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Move to DC on 150K income?
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Anonymous
| You can get the kind of thing you are looking for in Vienna. Not a great house, but fenced and livable in a good neighborhood. I would recommend renting the first year or two, though. Really recommend this until you know for sure where/how you want to live. |
Anonymous
| Think long commute or cute little ranch in the sky, aka condo. Rent first to determine which you prefer/detest. |
Anonymous
| Hi - we did it. My DH commutes into DC each day and I work near our home in Rockville. It was important that one of us work near our home so that one person is near the school (our kids are in ES) in case of an emergency or something. It has worked great for us. While my DH does have the commute on the metro and it takes him an hour each way. I pick the kids up from their after care program each day. $150 is not much for this area, but it is doable. |
Anonymous
| Have DH see if he can get public transportation benefits. Lots of agencies and large companies provide this and will cut down on your expenses. |
Anonymous
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I've already posted, but I just reread the OP. It sounds like your DH has been offered a job for $150K. If that is the case, once you have a job your HHI will be higher than that. This area has a lot of job opportunities and I think you will find a job and all will be fine.
I know a lot of posters dislike living in this area for whatever reason, but I neither my husband nor I am from this area and we both really like it. We have made good friends and our kids are happy. The only downside it that neither of our families live nearby so we need to travel to ensure our kids get to know their cousins. |
Anonymous
| OP, we are a family of 10 and we live on less than $150K. My husband works downtown for the feds, so he takes the VRE from Manassas and I homeschool our kids. You can live a very, very full and wonderful life in this area on your income if you don't live for how you are perceived. |
Anonymous
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What do you all think is a reasonable mortage/rent on a 150k year income?
Sounds like OP has pets and kids, and she wants a fenced yard,she also wants good schools. That definitly does not sound like apartment living would be for her (as for many people apartment life is not appealing). We live on 150k yr and were in transitional housing between houses. I'm in Loudoun County and we cannot afford more than $2,500/mo and even WAY out here it was almost near impossible to find someting at that price. What we did settle on while in transition was a horribly scummy townhouse, until our house was ready. It is very easy for you all to say "move to Fairfax" or "move near a metro" if you are looking for good schools, then it is VERY VERY difficult t find a reasonably priced rental. As far as Vienna goes, my mom rents her SMALL ranch out in vienna for $3200/mo. This is expensive for people who have not built up equity due to the formally booming real estate market. |
Anonymous
$3200 for a rental?!?? We rent (because we won't live here long enough to own) and 3 br 2 bath ranch in Rockville for $1800. It has a yard, garage and it is updated. We are very happy with the neighborhood and school system. We are less than a mile from the metro and it takes DH 40 minutes to get to work. We make close to 150k and we are lovin life. |
Anonymous
I like you. I remember you posting before. |
Anonymous
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it's definitely possible to live here on 150k and many, many people do it. However, we all bring (or don't bring) markedly different variables to the table: students loans, daycare/nanny costs, after school care costs, savings from previous real estate investments, downpayment gifts from parents, etc. etc. etc.
We live in upper NW DC and moved here about 3 years ago on a 160K single salary. However, we were able to afford buy a house with a yard because we brought almost 400K to the table from living off a single income (while making 2) for the previous 5 years. Our neighbors are all similar to us in age (30-40s) but have all sorts of different paths to the neighborhood---many have very modest incomes and bought here (or elsewhere in DC) in the late 90s/early 2000s. Some are big law associates with 400K HHIs, some are trust fund kids who don't work at all. So while 150K can be very doable for one family, it might not work for another. I would sit down and figure out an exact budget and then go from there. As others have mentioned if you have childcare needs (including before and after care and/or summer camps or even an occasional sitter) MAKE SURE you factor those in as well. Childcare (including the cost of extracurriculars from soccer to ballet) is one area where living in DC becomes much more expensive then most of the rest of the country. |
Anonymous
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OP, I am a poster who discussed living in 16th street heights on a HHI of 150k (actually 159, but that's two of us working, so no big jump in the future which, when you finish school and work, will be likely). Our mortgage on a 3 bd, with yard, garage and lovely garden that supplies many veggies over the summer is 2500 (house was 515K, we have about 400k in loans). Our biggest other expense is daycare at 1300/month. We have another on the way and we will have to swing daycare x2 or something for a year--probably will not be saving any money then. But our transport is paid by work, we do cheap or free things, buy at thrift stores, share one old car, etc. We are not saving for college yet--we figure that until we are out of daycare that is not realistic, but we are putting away some money for retirement. We take trips, occasionally eat out, and take advantage of whatever we can (FSA, DFSA, etc). check into your husband's job benefits, into your school costs, and start looking in both theVA and MD suburbs. In MD, start with Silver spring, rockvill, gaithersburg. In VA, look at further out fairfax, vienna, parts of alexandria. There are good schools allover, though ppl tend to thin that in genral the Fairfax county schools are among the best in the region. But there are many other good ones.
and yes, if you don't mind moving, renting for a year might be a good place to start. Rent close to a metro. |
Anonymous
I like you too 
I guess I need to be careful when sharing my opinions, because I probably stand out a bit...and can be tracked! |
Anonymous
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Lots of people in my neighborhood in Silver Spring have HHI around that. The only caveat is that most of us bought our houses a while ago when they were $200K and under -- now you'd have to spend $400+.
Anyway, you get MoCo schools, wonderful neighbors, a real sense of community, and a short commute. There are fewer restaurants etc. (beyond local joints) but that's changing with downtown Silver Spring, etc. and you can always go into DC or over to Bethesda. Sure the crime is a bit higher than western MoCo but you can control that by choosing where in SS to live. It's very friendly, usually very liberal, with a diverse representation of races and cultures. I love it here. I could afford to go west but I don't want to leave! |
Anonymous
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PP here -- the $400K+ I mention is for a small cape cod or ranch. Maybe renovated kitchen and/or bath but not much of an addition for that price. Most of the houses in close-in SS are pretty small -- you won't find a big suburban house with a garage unless you go further out.
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Anonymous
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Totally doable on $150k!!
Montgomery and Fairfax both offer affordable housing in good school districts. And for those barely making it in $250K - they are living way beyond their means and way beyond what is actually necessary in the DC area. They are trying to keep up with their lawyer friends, send their kids to private school, drive expensive cars AND still take two vacations a year. If you can't make it in DC on $250K, you need a reality check. |