State of the Job Market / Alternate Living Arrangements

It seems it is getting harder for some couples to live together in the same home, full time.  What I am getting at is that due to the state of the job market, some couples have jobs that are not in the same city or even within short commuting distance from one home.  I have heard of many couples where the wife works in one city and the husband works in another city and one of them is too far away to commute.  Take me and my wife as an example.  When we first moved to Florida, my wife had a job where she worked from home most of the time.  So, we lived in one home.  But when she started looking for a new job, it turns out there were almost no jobs available in her chosen profession that were close to home.  The job she finally found was about 100 miles north of our current residence.  This necessitated us having to make a decision.  Either we get a second place to live close to her new job or her settling for a lesser job and staying in our primary residence.  Ultimately, we chose to rent a condo near her new position.

But we are not alone in this scenario.  My wife has encountered numerous people in the same situation.  She even knows one couple that both live and work in completely separate states, halfway across the country for one another.  There are some significantly increased expenses having this sort of arrangement.  The first of course is the second home, either rented or owned.  Everyone knows the cost of housing theses days so this is a large expense to shoulder every month.  The second large expense can be airfare for one or both of the people to fly back and fort on the weekends or whenever they have a chance.  This is, of course, not an ideal situation for any couple.  The relationship needs to be strong and healthy for this to work, especially when they are separated by hundreds or even thousands of miles.  A shaky relationship may not survive this type living arrangement.  For some, it actually makes it stronger.

In my situation, my wife and I were only separated by about 100 miles which is a relatively easy drive in light traffic.  So, we spend every weekend together at one or the other home.  My wife has since found a new position and can you guess where this one is located?  You got it, it is still 100 miles away but instead of being north of our main residence, now it is completely across the state on the west coast of Florida.  This is again due the fact that there are very few job openings for the type of position she requires.  The good news is even though the new job is about the same distance away it actually takes less time to get there due to far less traffic on the highway crossing the state. 

But we are still in the situation where we need a second home as 100 miles is too far to commute every day.  That’s 3 hours of driving each day.  I don’t know about you but I will not commute that far each day.  But as I said, we are hearing from other people that this is becoming much more common due to the job markets.  One would think that south Florida is a big place with over 6 million people.  There should be lots of jobs available.  For some industries and professions, it is surprisingly sparse on some jobs, at least on job openings. 

So, here we are, still living in two homes.  We have more or less adapted to the new situation but it can be challenging at times.  Fortunately, we have a strong relationship and we do see each other every weekend and actually more often now than when she was in her previous job up north.  I have a feeling this is the way it will be until one or both of us retires.  Then we can go back to one home, full time.  Until then we just need to have fun with the situation and enjoy what both cities have to offer.