Well I chose to live away from home for my first year, 40 minute train journey would of been too much for me everyday. Plus as a shy and quiet person, I felt that I needed to put myself out there more, build confidence and gain independence. Seriously it helped me grow as a person, (cheesy I know but true) even with flatmates that I didn't have anything in common with. We were civil (well except for one but he was really strange) and went out together now and then. But I would mostly go out with the people next door anyway, that's the thing, you have people in other flats to try your luck with so to speak.
I lived with people who refused to clean, who once a week kept me awake at night, all night by the way. It was hell at first, because I felt alone at times, but as soon as my course got going and I made friends (you tend to have more in common with people on your course) everything fell into place. In my case I could go home at the weekend if I wanted a break. But even with all the downsides, looking back there is no way I would decide to not live in halls. I made friends with next door, I was able to go out with course mates frequently, learned to be independent and proved to myself that I could do it. I can still be a nervous wreck at times but I'm improving.
Finally, I spent most days with my course mates until about 6. Had dinner and used the rest of the evening to do work. Weekends were work and spent doing chores, along with going out in the evenings. I was never bored after the 2nd week. If I can make friends and survive my flatmates, then I would say it is for most people. Plus I've become really close with my course mates due to spending so much time with them. This includes going to the library at weekends or in the week, to work together, makes your work way less boring. Thus I'm really excited to go back and move into the house, basically it will be all the perks of living away without the negatives. Also traveling home when I did tended to put me behind in work, because when you go home you tend to just want to enjoy your home comforts. Plus every journey would end with me being tired, if I left after a long Uni day. So I can see communiting to be extremely so.
May not be true for everyone, but from someone who was in far from a perfect scenario, I can tell you that by living away from home you gain so much, you will meet friends and I think that it makes moving into a house in the second year so much more enjoyable because you know them so well. You've decided to live with people who you know really well, because you can spend so much time with them. I see people on my course who comminute and they don't really know anyone on the course really. I haven't even joined a society, I actually just got to know even more people from a society due to one of my course mates being in the society. I'm definitely joining one this year, as I feel comfortable doing so, as I don't have to meet loads of new people on top of a society this year. Most importantly I would say, don't feel like moving away means you have no control over how much socialising you will do, nor the pace of said socialising. You still do. That was one of my concerns.
(sorry for the text wall, if you read all of it, well, jeez)