If you were born in 1990, how do you plan on ever affording a house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, meant which part is NOT relevant to someone born in 1990?

You're totally glossing over price levels and wages, especially for lowly ranked schools.

Nope. Stop the whining. We worked our butts off, started at the bottom career wise, and house wise, lived in crappy apartments and an awful fixer upper arhat we never really fixed up and played the long game. I'm 39, not a dinosaur.

I've got a few years on you and I know you're full of shit. Circumstances are very different, no question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So .. when's this contraction happening? Planning to list my house spring of '19.... better contract after that!

Well thats a huge guess but just following the housing cycles 2020-2024. 2019 you may be ok but it may have turned to a sellers market (depending on location etc).

IMO QE fallout will be bad. Class A rentals cant be filled and were overbuilt, auto loans are defaulting and debt levels are the highest theyve ever been. Personally to me this does not = prosperity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, meant which part is NOT relevant to someone born in 1990?

You're totally glossing over price levels and wages, especially for lowly ranked schools.

Nope. Stop the whining. We worked our butts off, started at the bottom career wise, and house wise, lived in crappy apartments and an awful fixer upper arhat we never really fixed up and played the long game. I'm 39, not a dinosaur.

Uh, to someone born in '90, yes, a dinosaur. The circumstances of the world sure as hell change in over a decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, meant which part is NOT relevant to someone born in 1990?

You're totally glossing over price levels and wages, especially for lowly ranked schools.

Nope. Stop the whining. We worked our butts off, started at the bottom career wise, and house wise, lived in crappy apartments and an awful fixer upper arhat we never really fixed up and played the long game. I'm 39, not a dinosaur.

Uh, to someone born in '90, yes, a dinosaur. The circumstances of the world sure as hell change in over a decade.

Yeah I'm 33 but baby brother is 23. Everything will be massively more expensive for him and I feel for the other kids in this age group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go east of the river.

Renovated townhouses can be had there in the low $300s. It's not the greatest area but it's also not nearly as bad as its reputation. It's also very conveniently located if you work downtown and is a short Uber from nightlife spots.

With trump presidency I would be VERY skeptical of Anacostia or PG gentrification. A lot of middle class Feds are losing their jobs and the city has lost its cool with Obama departure. Look at someplace like capital heights. Close in easy commute but terrible investment

Are you Marty McFly who is coming back from the future with this little nugget? Because presently, middle class Feds aren't losing their jobs.

They pulled the nuclear option in Supreme Court but will bend on budget? Things are going to get raw and Feds have a target on their back.

I work in SE across the river. It's a BIG gamble.

You clearly have not seen the 12 projects slated for East of the River. You will continue to lose on the real estate game b/c you are very short sighted.

Projects mean nothing. It is not community, safety, or good schools. There were tons of projects abandoned in Phoenix at the bust, and they still stand empty.

No matter how much you try to make it happen SE is not going to happen under Trump. If you are an investor with large access to capital it may be worth investigating, things could continue. But OP would be stretched and if your vision doesn't come to pass, they are screwed.

Sure. Ok. That's what they said about Logan Circle, Shaw, U Street, 14th Street and every other place that you would have deemed undesirable. You are wrong and Trump will have nothing to do with the economy here.

Sure, the schools suck, so do most of the schools West of the River with very expensive real estate. Schools have never driven real estate prices in DC. SE has a wonderful community. You clearly don't spend ANY time there. It's probably the last part of a community in the city. If my son didn't attend Wilson, I would buy in Historic Anacostia in a second!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go east of the river.

Renovated townhouses can be had there in the low $300s. It's not the greatest area but it's also not nearly as bad as its reputation. It's also very conveniently located if you work downtown and is a short Uber from nightlife spots.

With trump presidency I would be VERY skeptical of Anacostia or PG gentrification. A lot of middle class Feds are losing their jobs and the city has lost its cool with Obama departure. Look at someplace like capital heights. Close in easy commute but terrible investment

Are you Marty McFly who is coming back from the future with this little nugget? Because presently, middle class Feds aren't losing their jobs.

They pulled the nuclear option in Supreme Court but will bend on budget? Things are going to get raw and Feds have a target on their back.

I work in SE across the river. It's a BIG gamble.

You clearly have not seen the 12 projects slated for East of the River. You will continue to lose on the real estate game b/c you are very short sighted.

Projects mean nothing. It is not community, safety, or good schools. There were tons of projects abandoned in Phoenix at the bust, and they still stand empty.

No matter how much you try to make it happen SE is not going to happen under Trump. If you are an investor with large access to capital it may be worth investigating, things could continue. But OP would be stretched and if your vision doesn't come to pass, they are screwed.

Sure. Ok. That's what they said about Logan Circle, Shaw, U Street, 14th Street and every other place that you would have deemed undesirable. You are wrong and Trump will have nothing to do with the economy here.

Sure, the schools suck, so do most of the schools West of the River with very expensive real estate. Schools have never driven real estate prices in DC. SE has a wonderful community. You clearly don't spend ANY time there. It's probably the last part of a community in the city. If my son didn't attend Wilson, I would buy in Historic Anacostia in a second!

H street has community but it is definitely getting diluted with new transplants who dont want to talk to their neighbors.... people, say hi! Get to know each other. It is soooo worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How?
1. No wedding. Got $50k total from 2 sets of extremely grateful parents that had just thrown over the top weddings that was way more than $25k for each of them.

2. Went to an uncool you-never-heard-of-it school and had no undergrad student loans. Worked summers, weekends all through undergrad and grad school, even in the school cafeteria, the horror, and was an RA.

3. Lived in an apartment with roommates for years after I got my first job and paid off my grad school loan.

4. Started retirement savings at 24 so I had a good chunk of money by 30 and didn't feel bad about stopping contributing past the match to save up and buy a house with my husband.

5. Our first house was ugly, small, and way far out. We stayed for 10 years, through all our friends moving away and into better places, earning equity and saving up since as our incomes rose, our housing costs stayed the same.
And now I'm in a great house in a great location. And I have granite! So fancy.

The very fact that you consider $50k for a wedding reasonable (and your parents gifted you that much) tells me you are starting from a very different place than OP. I'm your age and $50k was an ungodly budget for a wedding back then. We got married in the church and had a reception in the church hall. And going to a no name school is a huge gamble, but I bet you had connections to make sure it worked out at least as a backup (work at dads company).

Gonna go out on a limb and say you weren't born in 1990

PP here, What part of my strategy is to relevant to someone who was born in 1990? Exactly which part?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How?
1. No wedding. Got $50k total from 2 sets of extremely grateful parents that had just thrown over the top weddings that was way more than $25k for each of them.

2. Went to an uncool you-never-heard-of-it school and had no undergrad student loans. Worked summers, weekends all through undergrad and grad school, even in the school cafeteria, the horror, and was an RA.

3. Lived in an apartment with roommates for years after I got my first job and paid off my grad school loan.

4. Started retirement savings at 24 so I had a good chunk of money by 30 and didn't feel bad about stopping contributing past the match to save up and buy a house with my husband.

5. Our first house was ugly, small, and way far out. We stayed for 10 years, through all our friends moving away and into better places, earning equity and saving up since as our incomes rose, our housing costs stayed the same.
And now I'm in a great house in a great location. And I have granite! So fancy.

The very fact that you consider $50k for a wedding reasonable (and your parents gifted you that much) tells me you are starting from a very different place than OP. I'm your age and $50k was an ungodly budget for a wedding back then. We got married in the church and had a reception in the church hall. And going to a no name school is a huge gamble, but I bet you had connections to make sure it worked out at least as a backup (work at dads company).

Gonna go out on a limb and say you weren't born in 1990

PP here, What part of my strategy is to relevant to someone who was born in 1990? Exactly which part?

The very fact that you consider $50k for a wedding reasonable (and your parents gifted you that much) tells me you are starting from a very different place than OP. I'm your age and $50k was an ungodly budget for a wedding back then. We got married in the church and had a reception in the church hall. And going to a no name school is a huge gamble, but I bet you had connections to make sure it worked out at least as a backup (work at dads company).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, meant which part is NOT relevant to someone born in 1990?

You're totally glossing over price levels and wages, especially for lowly ranked schools.

Nope. Stop the whining. We worked our butts off, started at the bottom career wise, and house wise, lived in crappy apartments and an awful fixer upper arhat we never really fixed up and played the long game. I'm 39, not a dinosaur.

Uh, to someone born in '90, yes, a dinosaur. The circumstances of the world sure as hell change in over a decade.

No one has answered which part of the response is not relevant. There are $180 homes in Mannassas people! Yes it's an hour commute, but we did it for years. Held off having kids. Paid down student loans. We made less than $100k combined, from our state university school jobs and had $124k worth of joint grad school debt. My starting salary was $43k, his was $62k.
So yes, stop the whining.

[Anonymous]

^40k and 52k before someone really good at math pounces on that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it hasn't already been said -- stop watching House Hunters and seeing what $150K can buy you in Dallas.

My actual advice is not to feel that buying is something you have to do right now. I kind of wish we hadn't been pressured (by parents and society) to buy before we really had a feel for things. We lost money on our first place but our second has appreciated nicely. There's just not judging when is the best time so don't even try. Back in '95 I had a coworker tell me to invest in S. Arlington and I don't think S. Arlington has had that moment even 22 years later. (S. Arlingtonians, feel free to prove me wrong.)

We bought in South Arlington in 2009 for low 500's, similar houses are selling for over $700,000 now. South Arlington has gone up but I don't think we've peaked. I had neighbors who bought a SFH in our neighborhood in early 2000's for around $250,000. They sold in 2015 for over $650,000. But then in 2016, we had a number of tear downs of similar houses with 1.2 million and up new houses replacing them, which we had not seen before. There are still a bunch of older homes in that $600,000 price range on lots that are large and flat enough for tear downs to be profitable for developers or even individuals looking to build custom. Who knows. Glad we got in, but I think there's still opportunity here.

Omg! We bought in the low 500's in south Arlington too! We plan to list in the next 2 years, and I'm thinking we'll land somewhere between 700-800. I think the ship has sailed for the middle class honestly . I don't know how people are doing it. I would advise anyone to try and snag a liviable home under 600k if possible. They are rare and snapped up quick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, meant which part is NOT relevant to someone born in 1990?

You're totally glossing over price levels and wages, especially for lowly ranked schools.

Nope. Stop the whining. We worked our butts off, started at the bottom career wise, and house wise, lived in crappy apartments and an awful fixer upper arhat we never really fixed up and played the long game. I'm 39, not a dinosaur.

Uh, to someone born in '90, yes, a dinosaur. The circumstances of the world sure as hell change in over a decade.

No one has answered which part of the response is not relevant. There are $180 homes in Mannassas people! Yes it's an hour commute, but we did it for years. Held off having kids. Paid down student loans. We made less than $100k combined, from our state university school jobs and had $124k worth of joint grad school debt. My starting salary was $43k, his was $62k.
So yes, stop the whining.

Your life sounds terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, meant which part is NOT relevant to someone born in 1990?

You're totally glossing over price levels and wages, especially for lowly ranked schools.

Nope. Stop the whining. We worked our butts off, started at the bottom career wise, and house wise, lived in crappy apartments and an awful fixer upper arhat we never really fixed up and played the long game. I'm 39, not a dinosaur.

That's exactly OP's point. For our generation it has been hard but possible. For their generation it's not possible.

-born in 1980

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I feel for you. Not only does being born in 1990 disadvantage you, but in reaching out for help and commiseration, you've been on the receiving end of a torrent of self-congratulatory nonsense.

Real estate is all about windfalls. If you bought decades ago around here you got not only massive price appreciation, but inflation paid for most of your mortgage. If you didn't have to pay for college and/or got help with a down payment (many do!) you were in position to buy much earlier and avoid the later price increase.

Furthermore, it's been public policy in recent years (most egregiously post-2008 fin crisis) to move heaven and earth to keep housing prices AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE! Think about that: the government works to make a fundamental human need as expensive as it can. When you understand that this is concurrent with policies to suppress wages as much as possible, you should see this as a very bad situation.

I don't doubt that some of you have 'worked hard', but please don't conflate your luck in life with virtue. Lots of others have worked even harder and it hasn't worked out so well.

+1 All of the self-congratulatory people seem to under-emphasize how much a role luck played.

OP, if I could do it all over again (even in today's circumstances), I would try to move away from this area (before getting stuck in a career/job that keeps me here). You don't have a house to sell. You are still young. Look at some other areas of the country that have a nice balance of opportunity (i.e., there are jobs) with a reasonable COL and pace of life.

Aside from the difficulty finding housing in this area, the traffic, the congestion, the reality that the public transit is over capacity and lacks adequate funding. Even if you are able to luck out like some other PPs and climb the property ladder, once you get that expensive house, you realize the property taxes are outrageous.

There are things I like about this region, but if I got a re-do, I wouldn't settle here. I would move before getting too stuck. It's a lot harder when you're 40 and your job skills and work experience really are only marketable in D.C.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, meant which part is NOT relevant to someone born in 1990?

You're totally glossing over price levels and wages, especially for lowly ranked schools.

Nope. Stop the whining. We worked our butts off, started at the bottom career wise, and house wise, lived in crappy apartments and an awful fixer upper arhat we never really fixed up and played the long game. I'm 39, not a dinosaur.

Uh, to someone born in '90, yes, a dinosaur. The circumstances of the world sure as hell change in over a decade.

No one has answered which part of the response is not relevant. There are $180 homes in Mannassas people! Yes it's an hour commute, but we did it for years. Held off having kids. Paid down student loans. We made less than $100k combined, from our state university school jobs and had $124k worth of joint grad school debt. My starting salary was $43k, his was $62k.
So yes, stop the whining.

Uh, I have a friend who commutes from Manassas, that is no one hour commute -- rush hour is minimum 1.75 hours, and even dead of night is over 1 hour.

On top of that, the house they bought in 2009 has DROPPED in value... they lost the appreciation lottery. Same thing can easily happen in SE, despite the boosters on here who love it. I work there, and it has a long way to go...