I probably won't. How about work and resources? We only get to stay there for free, but we will still need money to buy food, clothes, and other necessities. If our workplace is more than 5 miles away, then we will not be able to get money unless we can luckily find a decent-paying online job.
Are there markets, restaurants, and other stores for necessities withing the 5-mile radius? How about healthcare places? It there aren't any of these around, then we can't live. Not everything can be bought or accomplished online.
Furthermore, does it mean only the house or condo is free? How about utilities and other services? Are they also for free?
but I'd definitely consider it, especially if I could cancel the arrangement at any time and go back to paying for housing.
No you're locked in Forever...
Unless you work online, this is effectively not possible given that 5 miles isn't enough distance to keep a job.
On the rare occasion that I go into the office, my commute is currently 4 km (2.5 miles). If you take out the question of whether or not you can afford a home in a given location, living within 5 miles of work is only going to be a problem if your work requires you to go to multiple locations that are too far apart to fit them all within that radius.
Well I'm more taking it from the consideration that you can't count on one job for your entire life (usually). Yea it would be great if you found a place you loved, lived right beside it and they never went out of business of downsized you and you could work there until you retire... but I don't know how realistic that is for the majority of people given that statistics list most people only work the same job for roughly 4 years. This restriction will be prohibitive unless you can a) work online or b) rent out parts of the house.
What's the nicest part of new york? I'll take a penthouse suite, rent out one of the bedrooms and not have to worry about money because I'm sure I could rent that room out for more than my living expenses.
You didn't say for how long. Even just a couple months is huge savings towards a decent place to live down the linepionear posted...
No you're locked in Forever...
if you go 6 miles away, bill gates will kill your family
Just out of curiosity, what if whoever takes this deal has a medical emergency that couldn't be treated anywhere in the 5 mile radius?
Is the property 5 miles wide?
Overall, being able to walk anywhere -- without being stuck in a city -- would be nice.