Building land in the middle of nowhere with the house prices?!

Several hundred thousand more is a comparison of apples and oranges. Especially since with the saved hundreds of thousands of euros, you can actually afford a household help / nanny / driver for many many years. 'This saved time is worth it to us'

Here, when we were looking for a renovation-needed normally sized single-family house on an average-sized plot in a normal location, we paid 500-700K€. In the near-city countryside, you could get something comparable for 300-500K€. That would be around 200K€, sometimes perhaps a bit more difference – but isn’t that completely normal? I don’t see that as an apples/oranges comparison, especially since the gap is also reduced by higher mobility costs (a second car is necessary, etc.). For example, there’s an article from the FAZ that compares costs besides housing for city and country and finds (though it's older, but the core still applies) that many people hugely underestimate this, and that people in the country have 650€ more expenses per month... and that was in 2012. Yes, you can save on gasoline with photovoltaics + electric cars, but that also requires high investments. Among our friends who live outside the city, no one (with children) has just one car.

And even if I ignore all additional costs on top of the salary and only calculate with minimum wage (no gasoline for the driver, no room & board for the nanny, etc.), then from the difference in purchase price I can only afford a measly 6.5 years of full-time work. And then the money is gone, whereas it hopefully keeps its value somewhat with the city property. So it's better to save the valuable time by choosing the place to live. The prices in the cities aren’t high for no reason – if nanny + driver were a working model, more people would surely do it :)

The cost of living is cheaper in the countryside. Not just housing. However, you are right about the mobility costs. Especially now with the 49 euro tickets. You can’t even feed the car with that.

That is more the question of how far you open up the solution space. You can also change the employer - then the mobility time doesn't even increase. But living in the countryside and commuting 3 hours a day is of course nonsense and I would not recommend it to anyone.

I know the FAZ article, but unfortunately it is also very one-sided and merely represents the opinion of one journalist.

It is forgotten that many services are also cheaper in the countryside. It is also forgotten what mobility gain you have through a car. Urban infrastructure is nice and all, but if I want to go to a certain forest or the mountains with my bike, I won't go there by train with 3 transfers - and have to buy a separate ticket for the bike and come back only the next day because the trains don't run that late on site anymore. In practice, it will look like you simply don't do it or not as often and maybe prefer to go to the theater or the park instead. You can arrange yourself with everything. For example, we will go to the theater less often for that - although we definitely did that more often before with only 30 minutes travel time. Do we miss it? Not really. When every other weekend there are demos or climate activists glued to the streets and you therefore can't even leave the city for nature (experienced firsthand). We know both sides, so it is not hard for me to weigh it up. We were glad to enjoy the city to the fullest in our very young years and are now just as glad not to have to anymore. There are advantages and disadvantages to both concepts and everyone has to find the best solution for themselves. First of all, the budget is fixed and you have to maximize the ‘happiness’ based on that. Several hundred thousand euros don't just fall out of your pocket.

No one is talking about full-time work in the service providers, the time difference will be about 1-2 hours per day.

You don’t have children either... ypg... to be fair, that has to be said. Children, believe it or not, mix a lot up in life.

I no longer have children living at home, that’s true. But as I mentioned before, I wouldn’t want to do such commuting with two people either. (By the way, I once commuted for 14 years to the big city for work and was faster through good highway connections than colleagues who lived on the outskirts of the big city and had to stop at every red light).

For me, it is wasted time since I know there is another way. But financially, I have also taken a loss. That was the price.

The OP wants to avoid higher costs: bigger, newer, nicer, closer... but without paying for it, instead looking for alternatives in the surrounding area. And you shouldn’t just badmouth everything, but look at the options neutrally.

We don’t know anything about the OP, as I have already said. There are people who want to live further away from work. And there are also office horses who want a nature-close life – my personal opinion on commuting plays no role at all, just like each one of your opinions. put it very well: it’s not just black or white, there are options for everyone, but to see them you have to open your own eyes. And it’s about your own assessment whether you’re willing to change... to change your life, or... maybe also change your job. Whoever wants the full cornucopia must make sacrifices.

The OP only expressed that he is very uncertain about it because he has never left his comfort zone. He probably doesn’t even know if he would like living “more rural.” That’s why the question about resale value. But if he already doesn’t like the place, then maybe another one, not east but south, maybe without a train station, but only 30 km away... that’s the option, this thread is the way to it.

Whoever spends 11-12 hours of the day at work or commuting won’t get much done during the week.

Does he allow home office and if so how much?

He said both do half HO together.

And with accumulated Saturdays, it takes quite a while until the terrace is paved, the garden shed is up, and so on.

Again: whoever doesn’t want to renovate and categorically rejects it will also not plan any EL, even if he probably has more free time due to no commuting time through HO than others who have to drive 20-30 minutes one way every day.

What do you want to offer your children that can only be found in the city?

It was an example, referring to how I personally experienced it. That there are inevitably more opportunities in a city than in the countryside is obvious. These can be sports, theater, art, and other courses. In some villages, there are also such things. But in my experience, the offerings are often very sparse. If that is not important to someone, that’s okay. Everyone sets their priorities differently, but I think it’s worth thinking about it beforehand before you might regret it later.

Here people always talk about the country and the city. That is completely wrong.

I agree. Here too:
A village of 2000 souls. Buses during school hours. And two at night. But a well-stocked Edeka, post office, doctors, primary school, snack bars, restaurant. The latter are well distributed everywhere here, reachable by bike and car.
For everything else, there are two towns with about 50,000 inhabitants each, about 15 km away. Everything necessary like drugstore, pharmacy and Aldi and much more is reachable within 6 km. Events and leisure activities are available everywhere and individually.
For teenagers, there is no scene bar, but alternatives that one can engage in if one wants.
For some parents, it is out of the question that their child should attend a club in a village, others teens look forward to becoming part of something instead of always just performing for their parents at school.
And whoever wants to go to the big city takes the train for 20 minutes.
Currently I work 15 km away, otherwise 6 km. I have lower consumption and currently more free time because I bring everything from the district town on the way home. I don’t have to drive separately.

I agree that you probably can’t offer a primary school child piano, riding, swimming and art lessons because that is hard to manage. But even there there are arrangements with other parents (if they want to talk to each other), and let’s be honest: it doesn’t have to be the "parent performance package," children don’t actually want that many of these things.