relocating to DC - budget for family of 4
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Anonymous
| Currently living abroad and interviewing for a position in DC. Never lived there and have no family ties. About to discuss salary. I would be most interested in feedback as to what is a reasonable budget for a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 young kids) in DC metro area. Assume reasonably good sized home (2000-3000 sqf) in a nice area west of Rock Creek Park. Would prefer not to have a car if thats possible/realistic. Understand from other posts on this forum we should be expect to fork out about 60k in rent (possibly more?) but struggle to put a figure on childcare/afterschool, utilities and food and understand some expenses have been going up sharply so figures dated 2/3 years ago may no longer be accurate. Thanks in advance to all who will contribute. |
Anonymous
| Where are you living abroad? |
Anonymous
|
After Care Prices - don't think theyve changed so much and some are updated.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DUhu04qLAs-EG4Nkrp3AmKoLFZN_kBdaWILAzDbqLQU/edit#gid=0 |
Anonymous
| I think you would need to earn, combined, $400K a year to live over there. Why do you need to live west of the park? The less dense your area, the more you will want a car. |
Anonymous
|
A home that big near metro transit (to satisfy your “no car” preference) is probably going to be higher than $60k a year.
We spend about $7k a month in NW DC on our various expenses (not including mortgage, car, retirement, and any big trips). That figure includes utilities, after care for one kid, groceries, meals out, clothes (we are not big spenders here), streaming services, after school sports for one kid, and so on. |
Anonymous
| I would budget 10-12 k per month. If your kids are not in public school, obviously that will add more. |
Anonymous
|
I don’t think $5k per month is enough for housing for what you want (west of the park, 2,000-3,000 square feet in an area sufficiently walkable that you don’t need a car.
The least expensive area that meets your needs would probably be tenleytown. It’s a great area and while most have a car you could definitely go without. For that square footage you are looking at north of $1.5M to buy ($2M is more realistic). Rent would be a minimum of $7.5k/month with $10k being more realistic. $400k is a comfortable budget for the neighborhood, although it is doable on $250k-$300k but you wouldn’t be keeping up with the jones’ if that matters to you. There are other neighborhoods west of the park which are great but don’t meet your needs. Palisades- need a car Cleveland park- more expensive Barbary woods- need a car Bethesda- either need a car or more expensive depending on where Chevy chase- either need a car or more expensive Kalorama- more expensive Adam’s Morgan- give your requirements I suspect you’d want private school which would make it more expensive. Woodley park- actually this could work, but I think it has a very specific vibe Georgetown- more expensive Au park- need a car Spring valley- more expensive Glover park- more expensive for the square footage you want Burlieth- you'd want a car Cathedral heights- more expensive DuPont circle- more expensive West end/ foggy bottom- more expensive Forest hills- more expensive Friendship heights- more expensive for the square footage you want |
Anonymous
| Just wondering why you feel you need to be west of RCP. As you can probably tell from the answers above, that’s the most expensive and least-dense part of the city. If it’s because you need good elementary schools, I recommend including Capitol Hill in your search. Great schools and good access to public transportation, and probably a larger selection of rentals. You could certainly get a very nice row house in-bounds for a great elementary school for under 5k in rent. And as a newcomer, I think you’d find it a welcoming place. |
Anonymous
| ^^and as for budget, we spend about 10k/month, including a 3k mortgage payment, and have two kids who are now done with aftercare. But when we did have aftercare, it was only a few hundred/month. |
Anonymous
That is not realistic in the US generally. If you want your kids to have activities, you are going to need a car. The US is not like other parts of the world where you can get by without a car. My DH's cousin recently did a post-doc year in the US, after growing up in a European country. The cousin was sure he'd be fine without a car, but he ended up borrowing one of our cars frequently because it was so limiting to be in the US (and in the DC area) without a car. He was able to enjoy his US experience much more, once he had a car. And ideally, buy a car that's large enough to do a carpool (if your kids want to do activities). If you get a small car (where no friends will fit), that will be a limitation. |
Anonymous
| Are you living here a long time? Do you care about having a good middle school? |
Anonymous
|
OP here. Most grateful for all the responses which are very helpful.
We are currently based in a very high COL, very dense, very hot (weather wise) city in Asia. We would be moving with only one salary initially so are looking to get as much clarity as possible on budget. We have lived in other places before, but it will be the first time we move as a family, and the first time in the US. We need good elementary school but beyond that its a bit unclear as we are not sure if we will stay for than 3-4 years. Appreciate all the advice on cars and neighbourhood. Did not look much at Capitol Hill previously and will do so, although from looking at rental websites it seems quite a few of the nicer townhouses seem to be in the above 7k territory, so savings would not be that great? FYI we are used to this level of rent but less to the 'other' expenses. In particular the price of private schools was a shocker, the need for a large car is a new thing, etc. |
Anonymous
| It's very hard to be without at least one car. I would plan for $4-10K in rent depending on what you want. Otherwise you need to move further out. |
Anonymous
| Do you not want a car because you don't want to drive a car? Or do you think it'll save money to not have one? I never needed a car before having kids, but now that they're old enough to have activities, it would be really hard to get by without one-- I could rely on Car2Go and Ubers and such, but that wouldn't really be a cost savings. |
Anonymous
Tons of families live in DC without cars. |