Bay Area leads nation in commuters traveling at least 3 hours every day, study says

Welcome to the land of super commuters. The Bay Area and surrounding communities are leading the way with most people traveling three or more hours to work and back home each day.

According to an Apartment List study, 3.5 million Americans are super commuters. The Bay Area and surrounding regions lead the nation with more than 120,000 people commuting at least three hours.

Stockton tops the list with 11.2 percent of the workforce being super commuters. Modesto, just south of Stockton, is number two with 8.7 percent super commuters. San Francisco, Oakland, Hayward is number six with 4.8 percent super commuters.

Why the long drive? For the people in the San Joaquin Valley, they get the lower housing costs with access to the higher paying jobs. There's also another benefit according to Apartment List. Super commuters earn 12 percent more on average than those who work in the same industry but enjoy more reasonable commutes.

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With commute times on the way up, people are also avoiding commutes more now than ever. Since 2005, the number of people working from home in the U.S. has grown by 76 percent.

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