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HEN HE'S NOT carpooling to work, Stafford County resident Sean McLaurin drives alone into Washington, where he holds a chief position at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The 51-year-old estimates he spends "a couple of thousand dollars a year" on transportation expenses factoring in $16 a day for parking and wear and tear on his gas-guzzling Ford Explorer.
"That puppy loves the gas pump," he quipped.
For commuters like McLaurin, the long and costly trek to work can outweigh the savings of affordable housing in Fredericksburg and Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, according to a recent study.
Transportation costs are catching up to housing expenses, according to the Center for Housing Policy, which looked at 28 metropolitan areas including Washington.
"With this study we were able to, for the first time, put some numbers on the transportation cost side," said the report's author, Barbara Lipman.
The report shows 80 percent of commuters, including those who carpool, take a private vehicle to work.
In the Washington area, the study estimates that working families earning between $20,000 and $50,000 annually spend 28 percent of their incomes on transportation and 32 percent on housing.
About 50 percent of the Fredericksburg region's work force commutes to Washington, Northern Virginia or Richmond, according to the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance.
The region is a "classic case" of how, in the long run, transportation expenses outweigh the savings of affordable housing, Lipman said.
In the Fredericksburg region, the average working family spends 20 percent of their income on transportation, according to the Center for Housing Policy survey.
But lower-to-middle income households face the biggest burden of transportation costs.
"For families making less money it's an even bigger hit," said Laura Olsen, assistant director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
Working families who earn between $20,000 and $35,000 a year use 42 percent of their incomes on transportation, and the $35,000 to $50,000 income bracket spends 30 percent.
These families tend to live farther away from work where there are limited transportation options.
"They find themselves in a situation where nothing is really accessible without a car," Lipman said.
For some families the sheer cost of a long work commute and an expensive reliance on a car override any savings on a cheaper home, the report shows.
"Historically, people have thought that you can get housing cheaper farther out," Olson said. "They've gravitated to that without fully factoring the transportation costs."
AAA Mid-Atlantic estimates the average Washington area commuter who drives 20,000 miles a year to work spends $9,540 a year on transportation expenses such as fuel, car maintenance, insurance, registration and depreciation costs.
But for McLaurin, the Stafford resident who commutes to his Washington job, the long distance travel is worth it.
In the early 1990s, he bought his four-bedroom Stafford home for $30,000 less than similar houses on the market in Fairfax County at the time.
"We moved more for quality of life than cheap house although cheap house was certainly a big factor," McLaurin said. "It has been worth it to commute."
Rising transportation costs expose the need for more housing options.
Transportation experts say the study's findings show there is a lack of affordable housing near major employment hubs such as Northern Virginia or Washington.
"There is a real need for more, different sizes, different prices of housing," Olson said. "Really providing more options for people to live close to where they work can offer them a huge opening in their household budget."
Some families don't have a choice but to live in the outlying suburbs several miles away from work, noted AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Lon Anderson.
"Many of the folks that are moving down to Fredericksburg or Stafford County and areas far away from Washington do so not because they love driving up and down Interstate 95, they do so because it's the only place they can get the mortgage. For many this is a necessity."
The solution lies in recognizing the link between housing and transportation, according to Lipman.
"Think of housing and transportation together in ways where we can produce more options for people," she said. "I think there's an agreement that we can't keep sprawling endlessly. There's a hidden cost to sprawl."
To reach KAFIA HOSH:
Email: khosh@freelancestar.com
