Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We are in our mid 30's with two school-aged children. We live in a 4 bdrm. colonial in Arlington. We are getting ready to do a pretty substantial addition.
Prior to that, DH bought a townhouse in Arlington at age 27 which we sold in 2005 (to have the money to buy our current house).
We are not lawyers and have never received any type of financial assistance (after graduating from undergrad) from our parents. So, you don't have to be "Biglaw" or have a trust fund to make it in this town. DH has a really good job, we send our children to a great public school, and we live within our means.
Parents paying for undergrad = family money.
In our family and most everyone I know, paying for undergrad = parenting.
Anonymous wrote:I'm 26 and I live in a $1.6mm 3-story, 3500 sq. ft. townhouse. I only needed to mortgage a little over 200k, so I pay $1100/month on a 15-year fixed. Back story--I inherited the townhouse and I didn't actually need the mortgage but we wanted to modestly update the kitchen and rewire the house. The property taxes are $16k/year. Considering our income, I don't feel like we are stretching it.
The home has also been in my family for years so it's nice to carry on the history.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We are in our mid 30's with two school-aged children. We live in a 4 bdrm. colonial in Arlington. We are getting ready to do a pretty substantial addition.
Prior to that, DH bought a townhouse in Arlington at age 27 which we sold in 2005 (to have the money to buy our current house).
We are not lawyers and have never received any type of financial assistance (after graduating from undergrad) from our parents. So, you don't have to be "Biglaw" or have a trust fund to make it in this town. DH has a really good job, we send our children to a great public school, and we live within our means.
Parents paying for undergrad = family money.
Anonymous wrote:We are in our mid 30's with two school-aged children. We live in a 4 bdrm. colonial in Arlington. We are getting ready to do a pretty substantial addition.
Prior to that, DH bought a townhouse in Arlington at age 27 which we sold in 2005 (to have the money to buy our current house).
We are not lawyers and have never received any type of financial assistance (after graduating from undergrad) from our parents. So, you don't have to be "Biglaw" or have a trust fund to make it in this town. DH has a really good job, we send our children to a great public school, and we live within our means.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:31/33. 900k 3000 sq ft. TH N Arlington walkable to metro...not TF-babies etc., DP w/ own resources and mortgage on our own earned dime...and we know plenty of other early to mid 30 somethings in high paying DC jobs with THs/SFHs in the $800-$1M price range. They are two-income professional families of lawyers, World Bank/IMF, doctors etc.
I don't know why there is such surprise about young people able to afford such homes in a place with so many high-end professional jobs with relatively higher job security than other US markets....and no it's nothing to do with having bought in 2000 etc.
I disagree. DH and I are both 34 and we have the typical DC "high end professional jobs" (biglaw and lobbyist) with an HHI in the mid-$300K range. It still would have been difficult for us to have bought our current house ($950K) without having made a killing on the rowhouse we bought in '02 and sold in '05, and we never could have bought that first house without a loan from family. Even with a relatively high HHI it's not so easy to save up a $200K downpayment if you're also being responsible with other savings. The downside of our well-paid jobs is that our time is worth more than our money, so if we ever want to see our kids we have to shell out to live close in, in a home that requires little attention, and outsource everything we can. If taking a cab home instead of the metro means I'll be home for dinner, it's a no-brainer. And of course we have student loans, which is pretty common for well-paid professionals without family money.
I'm NOT crying poverty at all--we're very lucky and very comfortable. I'm just saying that I don't think it's quite that easy to buy a million-dollar house in your early 30s or younger based on income alone. Most of our friends have similar jobs and I don't think any of them live in a house over $1 million except the one with a trust fund. Sure, some 30-somethings make $800K a year, but I'd say that's extremely rare.
Anonymous wrote:At 33/34 we bought rowhouse in NW. No help no prior home savings.
Bought 2nd h0me--4 level 1930s SFH in urban area 2 blocks from Metro 4 years later.
Rent out first home. No help from parents, no windfall..just hardworking and very frugal.
We are 40.