two million is the new starter home price for close in neighborhoods

[Anonymous]

The spring market came and went it seems, and no, I don’t see things picking up in April. A few weeks ago, someone posted feeling disheartening after saving for 7 years to get a sfh and still can’t find a home in their 1.5M price point in the target neighborhood that she previously thought in 2019 she could afford. I thought she was being over dramatic. But, in all honesty, I’ve been paying close attention to several close in zip codes and I’m not seeing much inventory other than condos under two million, not even at 2M. Yes, there have been a few homes in the 1M-1.5M mark but they’re few and far between. All I see are new-build starting at the 2.5M. I’ve seen people commenting buying first homes at 1.8M. If I was on the market right I would depressed too.

I have a TH in a sought after neighborhood that online estimators are now saying is in the 2M range. I called one of those high earning realtors 3 years ago when I was thinking of selling and moving out of the area, after researching my address, surprisingly, she said to me, “ you better be sure you’re never coming back this way because you might not be able to afford to afterwards.” I’m thankful she wasn’t one of those greedy realtors.

[Anonymous]

The average Bethesda home value is $1,058,740, up 3.9% over the past year and goes to pending in around 14 days.

Facts are no fun!

[Anonymous]

I suspect we have very different ideas of what a starter home is.

[Anonymous]

1. Those aren’t starter homes
2. No one has to live in those places
3. I have no sympathy

[Anonymous]

TONS of SFH inventory under $1M in FCC, SS and PG County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The spring market came and went it seems, and no, I don’t see things picking up in April. A few weeks ago, someone posted feeling disheartening after saving for 7 years to get a sfh and still can’t find a home in their 1.5M price point in the target neighborhood that she previously thought in 2019 she could afford. I thought she was being over dramatic. But, in all honesty, I’ve been paying close attention to several close in zip codes and I’m not seeing much inventory other than condos under two million, not even at 2M. Yes, there have been a few homes in the 1M-1.5M mark but they’re few and far between. All I see are new-build starting at the 2.5M. I’ve seen people commenting buying first homes at 1.8M. If I was on the market right I would depressed too.

I have a TH in a sought after neighborhood that online estimators are now saying is in the 2M range. I called one of those high earning realtors 3 years ago when I was thinking of selling and moving out of the area, after researching my address, surprisingly, she said to me, “ you better be sure you’re never coming back this way because you might not be able to afford to afterwards.” I’m thankful she wasn’t one of those greedy realtors.

Nice humblebrag. So go ahead and tell us where these $2M townhouses are the norm.

[Anonymous]

A “starter home” (obnoxious phase anyways) is generally not in one’s dream size, condition, and/or location. Our starter home was a lovely SFH further out but on the MARC line. Commute sucked a bit pre-COVID, mortgage and the resulting equity and savings sure didn’t. Put us in a terrific financial position.

We’re 36 with one young kid and another on the way. Student debt, no help with down payments…your typical older Millennials.

People may want to stretch themselves and buy closer in or pick renting over buying, which can both be totally valid choices. But gimme a break with the premise of this thread.

[Anonymous]

A starter home is normally the home you can live in while you're a DINK and it's fine for one, maybe two kids when they're babies. Usually 3 bedrooms or less.

Our starter home was a 2 bedroom condo that doubled in value. It was a fantastic financial decision for us. We didn't pay rent and instead paid down the mortgage. We stayed there until we could afford our forever home (which we knew needed to be 4+ bedrooms because we wanted 3 kids).

[Anonymous]

There’s no point in a starter home now. Affordability is out the window you’ll be in that home a long time & possibly forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s no point in a starter home now. Affordability is out the window you’ll be in that home a long time & possibly forever.

+2

My mom sold her big townhouse on CH and bought a smaller house in Brookland - cute and updated, but very small - for around $600 in 2015. Valued at $850 now. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s no point in a starter home now. Affordability is out the window you’ll be in that home a long time & possibly forever.

It just depends how much space you need. Definitely renting would have been the smarter option for me if we had not started having kids. My luxury apartment in Nova is currently still the same rent as it was 10 years ago. A lot of new buildings also aren't much more expensive. They're building out a lot of apartment supply but they are not building sufficient SFH or TH. My TH is up ~20% in 5 years, just down the street from the apartment I used to live in. It still made financial sense for me to move thanks to ultra low interest rates but at this point you'd have to be an idiot to buy my TH over apartments. You could rent two two bedroom luxury apartments for just the interest + taxes on my four bedroom house.

[Anonymous]

You are not talking Starter Home. You are talking about all the things on your ideal checklist. Big difference.

[Anonymous]

Even cheap starter homes aren’t cheap. It’s hard to start the ladder without spending too much of your take home pay. For some reason people here think $600-$800 is NBD. It is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The spring market came and went it seems, and no, I don’t see things picking up in April. A few weeks ago, someone posted feeling disheartening after saving for 7 years to get a sfh and still can’t find a home in their 1.5M price point in the target neighborhood that she previously thought in 2019 she could afford. I thought she was being over dramatic. But, in all honesty, I’ve been paying close attention to several close in zip codes and I’m not seeing much inventory other than condos under two million, not even at 2M. Yes, there have been a few homes in the 1M-1.5M mark but they’re few and far between. All I see are new-build starting at the 2.5M. I’ve seen people commenting buying first homes at 1.8M. If I was on the market right I would depressed too.

I have a TH in a sought after neighborhood that online estimators are now saying is in the 2M range. I called one of those high earning realtors 3 years ago when I was thinking of selling and moving out of the area, after researching my address, surprisingly, she said to me, “ you better be sure you’re never coming back this way because you might not be able to afford to afterwards.” I’m thankful she wasn’t one of those greedy realtors.

Nice humblebrag. So go ahead and tell us where these $2M townhouses are the norm.

Humblebrag? This is not a starter home for us, we have been trying to move from our TH since we purchased it. My spouse has found everything to be unhappy about this home except the location, but we can no longer afford a move up home, ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TONS of SFH inventory under $1M in FCC, SS and PG County.

Here is your answer OP