Suburban utopia: 8 car garage!

Let's consider this sign advertising an 8-car garage for a moment. It's in front of a house that is located less than 50 yards from a bus stop. That bus stop is served by one of the very, very, very few routes in the unincorporated area of Sacramento County with 15-minute headway service. It also has a second community route bus that stops there during peak hours. This house is less than 10 minutes by bus from the Watt/I-80 light rail station. Outside of the midtown grid, you'd be hard pressed to find a better place from which to commute downtown to work and leave the car at home.

I don't know how much this house is selling for, but imagine the income required just to own and operate enough cars to take advantage of an eight-car garage. According to this year's estimate by the American Automobile Association, it costs $8,095 a year to own and operate a new sedan. And if you're collecting SUVs, the estimated annual cost is $10,259. That's anywhere from $64,760 to $82,072 a year in spendable income parked in the garage.

OK. Maybe I'm just jealous. You could drive a different car each day of the week and have one left over for Easter Sunday service. Still it seems like sacrilege to park eight cars outside a three-bedroom house so close to a rare example of convenient transit service.