It’s extremely hard to raise kids in a nice neighborhood without generational wealth

[Anonymous]

We bought a house in a nice neighborhood in Rockville off of wootton parkway in the 20854 zip code. Our neighborhood was full of doctors, lawyers, etc. there were a lot young children. The houses go for low millions. There a lot of neighborhoods like this off of falls road. Widen your search.

[Anonymous]

It just takes income. Physicians, large law firm senior associates and partners, successful entrepreneurs, and others without "generational wealth" can and do buy expensive homes in nice neighborhoods. Sometimes that can be risky, since servicing that kind of mortgage debt is expensive and requires ongoing income, but it's not impractical or impossible for many, although perhaps not for most.

[Anonymous]

It's never been the case that young families without help could buy right into the poshest suburbs in DC. OP's premise is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought a house in a nice neighborhood in Rockville off of wootton parkway in the 20854 zip code. Our neighborhood was full of doctors, lawyers, etc. there were a lot young children. The houses go for low millions. There a lot of neighborhoods like this off of falls road. Widen your search.

That zip code goes to Wooten HS, one of the best HS in Montgomery County, very similar to McLean, Langley, or Churchill (MD) school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 pages in and everyone is contributing their own version of “screw you, I got mine” while ignoring OP was focused on those under 35 buying $2-3M homes.

We get that many of you saved aggressively and traded up between mid 30s to 50s. You all keep repeating the same story that ironically was only possible for most of you because of unprecedented property appreciation in this country since 2008. Yet you all think you’re brilliant for benefitting from a macroeconomic trend.

How many PP’s bought a $2-3M home under 35 with kids without parental support or a trust in the DC area?

No, most of us are replying that under age 35, we bought homes that we are happy with in (insert area, be it Bethesda, Rockville, McLean or Vienna) that did not cost $2-3m. So OP bemoaning not being able to do that is ridiculous. It’s like me bemoaning that I wasn’t a millionaire by age 35. Most under 35 year olds aren’t doing either.

[Anonymous]

I understand Tra's question - it's but Bethesda or McLean but just affording $1M+ housing when younger and agree - it's really hard.

That said it's not impossible. Also consider that many in this area may be military. If you have a job + pension it's 2 incomes right there. My FIL was part owner in a small business that owned its own land. So he earned his pension, rent and a % annual of profits he made.

I used to work with guys who would have double incomes from current job + military pensions. Also if you had brought when you were in your 20s during those days when everything was sky high in 2005 years and sold - you could have made some money.

We have 2 set of friends who did this and brought $750k houses. Had they wanted they could have brought that $1M house after that shortly after.

It's a bit of luck but a bit of strategy in terms of how to reinvest and grow assets. Stocks are another viable path. Again once you make a pile of money you can make more. This who living hand to mouth poor for 10+ years by saving just from one income sounds hard I would look at doing that but maybe be a bit more creative in hustling

Lastly, I agree that it's waaaaaaaay harder to get "lucky" now v back a few years ago because the pike of money needed is truly through the roof with inflation. There's mire ways to make money now but I'm not sure my dollar goes as far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearly everyone making enough to buy in McLean or Bethesda is 35+ and probably 40+. By then you can barely even have kids. If you’re of actual child bearing age you’re probably too broke to comfortably raise a family. Every couple I’ve known who has a SFH in a good zip code and has kids before 30 in this area comes from a UHNW family and buys a house that is 10-20x their annual salary. How many folks under 35 are actually buying 2-3M houses completely on their own without generational wealth? It’s not zero but pretty damn close.

If you can’t afford the neighborhood then look elsewhere and stop whining about it. And you don’t mean a nice neighborhood you mean a rich neighborhood. There so many nice middle class neighborhoods and yeah it sucks that you can’t live in the neighborhood closest to everything but you’ll get used to it.

In my expensive town I know mostly at home mothers who gave up their work to stay home with children, same as I did. Most of the at home mothers have husbands with very high incomes. In the 7 figure range who don’t worry about money. I also have friends who are stay at home mothers who live in less expensive homes in towns where houses are more affordable.

We started with a small starter home. I loved the size because we were all very close together. We moved after five years to a bigger house but no mansion. Go for an affordable house and relax. A lot of my wealthiest friends are not happy for a Variety of reasons, mostly their marriages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's never been the case that young families without help could buy right into the poshest suburbs in DC. OP's premise is ridiculous.

I guess it depends on your definition of the "poshest suburbs" but my parents were a fed and a teacher and they had no problem affording a house in upper NW in the 1980s. And it's not like they were an anomaly, I had plenty of friends in the neighborhood whose parents were average white and even blue collar workers.

Also your premise is ridiculous as well. You can't buy in a nice neighborhood EVER nowadays without wealth, never mind "buying right into" one. The era of storming up the property ladder with starter home values doubling every few years in DC is over. If you're not in the top 3-4% of incomes making $500K+ you'll simply never be able to afford to live in Upper NW/Bethesda/N. Arlington. It didn't used to be that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually a lot of couples without generational wealth are purchasing these homes.

It’s not that difficult when you’re young, married and renting to sock away a lot of cash.

And/or you get on the property ladder early

My DH and I saved 100k in one year on a 300k HHI without kids. It wasn’t that difficult. We purchased our first home with 15% down and then rolled the equity into our next home, which is $2 million.

Problem there are also plenty of couples who are too good for entry level homes and condos. They rent in expensive areas and complain about housing prices. You don’t start off in your dream home.

I’ve heard of couples looking for what they consider starter homes in our Fairfax County neighborhood, and they pass because they just aren’t large enough or they aren’t updated to their liking. It still surprises me because these couples are at most probably 30 years old. While not McLean, it’s a nice area with sought after schools and good neighbors who are active in the community.

That’s a very healthy income, especially without children. I can see where you’d be able to save.

We are 54/55. After we married, we bought a new 2 bedroom townhome condo. We lived there for about 7 years before selling and moving into a small, new SFH with our one year old. That house was further out and we did have to deal with a longer commute to work, but being able to take our DC to a daycare near work or to work with one of us allowed use of the HOV lanes. We then sold that house and moved to our current “forever” home almost 17 years ago. At that time the house was $430k and our HHI was probably $130k or so. Salaries slowly increased and our HHI is now approximately $250k. We were able to fund most of DC’s schooling through grad school and we have been very happy in our nice neighborhood while raising a child.

Maybe. When I was in law school in 2007, and real estate prices were at all-time highs, I remember thinking that even with a big law associate salary, it would be tough to afford a house for many years. Then the Great Recession happened, and houses became super affordable, and I bought a pretty nice place less than two years into my career with no family help. These things happen in cycles. The next generation will figure it out or adapt. Homeownership isn't all that, anyway. Lots of people prefer renting - shifting maintenance costs to a landlord and investing the difference in an index fund. There's a good chance you come out ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's never been the case that young families without help could buy right into the poshest suburbs in DC. OP's premise is ridiculous.

I guess it depends on your definition of the "poshest suburbs" but my parents were a fed and a teacher and they had no problem affording a house in upper NW in the 1980s. And it's not like they were an anomaly, I had plenty of friends in the neighborhood whose parents were average white and even blue collar workers.

Also your premise is ridiculous as well. You can't buy in a nice neighborhood EVER nowadays without wealth, never mind "buying right into" one. The era of storming up the property ladder with starter home values doubling every few years in DC is over. If you're not in the top 3-4% of incomes making $500K+ you'll simply never be able to afford to live in Upper NW/Bethesda/N. Arlington. It didn't used to be that way.

Another whammy is look at the population trends - there’s a big chance unless we increase highly skilled + compensated immigration massively we won’t have any buyers for all these homes in 2040-50 anyways. So we’re paying peak prices in the face of a catastrophic future supply surplus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's never been the case that young families without help could buy right into the poshest suburbs in DC. OP's premise is ridiculous.

I guess it depends on your definition of the "poshest suburbs" but my parents were a fed and a teacher and they had no problem affording a house in upper NW in the 1980s. And it's not like they were an anomaly, I had plenty of friends in the neighborhood whose parents were average white and even blue collar workers.

Also your premise is ridiculous as well. You can't buy in a nice neighborhood EVER nowadays without wealth, never mind "buying right into" one. The era of storming up the property ladder with starter home values doubling every few years in DC is over. If you're not in the top 3-4% of incomes making $500K+ you'll simply never be able to afford to live in Upper NW/Bethesda/N. Arlington. It didn't used to be that way.

Another whammy is look at the population trends - there’s a big chance unless we increase highly skilled + compensated immigration massively we won’t have any buyers for all these homes in 2040-50 anyways. So we’re paying peak prices in the face of a catastrophic future supply surplus.

One of the reasons I don’t think of my home as an investment. It’s a nice place to live and there is security in owning it versus being subjected to the whims of a landlord, but I pay a premium for that and when I think about investments, I think about my 401k, brokerage account, private investments, etc., not my home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's never been the case that young families without help could buy right into the poshest suburbs in DC. OP's premise is ridiculous.

I guess it depends on your definition of the "poshest suburbs" but my parents were a fed and a teacher and they had no problem affording a house in upper NW in the 1980s. And it's not like they were an anomaly, I had plenty of friends in the neighborhood whose parents were average white and even blue collar workers.

Also your premise is ridiculous as well. You can't buy in a nice neighborhood EVER nowadays without wealth, never mind "buying right into" one. The era of storming up the property ladder with starter home values doubling every few years in DC is over. If you're not in the top 3-4% of incomes making $500K+ you'll simply never be able to afford to live in Upper NW/Bethesda/N. Arlington. It didn't used to be that way.

Another whammy is look at the population trends - there’s a big chance unless we increase highly skilled + compensated immigration massively we won’t have any buyers for all these homes in 2040-50 anyways. So we’re paying peak prices in the face of a catastrophic future supply surplus.

One of the reasons I don’t think of my home as an investment. It’s a nice place to live and there is security in owning it versus being subjected to the whims of a landlord, but I pay a premium for that and when I think about investments, I think about my 401k, brokerage account, private investments, etc., not my home.

PP you quoted, couldn’t agree more. We bought significantly below what we could afford because of this. It’s pretty clear wealth creation for your average American the next 20-30 years will be via equities vs significant, lasting home appreciation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's never been the case that young families without help could buy right into the poshest suburbs in DC. OP's premise is ridiculous.

I guess it depends on your definition of the "poshest suburbs" but my parents were a fed and a teacher and they had no problem affording a house in upper NW in the 1980s. And it's not like they were an anomaly, I had plenty of friends in the neighborhood whose parents were average white and even blue collar workers.

Also your premise is ridiculous as well. You can't buy in a nice neighborhood EVER nowadays without wealth, never mind "buying right into" one. The era of storming up the property ladder with starter home values doubling every few years in DC is over. If you're not in the top 3-4% of incomes making $500K+ you'll simply never be able to afford to live in Upper NW/Bethesda/N. Arlington. It didn't used to be that way.

So what? The most desirable neighborhoods change with time. In the 1980s, NW DC was not what it is now. There are plenty of other places to buy that are perfectly fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 pages in and everyone is contributing their own version of “screw you, I got mine” while ignoring OP was focused on those under 35 buying $2-3M homes.

We get that many of you saved aggressively and traded up between mid 30s to 50s. You all keep repeating the same story that ironically was only possible for most of you because of unprecedented property appreciation in this country since 2008. Yet you all think you’re brilliant for benefitting from a macroeconomic trend.

How many PP’s bought a $2-3M home under 35 with kids without parental support or a trust in the DC area?

My 28-year-old son and his 27-year-old wife just purchased a $2M home in McLean with $1.2M down and an $800K mortgage. He graduated in 2020 and is currently working as a senior software engineer for Amazon for a cool $350K/year. His wife graduated in 2021 and is currently working for Google for a cool $300K/year. They got married in 2020 and lived with my wife and me for five years to save the $1.2M down payment (with some luck in the stock market) prior to purchasing the home. They plan on paying off the mortgage in the next two years. It is not that difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7 pages in and everyone is contributing their own version of “screw you, I got mine” while ignoring OP was focused on those under 35 buying $2-3M homes.

We get that many of you saved aggressively and traded up between mid 30s to 50s. You all keep repeating the same story that ironically was only possible for most of you because of unprecedented property appreciation in this country since 2008. Yet you all think you’re brilliant for benefitting from a macroeconomic trend.

How many PP’s bought a $2-3M home under 35 with kids without parental support or a trust in the DC area?

My 28-year-old son and his 27-year-old wife just purchased a $2M home in McLean with $1.2M down and an $800K mortgage. He graduated in 2020 and is currently working as a senior software engineer for Amazon for a cool $350K/year. His wife graduated in 2021 and is currently working for Google for a cool $300K/year. They got married in 2020 and lived with my wife and me for five years to save the $1.2M down payment (with some luck in the stock market) prior to purchasing the home. They plan on paying off the mortgage in the next two years. It is not that difficult.

Sounds like a piece of cake!