Why the Government Now Cares What You Spend on Gas Page added on November 13, 2013 locationaffordability.info The housing crisis was, of course, primarily about housing: housing that people couldn’t afford, housing that banks helped them finance anyway, housing that too many treated as a sure-fire investment . But in a less noticed way, the housing crisis was also very much about transportation. The money we spend getting around is largely dictated by the choices we make in where to live. Buy a house 20 miles down the highway from your job, and your costs of getting around on $4-a-gallon gas are much steeper than they would be if you lived a short walk from the office (or the bus stop). Those costs – half a tank of gas here, a bus ticket there – are much harder to track than a single monthly housing payment. They’re practically invisible. […]