Did try hard for the built in 1915 house in the old town, which needed a lot done to it. Bank refused to lend, because it was half remodeled at the time. So it got bought by a person with cash, fipped, and a big profit made. Bro's house built about 1950, but the real problem with it was lots of homeowner done remodels in the past, all done wrong. Roof looked good, but it turned out to be a time bomb of tiny leaks. Nothing obvious when he bought, but now the whole roof is rotting out at the eaves. My house built in 1980, and still on original stucco. We remodeled one bath and the kitchen, and insurance paid for a new roof a few years back. It's more or less maintenance free, except for the yard work.
Bottom line when we bought, banks wanted us to buy a 150 thou house, we wanted to buy an 80 thou house. That ruled out all houses above 800 square feet in size in town center. So we paid 86 thou for a house 8 miles from town center. When the shit hit the fan in 2008, we were sitting in the catbird seat, while many others were holding a house worth less than what they paid. Our house price was not ballooned out by the bubble like the houses near the campus were. Another big part of our calculations, it's not a lifetime of commuting, nor is 15 miles that expensive. I'm in my retirement job working from home now, and the wife is in the two year countdown now.
FWIW, the cost of living 8 miles farther out per year, for two commuters, has been about 10,000 a year. That's the cost of the extra 16 miles, not the total. It's not as cheap as just the gas, you do wear out cars a few years sooner. So it cost us more than 80 thou by now. However, had we bought an expensive house in town, we'd be still paying on the house for 15 years after we retired. As we stand, we will be paid in full the day she turns 65. I call that a total win situation. We lose on the cars, but get it back on the loan interest, by affording a 15 year loan. And don't forget, I did commute by bike for 5 years, which put about 20 thou back in on our side. The last few years for the wife's drive is quite affordable, now that I barely use a car at all. Soon our car costs will go to almost nothing, when she stops working.
Lastly, in the last 15 years, more growth in town has resulted in a badly polluted valley. It's a real city down there now. I live on the hill, 1000 feet above the winter inversion layer, that traps the dust, wood smoke, and car farts down in the valley. I know people who had to leave, because at their age the town air was killing them. The smog will get here too, but likely not till I'm gone. It's breezier up here above the inversion layer. My health took an immediate improvement the day we moved up here. That turned out to be priceless.
But back on topic, it would still be quite practical to do a bike commute, even if I'd bought 5 miles farther out from town. I worked on the farthest southwest corner of town, and live close to the north east corner. Here, ALL the way across town is still under 20 miles. Had I bought something 30 miles or more from town, no way an all bike commute would be practical. Possible yes, but not practical simply because more than 3 hours a day commute sucks. I've done car commutes that took that long plenty, and it still sucks to work 8- 10 hours a day, and commute 3 more. Too much time gone.
Some businesses deliberately have extremely tiny public areas, that only fit the absolute minimum clearances required by fire codes and handicapped access codes, because of that...but most of them instead are forced to waste much more space (and the money for maintaining it) on parking than on their actual business, and then people complain that the business doesn't carry enough products because there isn't enough space in the building for them all (which there would be if they didnt' have to have more parking spaces to go with the extra space for the products and public access to them).
