The government has always been here. So why was the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80, 90s COL here so affordable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in my late 50s and have lived in DC since I graduated college in the early 1980s, so I have longer perspective on this. DC has been considered an expensive city all this time,with articles on how COL here was higher than most other US cities even back in the '80s and '90s.

That's why I'm surprised a poster said that in 1998 she had a Dupont Circle apartment for $600. I don't think they were that low then.

What has happened is that the fairly high COL has accelerated in this century. Could be the influx of defense contractors post 9/11 or the rise of tech and its high salaries, adding to the always high salaries of DC's plethora of lobbyists and lawyers.

I had a small 2 BR right in DuPont for $1250 in 1999, so i Brodie really PP could have found a “turret” (?) apartment in what used to be called “east DuPont” (16th ttl 14th st.) back then. Before the Whiole Foods opened, prices dropped really sharply east of 16th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in my late 50s and have lived in DC since I graduated college in the early 1980s, so I have longer perspective on this. DC has been considered an expensive city all this time,with articles on how COL here was higher than most other US cities even back in the '80s and '90s.

I remember that time too. In DC you could walk around 14th Street and see the gentrification proceeding block by block, even house by house from Dupont into Logan Circle (with a gap on still beaten down 14th street itself). As people responded to high prices by gentrifying the next block over. Similar things were happening in the Hill, and in newly gentrified parts of Adams Morgan, and in Mount Pleasant.

In closer in suburbs, the start of gentrication in Del Ray had happened, and in parts of North Arlington (but not Clarendon yet, I guess?)

And development was happening what were for then outer suburbs, as people who didnt feel a need to be close in pursued cheaper housing.

But now there are not many places left to gentrify in DC, or in the inner suburbs (other than PG). And to go to the suburban edge for new housing means going REALLY far out.

[Anonymous]

rising income inequality.

[Anonymous]

1) Post 9/11 government spending brings a lot of well paid young people to the area.
2) National Moving to the city trend accelerated.
3) Height restriction makes DC more challenging and expensive for development.
4) More corporations started to have more presence to lobby the government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) Post 9/11 government spending brings a lot of well paid young people to the area.
2) National Moving to the city trend accelerated.
3) Height restriction makes DC more challenging and expensive for development.
4) More corporations started to have more presence to lobby the government.

Time to get rid of the height restriction nonsense. It’s not like Washington was a God.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Post 9/11 government spending brings a lot of well paid young people to the area.
2) National Moving to the city trend accelerated.
3) Height restriction makes DC more challenging and expensive for development.
4) More corporations started to have more presence to lobby the government.

Time to get rid of the height restriction nonsense. It’s not like Washington was a God.

I like the height restrictions. Makes us visibly different and I'd argue - more beautiful than any other major city in the U.S.

I can go to Boston, NYC, Philly, Miami, L.A. for huge skyscrapers and dank alleys that never see sunlight. In D.C. every avenue has a view and some are quite spectacular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was artificially suppressed by post war white flight and suburban expansion and the riots added a couple of decades to that cycle. Now the reverse is happening coupled to the collapse of suburban isolation is creating a flood to limited markets with DC being one of them.

Eh? What crap are you sprouting? Pre-war DC wasn't known as an expensive place. Completely different economy. Especially when you now have upper class people paying fortunes for pre-war houses that the lower classes lived in. Let that tell you something.

Collapse of suburban isolation? What the hell is this? The suburbs have grown faster than DC.....

with poor people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was artificially suppressed by post war white flight and suburban expansion and the riots added a couple of decades to that cycle. Now the reverse is happening coupled to the collapse of suburban isolation is creating a flood to limited markets with DC being one of them.

Eh? What crap are you sprouting? Pre-war DC wasn't known as an expensive place. Completely different economy. Especially when you now have upper class people paying fortunes for pre-war houses that the lower classes lived in. Let that tell you something.

Collapse of suburban isolation? What the hell is this? The suburbs have grown faster than DC.....

with poor people

Nope. Most of the population growth, rich or poor, is in the suburbs.

The district has rebounded greatly but the suburbs are still growing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is your answer: https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/since-2000-the-dc-region-added-twice-as-many-people-as-housing-units/15405?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=keep_reading_link&utm_campaign=Friday+May+17th%2C+2019&omhide=true

Good article! Thanks for sharing. This part really stood out to me:

"Because of the disparate distribution and decreased construction of housing stock, affordability has vastly shifted in the region. In 1980, the median home value in the region ($275,000 in 2017 dollars) was 3.7 times the median household income ($70,000 in 2017 dollars); now, the median home value ($415,000) is 4.5 times the median household income ($95,000). In DC proper, the median housing value is nearly 7 times median household income; the ratios in Arlington/Alexandria, Montgomery and Fairfax counties, and Prince George's County are respectively 6:1, 4.5:1, and 3.5:1."

As a community, we need to get our elected leaders to address the housing shortfall since it will only get worse. We need to change zoning for more density. Fewer single family homes and more duplexes, townhomes, condos, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Post 9/11 government spending brings a lot of well paid young people to the area.
2) National Moving to the city trend accelerated.
3) Height restriction makes DC more challenging and expensive for development.
4) More corporations started to have more presence to lobby the government.

Time to get rid of the height restriction nonsense. It’s not like Washington was a God.

The height restriction actually isn't based on the Washington Monument at all, but rather based on the width of the street that a building is on. The idea was to keep the city low-slung and "airy." For more, click here: http://www.welovedc.com/2009/05/19/dc-mythbusting-the-height-limit/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Post 9/11 government spending brings a lot of well paid young people to the area.
2) National Moving to the city trend accelerated.
3) Height restriction makes DC more challenging and expensive for development.
4) More corporations started to have more presence to lobby the government.

Time to get rid of the height restriction nonsense. It’s not like Washington was a God.

The height restriction actually isn't based on the Washington Monument at all, but rather based on the width of the street that a building is on. The idea was to keep the city low-slung and "airy." For more, click here: http://www.welovedc.com/2009/05/19/dc-mythbusting-the-height-limit/

Er no. It was based in response the building of the Cairo. The height limit on the widest streets was set a few feet below that, and on other streets below that.

Here it is BTW. https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9111365,-77.0374821,3a,75y,359.51h,93.23t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1snmo2Sk_V4EN-2-fcMvezYA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dnmo2Sk_V4EN-2-fcMvezYA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dsearch.TACTILE.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D351.04083%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192


Would a few more of those really be so terrible?

[Anonymous]

Everyone is basically correct

It's mainly supply and demand and a return to cities

In prior decades rings of housing were built out in the suburbs & people wanted to actually live there.

Starting around 2000 people stopped wanting to move into the next outer ring suburb

This drove up demand for places closer in. Since closer in areas are already built out there is no more supply.

This combined higher demand with no new supply is what has driven up housing costs and by association cost of living.

The two income trap is also a big issue which further drives up demand as people can "afford" more to spend on a mortgage. I don't think it's salaries as much. Contrary to DCUM popular belief there aren't that many 500k+ HHI incomes. There are plenty of HHI in the 250-500k range which is more a result of two incomes vs salaries over 250k. There really aren't that many jobs like that.

One note there are still plenty of places where you can get a SFH for under 500k. Eastern MoCo, parts of Alexandira, PG county, Annandale/Seven Corners, Bailey's Crossroads in Fairfax County etc. Yes the schools generally aren't as good but plenty of people have less than 100k HHI around here and are living just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rising income inequality means that some areas have become extremely expensive while others have stagnated.

In the 50s and 60s economic growth was more broad-based. Now many second-tier cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, even St. Louis have done pretty badly, HQs have moved to places like NYC. Wealth is concentrated in the tech sector, in lawyers, lobbyists and financiers. The places where people like that live have become very expensive as a result.

THIS^ and it has been going on since Reagan/1980s. Now it's the end of the thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This does not directly affect me. I am just asking a simple question.

What is so special about the post 2000s DC area that has caused our cost of living to skyrocket beyond belief?

Me personally, I think the pre 90s DC area COL should have been more expensive because this area was a hell of a lot more fun then as opposed to right now. Things should be cheaper now.

Out of control COL is not unique to DC. It is a happening in most major cities. Jobs and wealth keep becoming more and more concentrated in just a very few select highly densely populated regions of the country. It's also impossible to build new homes now because there's either no land left in already urbanized areas or due to NIMBYs.