What HHI does a family of 5 need to feel comfortable: NW DC or close-in Bethesda/Nova

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone's definition of comfortable is different. Some people are comfortable driving a Subaru or Ford. I would shoot myself. Some people think 4000 sqft house is needed to be comfortable. That's way too big for me. Op, your question is unanswerable

I can’t begin to understand your car comment. You’d shoot yourself if you drove a Subaru?

[Anonymous]

This is such a DCUM troll start to a thread. Does one really need $600k HHI for kids to have their own bedrooms? GTFO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone's definition of comfortable is different. Some people are comfortable driving a Subaru or Ford. I would shoot myself. Some people think 4000 sqft house is needed to be comfortable. That's way too big for me. Op, your question is unanswerable

I can’t begin to understand your car comment. You’d shoot yourself if you drove a Subaru?

NP

You really can’t understand that comment? I totally can. A boring car, especially if you have a long commute, is god awful. I like luxury when I drive far.
I’m not really sure what’s so hard to understand about that. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m coming to the sad realization that the basics of a good middle class lifestyle cost a fortune around here. A house with Bedrooms for all the kids, college, annual family vacation, saving for retirement. Is 600k the point where all this becomes doable without financial strain?

$600K is not middle class.

Regardless, that's what it costs to live the lifestyle OP wants. Three kids, college paid for, a couple vacations, activities, sleepaway camps, at least a 4 bedroom house.

I'd say this is an UMC lifestyle from the 80s and 90s. It's just what it costs now due to the massive appreciation in housing prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m coming to the sad realization that the basics of a good middle class lifestyle cost a fortune around here. A house with Bedrooms for all the kids, college, annual family vacation, saving for retirement. Is 600k the point where all this becomes doable without financial strain?

$600K is not middle class.

Regardless, that's what it costs to live the lifestyle OP wants. Three kids, college paid for, a couple vacations, activities, sleepaway camps, at least a 4 bedroom house.

I'd say this is an UMC lifestyle from the 80s and 90s. It's just what it costs now due to the massive appreciation in housing prices.

That's just not true. We do all of this with $300k and we bought a house in the relative recent past in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Why does everyone need to live near DC when there are good public schools out in Loudoun and more affordable houses? Don’t you guys have remote work options? And not everyone is buying a house in 2022 lots of us have owned for 5-10 years so we aren’t paying these inflated prices. Additionally not everyone cares about muh culture or social scene which is the only reason I can think to want to live in DC besides your career. I have a remote tech job that pays 400k and live out here in Loudoun with a 2k mortgage payment on a SFH. Life is very comfortable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone need to live near DC when there are good public schools out in Loudoun and more affordable houses? Don’t you guys have remote work options? And not everyone is buying a house in 2022 lots of us have owned for 5-10 years so we aren’t paying these inflated prices. Additionally not everyone cares about muh culture or social scene which is the only reason I can think to want to live in DC besides your career. I have a remote tech job that pays 400k and live out here in Loudoun with a 2k mortgage payment on a SFH. Life is very comfortable

Because some of us didn’t move to DC to want to live in the exurbs? I could do that anywhere. I like sidewalks and walking to everything I need/want, having the freedom to not own a car if I don’t want to, etc. Not all jobs are remote. Even in these remote times, I’m up the Hill for various things 5-10 times a week, either camping out all day in a coffee shop between meetings or schlepping back and forth to Loudon multiple times a day sounds awful. Living in DC, it’s easy for me to pop downtown and head back home.

To answer OP’s question, we live in Upper NW DC, have 2 kids, own our home, fully fund two employer sponsored retirement vehicles, are on track to fully fund private college if our kids go that route, and send our kids to public school. Our household income ranges from $350k-$400k. We are very comfortable and would not feel squeezed monetarily if we had another child, though it would likely reduce our ability to fully fund 3 private college tuitions, but we are done with kids anyway because a 3rd child would squeeze in other ways we aren’t willing to squeeze. And the kids would have to share a room because our house is 3 bedrooms and I refuse to move.

[Anonymous]

This is going to really bring out the most absurd facet of DCUM - the "oh gosh, I can't bare the thought of only living on a half a million dollars a year!"

OP, we have two kids, a third on the way, own our home that we bought recently (without any family money, mind you!), are very comfortable and happy, and bring in $195k a year. Two of our kids share a bedroom, but it's enormous and has its own bathroom. And we live in DC very close to downtown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone's definition of comfortable is different. Some people are comfortable driving a Subaru or Ford. I would shoot myself. Some people think 4000 sqft house is needed to be comfortable. That's way too big for me. Op, your question is unanswerable

I can’t begin to understand your car comment. You’d shoot yourself if you drove a Subaru?

I'm not PP but i too would rather walk place and take the MetroBus than drive a subaru.

[Anonymous]

We make 500-600k and are tying to move in close-in Bethesda. It is very challenging to find a home under 2M that works..particularly given the market. Two years ago I would say we could buy a beautiful home for 1.5M and not worry about money.

The last two years have really changed "affordability" even for moderately high incomes.

[Anonymous]

$200k. But I drive a Subaru happily.

[Anonymous]

$150K, but I also happily drive a Subaru. And we only have 2 kids.

[Anonymous]

600k? That is idiotic. 350k HHI, 1.5M house with 2 bedrooms per person, private school for 1, vacation whenever and where ever we feel like it, and feel plenty comfortable.

Where are you spending/wasting all your money OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone's definition of comfortable is different. Some people are comfortable driving a Subaru or Ford. I would shoot myself. Some people think 4000 sqft house is needed to be comfortable. That's way too big for me. Op, your question is unanswerable

I can’t begin to understand your car comment. You’d shoot yourself if you drove a Subaru?

NP

You really can’t understand that comment? I totally can. A boring car, especially if you have a long commute, is god awful. I like luxury when I drive far.
I’m not really sure what’s so hard to understand about that. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

What do you drive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m coming to the sad realization that the basics of a good middle class lifestyle cost a fortune around here. A house with Bedrooms for all the kids, college, annual family vacation, saving for retirement. Is 600k the point where all this becomes doable without financial strain?

$600 if you want no sacrifices at all. If you want to sacrifice some combination of golf or pool membership, private schools, nice cars, a lot of travel, etc., then something less than $600 will do.