Born and bred in the capital, Ms Beerworth had lived and rented in Tuggeranong, Braddon, Gungahlin, Weston Creek, and Woden. During this time she had seen house prices go up.

She wanted a forever home for herself and son, Lucas, but Canberra wasn't meant to be.

Today, Ms Beerworth is one of about a thousand people who call Bungendore home and travel to Canberra for work.

"I was sick of not having a real home for me and my then three-year-old son, tired of inspections and moving around," Ms Beerworth said.

"After discussing my options with my parents we reached the conclusion that without their assistance, the likelihood of me being in a position to buy on my own any time soon in Canberra was extremely low."

According to the latest Domain data, the median house price in Canberra was $740,215 while in Bungendore it was $697,500.

Ms Beerworth, a public servant, didn't want to buy a house on the "fringes" of Canberra and didn't want a fixer-upper. She even looked in Queanbeyan but said a lot of the places required work or weren't suited for her son and pets.

"My criteria wasn’t unrealistic – I have a medium sized dog and a cat so I needed a yard, I don’t have time to renovate - I am a single mum in a demanding job and I wanted my son to have the country lifestyle and space," she said.

"I didn’t want to be crowded in."

So, three years ago, Ms Beerworth moved to Bungendore.

"In Canberra, the few properties I would have been able to afford and that met my criteria would have had me living out the back of Belconnen or down the bottom of Tuggeranong," she said.

"I figured that buying in Bungendore was a better investment – with traffic, it takes people just as long to reach the city from the edges of Canberra as it takes from Bungendore."

In October 2015, Ms Beerworth settled on her three-bedroom, two-bathroom plus powder room and two car space house for $455,000.

"The property I bought was newer than what I could afford in town, and I have more space - even being in my townhouse - than what I would have gotten in town," she said.

"The commute is relatively easy and most of the traffic for me occurs just past Queanbeyan or near the airport ... I think it takes me about 45 minutes from home to work, including school drop-off in Campbell."

And she's not the only one making the commute.

According to the Australia Bureau of Statistics, the number of people with a usual residence in Bungendore and commuting to the ACT has almost doubled in 10 years.

In 2006 there were 578 people living in Bungendore and working in Canberra. Flash forward to 2016 and it rose to 1034.

Ms Beerworth said it used to take her anywhere between an hour and 90 minutes to go to work when she lived in Gungahlin, longer if there was an accident.

The bureau also found, of the 3317 usual residents of Bungendore in 2016, 75 lived in the ACT one year before and 329 lived in the ACT five years before the census was conducted.

PRD Nationwide Bungendore principal Dan Woodford said he was not surprised by the number of Canberrans looking to buy in Bungendore. He said the number of people interested had increased over the years.

"This is due to many reasons but what we are finding is people are buying in Bungendore because of the lifestyle and they get more bang for their buck," Mr Woodford said.

"Buyers are getting a bigger house block and larger home compared to Canberra."

He said this year, the agency alone sold 12 properties to Canberrans, with inquiries growing each day.

"Bungendore works well for the Canberra commuter as they can travel to work in 30 to 40 minutes and escape every afternoon and enjoy the lifestyle," he said.