(Bloomberg View) -- As millennials slowly age into family life,they're faced with two daunting financial challenges: the risingcost of housing and the high cost of child care.

One way to deal with these challenges is to usetechnology-enabled remote work so parents can live and work incheaper small towns like their elders did generations ago.

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Annual growth in home prices averaged 5.1 percent inOctober, which continues to outpace income growth, as tightinventories and a dearth of new construction put upward pressure onpricing.

Even with some increase in construction of single-familyhousing, the median size of a new home continues toincrease as well -- so prices are not falling as they might ifnew homes were more modest.

Just as recent development of apartments has been driven byluxury rentals in walkable urban areas, it's possible thatdevelopment of single-family homes could be driven by high-pricedhomes on "tear-down" lots in desirable areas and byluxury townhomes.

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With the construction labor market remaining tight, there's nosign of new affordable supply on the horizon.

At the same time, the high cost of child care, especiallyin expensive urban areas, is straining family budgets.

As a new parent, this is something I have felt in my ownfamily's budget this year. We live in Atlanta, not a high-pricedcity like New York or San Francisco, and yet our child-care centercosts around $300 a week. That's a big hit to a family budget, yetwhen you do the math on what the facility charges on a per-hourbasis -- $7.50 -- and factor in all of its costs, from labor torent to utilities to insurance … it's hardly a high-profitoperation.

And it's unlikely that automation is coming for diaper changingor bottle feeding any time soon. Demand still exceeds supply: Thecenter has no openings for infants until 2018.

What's a dual-earning, urban family to do?

If one parent has a job that can be done remotely, perhapsthere's a radical solution: move to a much cheaper small town, withone parent working and the other one staying at home.

The household would trade two white-collar urban jobs (alongwith high housing costs and high-priced day care) for onewhite-collar remote job (with cheap housing and no day-carecosts).

It may represent a radical culture change, especially if bothparents are well educated with good jobs. But the family might comeout way ahead financially and in quality of life, once we factor insoft factors like commutes and stress.

Family economics are ultimately dictated by two constraints --family finances and the needs of children. For decades, becausemanufacturing jobs were tied to factory towns and white-collar jobswere tied to urban centers, that meant living relatively close towork.

For families with tighter budgets, that might have meant longerand longer commutes as housing costs dictated living in a far-flungsuburb or exurb. High immigration and a large baby-boomer workforce gave employers bargaining power; wages did not keep up withhousing costs.

Today, some of this has changed. Fewer and fewer workers,especially young workers, are in manufacturing. The vast majorityof job growth is in the service sector. Technology enables remotework in the service sector, especially in information-related jobs,in ways it never has before.

And as baby boomers retire and immigration remains constrained,employees find themselves with more bargaining power over theiremployers.

It won't help every family, but for growing numbers of workers,remote work and a radical lifestyle change may be the ticket out ofthe urban rat race.

Is it ideal? Perhaps not. Smaller cities and towns lack many ofthe cultural and professional amenities of larger urban areas.

But the prospect of being a "mega-commuter" in the cheapoutskirts of a large metro area, or having two parents work longhours to pay the mortgage, is hardly ideal either.

For some families, financial constraints and technology mightmake the future of raising kids look a lot like the post-warpast.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of theeditorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

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