How are you able to afford the DC area - from an out-of-towner?

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is over $300k but we have a giant mortgage, so both our (modest) cars are about 10 years old, our one home computer is ancient, I buy all my clothes at discount stores like Loehmans, we don't own the latest I-whatevers, going out to the movies is a big treat for my kids, and I just generally don't buy stuff like random holiday decorations, knick knacks for the house, Pandora beads, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another out of town lurker here with a prospect to relocate. Many of you seemed to earn a bundle in the 90s before the housing boom. I was still in high school then. How do people in their early 30s and younger manage in DC?

Most of the people I know in their early 30's don't have kids. Many live in condos. Some rent. A few live in TH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is over $300k but we have a giant mortgage, so both our (modest) cars are about 10 years old, our one home computer is ancient, I buy all my clothes at discount stores like Loehmans, we don't own the latest I-whatevers, going out to the movies is a big treat for my kids, and I just generally don't buy stuff like random holiday decorations, knick knacks for the house, Pandora beads, etc.

Did you buy a huge house? How can you not afford movies when your HHI is over $300K? Ours is less than half that, and we go out to eat, shop at Whole Foods, go to movies, travel, have a nice life. Yes we are careful with money and don't waste it, but we'd feel rich if we had $300K coming in. We drive old cars and shop at Loehmans, but we need to. You must be wasting your money somewhere -- on your house, most likely. Ours is 2K sq ft, not much yard, OK schools, we're doing OK on half what you have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another out of town lurker here with a prospect to relocate. Many of you seemed to earn a bundle in the 90s before the housing boom. I was still in high school then. How do people in their early 30s and younger manage in DC?

We're early 30s and struggling to get ahead in this area. Many of our peers of the same age group bought at the height of the housing market and have seen their house depreciate by up to $150K. We bought places we could afford at the time and are now stuck in tiny condos/houses with kids when we expected to sell before having kids. I think so much of how well you are living in the DC area is based on when you purchased your home and those of us in our late 20s/early 30s often just missed the boat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can't bring your current definition of normal to this (or other areas) because they are not the same.

In the part of California where I came from, normal people drive huge pickup trucks and live in large ranch homes with pools and pool houses. Downtown is a dump (but improving!), and only poor people walk or ride transit, so they drive their truck 15 miles one way to work.

In DC, the majority of us don't live like that. I bicycle to work and save thousands on transportation including gas, parking, insurance, car maintenance, gym membership, Metro, etc.

We already live frugally and as sustainably as possible in a walkable neighborhood. We have downtown housing, bike-to-transit, trails and bike lanes, beautiful handmade bikes and horrible spandex shorts in flyover country, too. Do people just not know this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another out of town lurker here with a prospect to relocate. Many of you seemed to earn a bundle in the 90s before the housing boom. I was still in high school then. How do people in their early 30s and younger manage in DC?

We're early 30s and struggling to get ahead in this area. Many of our peers of the same age group bought at the height of the housing market and have seen their house depreciate by up to $150K. We bought places we could afford at the time and are now stuck in tiny condos/houses with kids when we expected to sell before having kids. I think so much of how well you are living in the DC area is based on when you purchased your home and those of us in our late 20s/early 30s often just missed the boat.

Forgot to add that people here have kids later than elsewhere in the country. I had my first at 30 and am the youngest mom at my DC's school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:09:39 back:

We have also noticed, colloquially, that people in the Midwest seem to have a lot more STUFF, prob b/c they have more disposable income and more place to put it. The circles we run in around here: everyone is making a choice b/w space and stuff and $$, so, all other things being equal, our friends out here may have made the decision to have a smaller house and spend the $$ to live closer in, and go to a park, say, instead of have a backyard. Whereas our friends back in the Midwest would seriously think someone was poor, destitute , on the streets if they did not have a backyard! Or, each kid didn't have their own bedroom! Or, a family chose not to have cable. Etc. (We don't have cable, and no one in DH's family can understand that about it. LOL. It is kind of funny everytime they visit us. I inwardly giggle everytime someone in DH"s family asks us, "You DON"T have CABLE?????????")

Don't have cable, either. Many friends don't have TVs. Shockingly, many Midwesterners find a way to survive without Honey Boo Boo. I even know some people who can read, like, big books without pictures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the midwest also. You totally need to change your "commute" point of reference. I still have family in Michigan, where a cousin would constantly complain about her husband's AWFUL commute. And it was awful - by their standards. He had to drive *just over an hour* each way. In his own car, during "rush hour."

I did the same commute while in law school. Bear in mind, in Michigan, even during "rush hour", you can go from one city and its suburbs, through country, to another city and its suburbs. His car would keep moving the whole time - and he probably drove 75 miles for his commute each way.

Here, my 20 mile commute (Loudoun to Arlington) takes me that same amount of time. But people in the part of Michigan I grew up in would never consider living 20 miles from work on purpose. Until they can find another option, maybe, but not for the long term. Here, that's considered a reasonable distance to get housing that is affordable. In contrast, the idea of being in my own car (alone) that moves the whole time I'm driving (vs. stop for 10 minutes for no apparent reason with 1000 of my new closest friends) sounds like heaven. And I do take metro - though the train/train/bus combination I need takes longer and costs more than carpooling, so the solo drive sounds great.

So, OP - if you're looking at housing that's 0-10 miles from your proposed office location, that's your problem. Expand that search to 20-30 - or even 30-40 - miles and you'll probably find something more affordable. Just remember to add at least an hour on either end of your work day for commuting, because that's "normal" here.

This is true. We're ten minutes from downtown and a bad day is 12-15. DC rush hour makes me feel like every good thing on earth has been strangled.

[Anonymous]

Ohio native here. I moved here with DH before we married, almsot 8 yrs ago. We live in the VA burbs and had an initial HHI of just under 100k 7 yrs ago. I have since moved in to a better industry and progressed career wise as has he. Our HHI is now around 200k but we have 2 children. Monthly payments outside of living expenses are 1 cc, mortgage and 1 car pmt. Granted, we're not saving like we would like to since our children are both in pre-school/daycare but we do contribute a good bit to our 401k.

I get your shock. It still blows my mind to this day that we bought a townhome for just under 500k. Half a million. But we manage.

If it's just you and DH, no reason you need a 700k home. Just move our farther and deal with the commute like the rest of us do. Or downsize to an affordable condo and deal with it. I think the career progression opportunities here far outweigh those where you are currently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, are you interested in living in the city itself or a suburb?

Like several of the other posters, I grew up here (in a NoVA suburb), so the crazy COL always seemed normal to me. I moved into DC after college and lived the dirt poor nonprofit worker lifestyle. I love living in the city, and my now-DH and I decided early on that it was worth the trade offs. He makes about $125K. I was only making about $45K (again, nonprofit), and I became a SAHM after we had a child. You really have to know what sort of trade offs you are willing to make? We live in a 2 bedroom, 1,000 SF condo. We don't have a yard, but on the other hand there are tons of kids and parks around us, and with less than a 5 minute walk to the metro (and we only have 1 car), we pretty much consider the whole city to be our backyard. Even without the metro we can walk to the zoo, library, grocery shopping, 5 or 6 playgrounds and parks, and about 200 restaurants. Our condo is not fancy and our local school is average, but we love our fun, walkable neighborhood, and DS spends his days having fun at museums, parks, the zoo, etc. By DC standards we don't make a lot of money, but we love our lifestyle.

What is comes down to, OP, is what sort of lifestyle do you and your family want? What are your non-negotiables? What are you willing to sacrifice?

Btw, don't listen to the snarkers who hate living here. No place is perfect of course, but DC is a great place to live if you are looking for that lifestyle.

Sounds nice, but still waiting for you to name something we don't have, and for a quarter of the price. The salary bump is not close to the differential. I would understand if our HHI were going to quadruple, or even double, but it won't, so I am genuinely trying to understand what makes this worthwhile. Some of you must be in jobs that simply don't exist, or not in adequate numbers, elsewhere - but if you're not a wonk or a lobbyist, why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is over $300k but we have a giant mortgage, so both our (modest) cars are about 10 years old, our one home computer is ancient, I buy all my clothes at discount stores like Loehmans, we don't own the latest I-whatevers, going out to the movies is a big treat for my kids, and I just generally don't buy stuff like random holiday decorations, knick knacks for the house, Pandora beads, etc.

Why did you spend so much for your home? Can you sell and downsize? We make half what you do, own our home, and it doesn't sound like we're as tight as you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, are you interested in living in the city itself or a suburb?

Like several of the other posters, I grew up here (in a NoVA suburb), so the crazy COL always seemed normal to me. I moved into DC after college and lived the dirt poor nonprofit worker lifestyle. I love living in the city, and my now-DH and I decided early on that it was worth the trade offs. He makes about $125K. I was only making about $45K (again, nonprofit), and I became a SAHM after we had a child. You really have to know what sort of trade offs you are willing to make? We live in a 2 bedroom, 1,000 SF condo. We don't have a yard, but on the other hand there are tons of kids and parks around us, and with less than a 5 minute walk to the metro (and we only have 1 car), we pretty much consider the whole city to be our backyard. Even without the metro we can walk to the zoo, library, grocery shopping, 5 or 6 playgrounds and parks, and about 200 restaurants. Our condo is not fancy and our local school is average, but we love our fun, walkable neighborhood, and DS spends his days having fun at museums, parks, the zoo, etc. By DC standards we don't make a lot of money, but we love our lifestyle.

What is comes down to, OP, is what sort of lifestyle do you and your family want? What are your non-negotiables? What are you willing to sacrifice?

Btw, don't listen to the snarkers who hate living here. No place is perfect of course, but DC is a great place to live if you are looking for that lifestyle.

Sounds nice, but still waiting for you to name something we don't have, and for a quarter of the price. The salary bump is not close to the differential. I would understand if our HHI were going to quadruple, or even double, but it won't, so I am genuinely trying to understand what makes this worthwhile. Some of you must be in jobs that simply don't exist, or not in adequate numbers, elsewhere - but if you're not a wonk or a lobbyist, why?

I ask myself this every damned day. That said, even some nonprofit jobs are tied to the government and many national organizations are HQ'd here. So even if you've built a nonprofit career, it's not always that easy to translate that elsewhere - especially outside of another big, expensive city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another out of town lurker here with a prospect to relocate. Many of you seemed to earn a bundle in the 90s before the housing boom. I was still in high school then. How do people in their early 30s and younger manage in DC?

DCUM isn't always a true representation of the area because the posters here tend to be (or claim to be) fairly affluent. That said, this is a very expensive area. I'm 33 married with 2 kids. Moved here from the mid-west right after graduation. We rented until last year, so we missed the whole "buy a condo for nothing and sell it for big bucks" thing that a lot of people on here seemed to do. Our HHI is about $145k and we just bought a townhouse in Alexandria for $350K. We have a 5 minute bus ride to a metro stop and if there is no traffic we can drive downtown in 10 minutes. Our townhouse is in a walkable area (restaurants, bars, shops, etc.) We did have to make some sacrifices -- while our neighborhood is GREAT and our neighbors are wonderful, it is not one that many people on DCUM would consider (probably a little colorful for the tastes of many). Our home needed some work so we've poured about $40K into it.

I have friends back home who paid half what we paid and live in mansions. Alternatively there are other options for people here who want to pay under $450k and not live in Ashburn. It just takes some creativity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another out of town lurker here with a prospect to relocate. Many of you seemed to earn a bundle in the 90s before the housing boom. I was still in high school then. How do people in their early 30s and younger manage in DC?

We're early 30s and struggling to get ahead in this area. Many of our peers of the same age group bought at the height of the housing market and have seen their house depreciate by up to $150K. We bought places we could afford at the time and are now stuck in tiny condos/houses with kids when we expected to sell before having kids. I think so much of how well you are living in the DC area is based on when you purchased your home and those of us in our late 20s/early 30s often just missed the boat.

True. Bought house for $145k (and put about $30k into renovations) in 2002 in a struggling neighborhood right by a metro and close to downtown. Kid was already in a good DCPS out of boundaries so neighborhood schools weren't an issue. Gentrification followed and house is now assessed at 395k. But it's still a tough neighborhood with lots of public housing and crime and our house hasn't gotten any prettier or quainter over the years. It's just worth more. Also we have moved up in our careers and make more money. It was a matter of good luck - but also a matter of bad luck because I was on the verge of losing my job and we had to buy a cheap house. But turned out to be good luck because the neighborhood got popular.

I would say that of course it would be hard to find a house that cheap these days even in many sketchy neighborhoods but the fact is that we were also willing to live in a tough neighborhood (FWIW, we really liked our neighborhood when we moved in and still like it today). Even today, you can make it here if you are willing to lower your expectations about housing and living arrangements but it only works if you value the other things that DC has to offer. And some people don't and therefore should not even try to live here - they won't be happy. And that's fine. You just have to know what is important to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is over $300k but we have a giant mortgage, so both our (modest) cars are about 10 years old, our one home computer is ancient, I buy all my clothes at discount stores like Loehmans, we don't own the latest I-whatevers, going out to the movies is a big treat for my kids, and I just generally don't buy stuff like random holiday decorations, knick knacks for the house, Pandora beads, etc.

Did you buy a huge house? How can you not afford movies when your HHI is over $300K? Ours is less than half that, and we go out to eat, shop at Whole Foods, go to movies, travel, have a nice life. Yes we are careful with money and don't waste it, but we'd feel rich if we had $300K coming in. We drive old cars and shop at Loehmans, but we need to. You must be wasting your money somewhere -- on your house, most likely. Ours is 2K sq ft, not much yard, OK schools, we're doing OK on half what you have.

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