People are often willing to cast a wide net when it comes to purchasing a home. They'll consider a variety of styles, a flexible number of bedrooms or bathrooms, a substantial price range, and several different communities.

This last factor can have a particularly significant effect on your household budget. Where you choose to buy a home will determine how far you need to commute to your workplace. If the distance is farther than your previous residence, you'll need to make sure you can budget for the added costs.

Even as gas prices have trended downward in recent years, the commuting distance remains an important consideration for many buyers. Amanda Riggs, writing for the National Association of Realtors, says 30 percent of the respondents in the organization's 2015 "Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers Report" said the ability to shorten their commute was an important consideration in deciding where to buy a home.

In many areas, buyers may be more attracted to suburban or rural homes rather than residences in the cities where jobs tend to be concentrated. These buyers may enjoy the quieter setting, and areas around cities may have more affordable home prices than those within the city itself.

At a certain distance, however, you may reach a point of diminishing returns. A 2009 study by the Urban Land Institute looked at housing and transportation costs in and around Washington, D.C. It determined that while buyers could find more affordable homes at a farther distance from the city, the transportation costs offset these savings at a distance of about 15 miles.

If you commute using a personal vehicle, your costs will go up in a few different ways when you move farther away from your workplace. You'll burn more gas getting to and from your job. This commute will also run up the odometer faster and put more wear and tear on your vehicle, causing it to depreciate more quickly and require more frequent maintenance.

Commuting costs are an especially important consideration in choosing a home because they generally won't affect your ability to qualify for a mortgage. Lisa Prevost, writing for the New York Times, says commuting costs are variable enough that they cannot be reliably incorporated into the financial data used to determine how much money a person can borrow. Lenders are more likely to question whether a property located far away from your workplace will be your primary residence or an investment property.

In this way, the added commuting costs are unlikely to influence the amount you will be able to borrow, but can come as an unpleasant surprise once you move into your new home. You may discover that the elevated transportation costs are making it challenging or even impossible to stay within your budget.

You can get a rough estimate of how an altered commute will affect your budget by calculating your new travel expenses. Determine how often you have to fill up your gas tank and how much you pay for fuel. You can also calculate how frequently your current commute brings you to scheduled maintenance intervals and how much these visits to the mechanic tend to cost you.

Using this information, you should be able to make an estimate of how much more money you'll have to spend on gas and maintenance when you make an extended commute. Alternatively, you can establish how much more you are willing to pay for commuting expenses and use this figure to determine how far away from your workplace you can comfortably reside.

You'll also want to consider how your new commute will affect your time management. Adding 30 minutes to your current drive will eat up an extra hour of each workday that you could otherwise be spending with your family, working on home improvement projects, or simply having to yourself to relax. It can also lead to more stressful mornings and evenings as you join the rush hour traffic.

In addition to determining the cost and time commitment of your new commute, you can look into transportation alternatives that may be available. Using public transit may be a more convenient option if the property is located near a train or bus line.