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Housing Costs Stretch Bay Area’s Geographic Footprint

MORE THAN 600,000 LONG-DISTANCE COMMUTERS POUR INTO THE BAY AREA EACH DAY

The Bay Area’s roaring job market is attracting workers from all over Northern California, but an increasing number of them don’t live within the traditional nine-county region, largely due to housing-affordability issues.

Citing research from the Bay Area Council, The Mercury News reportsthat, on average, 602,000 vehicles enter and leave the nine-county region each weekday from what is called the “Northern California Megaregion.” Not including the Bay Area, this region includes six counties in the Sacramento area, three in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, and three in Monterey.

A quick look at housing costs and price growth goes a long way to explaining why so many workers endure such brutal daily commutes. The Bay Area’s 2015 median home value of $750,000 is three times more expensive than in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced counties combined. And while home values in San Francisco Countyhave increased 49.1 percent over the last 10 years, they decreased by 48.4 percent in Merced County over that same time period.

So what can be done to keep more of these workers off the road and ease Northern California’s worsening gridlock? The Bay Area Council recommends investing in public transportation, streamlining the housing-permit process in urban job centers, and growing employment in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley regions.

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