (no pun intended) these people over the edge or the ridiculously expensive house that ultimately will do it?
1.5 miles to work on my bike. What’s this about fuel prices going up?
Doc – You forgot one very big item, especially here in California.
In order to take home that 64K nut each year this poor shmoe is going to have to earn somehwere around 90K once you figure in Federal, State & local taxes as well as Medicare and SDI. Maybe even 95K.
How far is that from our median income in SoCal again?
Your site right now has an click-ad that says “Support John McCain’s Gas Tax Moratorium.” LMAO!!!!!
This is affecting all of us, it hurts me, and my commute is only 9 miles one way. My dilema relates to what Ann Scott pointed out: The breakeven for purchasing a more fuel efficient vehicle is 10 + years, even with $5 /gal. fuel. This doesnt consider the reduced capacity (surfboard, and passengers must fit), and reduced safety in piloting a econo-box on roads shared with other vehicles.
I grew up in So Cal. with commutes and traffic an early way of life. I got my license the week I turned 16. I think I drove every single day of my life from that day on. Many years later, when my Dutch father-in-law was visiting and asked how far it was from Redondo Beach to Hollywood, I answered in hours, not distance. I never rode my bike because I knew I was invisible to motorists and was too darned scared of being hit. Thing is, in California and much of the rest of the United States, you have to use your car daily, and that’s even without the kind of commute you example. Our infrastructure is not built for pedestrians or bikes. Only for cars. I fear we’re in for a whole lotta hurt.
Yes, I had to change my job as it was located too far from my place. I’ve spent more than $100 weekly, just imagine.. And these high prices on gas make me upset much more..
Hopefully in a few years there will be a lot fewer SUVs on the road, and driving an economy car won’t feel so much like bringing a knife to a gun fight.
Witness the diff between city and suburban life. We have many thousands of people here in Chicagoland making similar commutes in this area that has the highest gas prices in the country. Believe it or not, Chicago’s hinterlands sprawl more than do those of Los Angeles- our metro area is 5,400 miles vs L.A.’s 4800 sq miles.
$1,000 a month just to gas the car, over and above the cost of buying the thing, financing it, insuring it, and repairing it, is unimaginable to me. Could the steep cost of buying and operating cars, even before you reckon fuel costs, be the main reason most people in this country are stone broke?
What’s really sick about this situation is that most denizens of outer suburbia are not the least bit affluent. The reason they went out there to begin with is that you can buy a new, roomy house for what you pay for a 4-room condo in the city. But they discover that there are these massive offsets, mainly 40-mile-each direction commutes, and stratospheric fuel costs.
And even were the gas free, a 40-mile commute each direction is just too punishing. I had to do it for a while many years ago, and it nearly broke me down. I believe that spending 2 to 4 hours a day just to commute to and from a job. This is just too brutal, and it’s destroying people both physically and mentally. Kids are not getting enough supervision, and adults are not getting enough rest or sleep.
I spend only $1,200 a YEAR on transportation,plus $65 for a rail roundtrip down to St. Louis yearly. That includes $75 a month for a transit pass for unlimited riding on trains and buses, and $20 a month for grocery delivery, plus ship costs for stuff purchased on ebay or amazon. Grocery delivery is cheap because I live 6 blocks away and use it once a month for one trip that sets me up in staples and most food for the entire month, and the stuff gets brought to my door.
And what we spend subsidizing city transit and Amtrack is a pittance next to the massive subsidies we have been tossing at private auto transportation and air travel.
Think what a typical middle-class family could save if they could get by with one car per family. Yet most families have more than two. This is a massive drain on your typical family with incomes ranging $50K to $125K a year. I don’t know how a family with even $150K a year income keeps its teens as well as adults in cars.
If this fuel situation gets too much worse (and I believe it will), we can forget about outer suburbs and exurbs ever recovering their value. They will devolve into slums or they will revert to being farmland.
Just ran the numbers on Socal’s Regional Rail – Metrolink website. The numbers for a monthly pass are quite reasonable. A Monthly pass from North Main Corona to Tustin in Orange County is only 190 bucks per month.For those who are making this commute. Consider taking Metrolink.
You still have to drive to North Main Corona but then you get to sit back on the train…
http://www.metrolinktrains.com
Laura Louzader,
I am afraid you are mistaken on your argument. Los Angeles is the largest metro area in the nation, and your numbers do not include the Inland Empire cities where many live. Those are San Bernardino, Riverside, Temecula, Corona, etc.
I watch the WGN news last night, as I am origionally from the Midwest, and L.A. gas prices are $0.50 higher in L.A. I saw the sign on the way home, I will be paying $4.69 to fill the tank in the morning. That’s if it doesn’t go up a dime overnight again like it did last night, and many times this month.
There was a good story in the L.A. Times on Sunday, maybe it will come up if you google it, about a ladies commute from Rialto to Santa Monica. 60 miles of train ride, then another 10 in the car from the station to work. She keeps a car at the station. Almost 3 hours each way.
Also, from the coast to Redlands, CA is 80 miles. From Chicago to Richmond, IL it looks like about 65 miles. So L.A. sucks more. Plus the Metra is much better than our Metrolink. Heck, I’d rather be back in Iowa rather than live in either CA or IL, and not put up with any of this.
Diogenes: People who are organ donors don’t come from car wrecks? People who ride safely on bike trails are at higher risk for MVAs? I suspect if your local drivers are so bad that 2 cyclists per week get to become organ donors at Chapel Hill, then people who live in there probably shouldn’t be on the sidewalks either.
Laura, you’re right on the money! Those suburbs with frequent train service will thrive longterm, those without-well the old lady began singing about a year ago & is getting louder.
Actually the Ford pickup trucks are at the confluence of high gas prices and the housing slump.
Think about it. All the folks who did construction, flips, and repair, are now all out of work. Instead of upgrading their 10 year old truck to the latest 9 foot high long bed, they are watching the old one rust.
The pickup truck is at a singularity.
live to surf…
I don’t understand what you mean by “breaking even.” Its cheaper to buy a smaller car than a truck so how can you break even? I dont know if you mean selling or giving away your current gas guzzler and buying a more fuel efficient car, but that is the point you should not have bought it in the first place. By the way doesn’t a Honda Civic have a surf board accessory? I drive a Honda Accord and when I am empty I pump $70. I get 26-29 mpg on avg and I just cant imagine how a person driving a truck and getting HALF my gas mileage will pump $140 to drive the same amount…but hey to each his own. There will come a time when people who want to feel “safe” driving big trucks will be so broke they will simply sit at home and get off the road so that we can drive our “econo-box” on less congested roads.
“I Live in Chapel Hill, NC and work in the transplant unit at UNC Hospitals…we call people like you…DONORS as in ORGAN DONORS. We got two new ones this week. Keep up the good work.”
Charming. I could lecture on bike safety, but clearly you prefer your Suburban.
Laura L
What car subsidies do you refference?
I dont think thre are any. As a matter of fact, cars, gas, and auto mfr are heavily taxed!! Registration fees, gas guzzler tax, gasoline tax, general tax funds spent on transportaion and roads. Tobacco, corn, train, and public transpoortation are susbsidized. Here in la, busses crawl all through the southland mostly empty!! They operate at a complete loss, and wouldnt be able to stay afloat without 100% govt sponsorship, same with trains!! Guess what that means? I (struggling taxpayer) actually pay for it!! Do you pay taxes??
I stand corrected, as I did not include the famous Inland Empire, as I had not realized that the numbers I was pulling up for L. A. did not include those. Riverside-San Bernardino is now considered a seperate metro area, which is really sort of silly.
The good thing about Chicago is that the city itself is stuffed with neighborhoods where you have great transit and retail, and we also have densely-knit, small-town-type “railroad” suburbs like Evanston ( a city in its own right, really), Wilmette, Des Plaines, and Oak Park.
The bad thing, though, is that about 4 million of Chigoland’s appx. 9.5 MM denizens live outside Cook County, and a substantial portion of Cook’s residents live at the outer edge of the county. These places are impossible to negotiate without a car, and the prices of housing out there relative to the city make them attractive to the very class of people who most need to be close to town and work, and who are most likely to make lower-middle incomes. I really fear for these people. They are being decimated by the scissors of fuel prices and food prices. I don’t know how they cope.
At least gas is a little cheaper out there- just over $4. But it’s $4.59 around the corner from my office and close to my apt. City residents who have to drive down to the other end of the city, into the bungalow belt neighborhoods that have really unreliable transit, are suffering, especially since they have to burn so much just sitting in hellish crosstown traffic.
Get ready… we are already ordering extra number 5’s
for the price boards.
By July we will be at $5 a gallon and up unless some miracle
happens and/or the market finally crashes in early fall.
Already the low wage earners are losing the battle.
They don’t usually drive new fuel efficient cars but basically any old
clunker that runs and can be bought for cheap and manages to
pass the smog one more time.
Being on minimum wage means you pretax earnings per week are $320
if you are lucky and actually can work 40 hours a week.
All major grocery outfits (aka Belair, Savemart, etc.) have reduced their
hours. Even people that worked for them for years are now on part time
with as little as 24 hours a week. Add to that a commute of even just 10
miles to get to work and you wonder why I see people in tears because getting called in to work for just a 4 hour shift isn’t worth the price of gas in the long run.
It does make a difference when your monthly gasoline bill all the sudden
starts to go in the 100’s of dollars and effectively has doubled within the last two to 3 years. If you don’t have a buffer and can’t reallocate funds from another expense that can be cut in favor of the gas bill you are in trouble.
I don’t see wages going up and to make matters worse groceries arent exactly cheap anymore either. Where will it end? The jobs created are in the service sector and that means low wages and competing for the entry level jobs that used to give our teenagers a little spending money are now seniors that are trying to supplement their social security checks.
Employers that offer health care once again will break the bad news to their employees this month:
Guess what, the premiums for your health plan are going up starting July 1st
but we can’t give you a raise because the cost to run the business has gone up too high and we are lucky if we break even. Amazing how Kaiser P. keeps building these huge hospitals…
Laura, our traffic here is Chi-town is easily worse than SoCal. At least the traffic there moves….
Add to that, we have c-c-c-c-cold winters too!!!
FZ6
Give me $25,000 so I can buy an accord like you, so my breakeven point will be TODAY instead of years from now.
The numbers speak for themselves. Fortunately there is an answer to the high price of fuel in America. One solution is traditional telecommuting. A second option is Telecommuting 2.0, which is based on a Remote Office Center business model. Remote Office Centers lease offices, internet access and phone systems to workers from multiple companies in shared centers that are usually located around the suburbs.
The price of fuel is forcing people to change the way they work. Remote Office Centers solve the problem created by the high price of fuel. This is an opportunity for commercial real estate management companies.
The cost to convert a property into a Remote Office Center is pretty minimal. Workers need office space, internet and phones. Advertising can be handled by putting up a billboard on a busy commuter road way that says: Tired of the high cost of fuel. Work out of a Remote Office Center and skip the commute.
There is a free web site for finding and listing Remote Office Centers: http://www.remoteofficecenters.com
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