Why You Should Care Less About Location When Buying a House

Forget location, location, location. It's budget, square footage, and yard size for me!

It's so commonly spouted, it's basically the mantra of real estate. Yes, that's right: Location, location, location!

But, realistically, how important is location, exactly? Is it really the vital component it's made out to be? Or is it something that, like brass bathroom fixtures, belongs in the era of yesteryear?

Once upon a time, location was indeed everything when buying a house. But in today's world, where anything can be delivered in a few taps of the screen, I think this obsession with location may be a bit outdated.

Location counts -- to an extent

I don't want to say that location isn't at all important, because that's certainly not true. Where you live has a huge impact on everything from which schools your children can attend to whether the women in the family can have bodily autonomy.

And, as I've heard many folks say, you can't move a house (most of the time; I've seen it done now and then, but it looks expensive!). The perfect house in a terrible location isn't so perfect after all.

So, yes, location is important, to an extent. But at the point you're getting a larger mortgage loan to live one block over, or you're limiting yourself to a strict two-square-mile radius and ignoring whole swaths of potential dream homes…well, that's when it's getting out of hand.

Determining your location priorities

Rather than prioritize location above all else, instead we should be carefully considering what aspects of location are the most important.

For example, say you're interested in a certain area because it has a good school. Great, but don't hyperfocus. Do a bit of research. Chances are good there's more than one decent school in the general vicinity of where you want to live. This may open up more possibilities than focusing tightly on one small area.

Commuting is another big factor. While most of us wouldn't add an hour to our daily drive just for a nicer house, you shouldn't ignore whole areas because of an additional few minutes. And if you're one of the folks who still gets to work from home, then distance to the office may not even be a priority at all (but good internet access will be).

There are lots of other aspects of location to consider, like crime, walkability, and proximity to family and friends. These are all good reasons to prioritize a certain location -- so long as you understand how it impacts your other priorities, like house size and home-buying budget.

How location impacts daily life

In the end, I'd argue that the house is more important than the location (provided the location doesn't make your life actively worse).

Most of us spend the bulk of our time in our homes. So if you end up a few minutes further away from the good restaurants or the chain store you prefer, well, how much is that really going to impact your daily life?

For me, at least, having a house of a decent size, with space for a home office and a yard large enough to garden, is well worth driving an extra five minutes to the grocery store once a week or even another twenty minutes to see family on the weekend.

Could I buy a home closer to these locations? Certainly. But it would either cost more, or result in buying much less house (or, realistically, both), which would impact my daily life far more than a little distance will.