California man pays $4K a month to live at an airport and commutes to work every day by plane
Published on Sep 26, 2025 at 4:19 PM (UTC+4)
by Daisy Edwards
Last updated on Sep 26, 2025 at 4:19 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Ben Thompson
This California man pays $4,000 a month to live at an airport, right on the runway, and commutes to work every day by plane.
Meet Joe Sobczak, a test pilot who lives at Pine Mountain Lake Airport in Groveland, California, and his home sits right on the runway, complete with a massive hangar underneath.
Where he lives is a residential air park, where homes are built with direct access to the runway and it means he lives in a community of aviation enthusiasts.
Instead of sitting in traffic for hours, Joe hops into his plane and flies to work and he says it not only saves him money, but it’s safer too.
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He pays to live at an airport and commutes to work by plane
It almost feels like test pilot Joe Sobczak is living a dream that only a child could come up with, because he lives at an airport and commutes to work every day by airplane.
He actually lives in a residential ‘air park’ which is where lots of homes are built specifically for aviation enthusiasts with big hangers underneath.
He has to fly over 100 nautical miles to work every day in his T-34A plane and he says he loves it, because it feels better than being stuck in traffic, and he thinks it’s safer because he doesn’t have to battle cars on the california freeway.
His life is just a plane paradise
Not only does Joe live at Pine Mountain Lake Airport in Groveland, California, but 90 other homes nearby all have hangars too, making it a tight-knit community of aviation lovers, and they even share radio frequencies to coordinate flights.
The mortgage on his house costs $4,000 a month, but it’s pretty spectacular with an elevator, seven bathrooms and eight bedrooms.
But all he really wanted was the hangar.
He bought the property in 2017 for $698,000, and although $4,000 a month is expensive, it’s far cheaper than buying in Palo Alto, where house prices run into the millions.
What a lucky man, his life is just paradise, plane and simple.
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Daisy Edwards is a Content Writer at supercarblondie.com. Daisy has more than five years’ experience as a qualified journalist, having graduated with a History and Journalism degree from Goldsmiths, University of London and a dissertation in vintage electric vehicles. Daisy specializes in writing about cars, EVs, tech and luxury lifestyle. When she's not writing, she's at a country music concert or working on one of her many unfinished craft projects.
