‘We’re exporting labor and bringing in the paychecks’

South Sound's commuter market grows

By Diane Huber | The Olympian • Published April 01, 2007

Chris Cognasso wakes up at 2:30 a.m. each work day.

Before his 21/4 hour commute, the Olympia resident makes a protein shake, checks his e-mail and kisses his three sleeping children.

Then Cognasso, 40, defogs his 2003 Hyundai Sonata and heads north on Interstate 5 toward Lakewood. This early, the roads are eerily empty.

He boards a packed bus at the Lakewood Transit Center for the ride to downtown Seattle, where he arrives about 5:30 a.m. He works out, then heads to his job at Washington Mutual, where he is a program manager.

Cognasso represents the extreme of South Sound’s growing commuter population. Every day, roughly 28,000 commuters leave Thurston County for jobs elsewhere, according to 2005 census data. That’s an increase of about 70 percent in 15 years. And that number will only grow.

By 2010 nearly 40,000 people will leave the county to go to their jobs; by 2030, nearly 64,000 will commute out of the county, the Thurston Regional Planning Council estimates. Here’s why:

• Housing costs: It’s cheaper to live in Thurston County than in counties to the north. The median home price in Thurston County was about $256,000 in December, compared with $440,000 in King County, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

• Wages: The median income in King County was about $66,000 last year, compared with $54,000 in Thurston County, according to the Washington Office of Financial Management. People can earn more working in King County and spend less living in Thurston. The dynamic provides a huge boost to the local economy: Outbound commuters spend $1.1 billion in the county, said Pete Swensson, a senior planner for TRPC.

“Those people buy homes here and put money into the construction industry. All that circulates through in retail trade, so it has a huge impact on our local economy,” Swensson said. “I treat it like an industry. In this case we’re exporting labor and bringing in the paychecks.”

But commuting comes with a cost.

Commuters have less time to spend with their families, volunteer and take care of their health.