Who can afford 800K-1M homes? Genuine Curiosity!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an "insider," I can honestly say that no matter how "great" you think your elementary and middle schools are, they are simply driven by tests. So there's NO comparison. It's private all the way!

And to the sense of entitlement poster who claims private schools kids are sheltered - My child is not entitled. However, many of the students in the "W" clusters - who attend their local publics - are. And I won't go into how sheltered many of those kids are either. So don't kid yourself.

I don't know if I could reword your post to include any additional blanket statements about public schools (test driven), private schools (no comparison, all the way), private school students (not entitled or sheltered) and W cluster public school students (entitled and sheltered). Oh, and you're an "insider" and your readers are kidding themselves. Sheesh, get over yourself.

[Anonymous]

Bought a modest Arl. home for $250k in '88 (w/ $100k down thanks to savings & gifts from 2 sets of parents)...

sold that for $682k in '07 so had ~$500k in equity. Bought 3/4 mi. away for $825k (w/ $500k+ down).

I'm a GS15 govt. lawyer, wife makes ~$45k between 2 jobs (self employed 2 days/week, small company 3 days/wk) so HHI=~$200k. No kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bought a modest Arl. home for $250k in '88 (w/ $100k down thanks to savings & gifts from 2 sets of parents)...

sold that for $682k in '07 so had ~$500k in equity. Bought 3/4 mi. away for $825k (w/ $500k+ down).

I'm a GS15 govt. lawyer, wife makes ~$45k between 2 jobs (self employed 2 days/week, small company 3 days/wk) so HHI=~$200k. No kids.

If you're a dude, w/ no kids, and not a realtor, why are you on DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a ton of youngish (35-45) families buying $1m homes in NW.

The question was who can afford it, i.e. professions, source of income, etc., not whether you know any.

[Anonymous]

We just bought a house for a million dollars.

It's our 3rd home since 2001. We made a killing on the first one and are still coming out on top of the one we are selling now.

He is in Gov't Relations. We have no childcare expenses except for the occasional evening sitter which also helps a lot. Our children go to ACPS schools.

[Anonymous]

DC area has some of the highest paid households and highest educated households in the country, per capita and in absolute numbers.
Lawyers (ties Manhattan in sheer number of attys), financiers (IBs, PE, VC), entrepreneurs with tons of stock options (VC tech cooridor), World Bank/IMF/IFC, etc who often pay no income taxes, Embassy/consulate workers who have subsidized living, Fortune 500 C-level employees (tons of big cos in DC, MD and VA), Real Estate developers/asset managers (huge office, multifam, retail market), stipends), Sr Military (who also have living THink Tanks (high income if you publish), Gov't workers (clockwork pay increases based on tenure) and General Contractors (engineers, often US nationality only, pay up for talent and security clearances).

Furthermore, DC has the above AND often as a 2-fer: husband and wife make bank.

[Anonymous]

We have a row house in the city we bought in 2004 for $610k and never sold. We bought a $1.075 mill house in 2009.

No inheritance, never sold a home. Two very frugal people married for 7 years prior to procreating and buying first home at 34. We had HHI about $220k and since has hovered around $350-400k. Tenant pays mortgage on first home.

We are not lawyers or doctors. I am a scientist for FEds. DH is an independent IT consultant.

Down payments on both homes were from our own cash savings.

We met at 25/26 and had pooled income for many years. I think this is different from friends that met in 30s and popped out first kid right away.

[Anonymous]

We recently bought a house for $950 in Great Falls. Immediately did $30K of renovations before moving in. DH has a high paying job, I was in grad school at the time and therefore making nothing. We were first time home buyers. How we did it was to rent small apartments for the first 6 years of our marriage, saving up for a down payment. We didn't care that we didn't own for the first 6 years of our marriage, and we lived frugally those years. We were able to put down 20% so our mortgage payments are reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a row house in the city we bought in 2004 for $610k and never sold. We bought a $1.075 mill house in 2009.

No inheritance, never sold a home. Two very frugal people married for 7 years prior to procreating and buying first home at 34. We had HHI about $220k and since has hovered around $350-400k. Tenant pays mortgage on first home.

We are not lawyers or doctors. I am a scientist for FEds. DH is an independent IT consultant.

Down payments on both homes were from our own cash savings.

We met at 25/26 and had pooled income for many years. I think this is different from friends that met in 30s and popped out first kid right away.

We drive Hondas we paid cash for--if that helps too. I am into houses and walkability. I don't give a shit what I drive since I rarely do.

[Anonymous]

This thread is interesting. I have a question, if you need to be in banking, law, and similar to afford these DC homes...then where do the middle class of DC live? Do they all commute from the outer suburbs? Where do the teachers, social workers, small business owners, accountants live?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is interesting. I have a question, if you need to be in banking, law, and similar to afford these DC homes...then where do the middle class of DC live? Do they all commute from the outer suburbs? Where do the teachers, social workers, small business owners, accountants live?

we do smaller, older homes inside the beltway, or look at bigger, newer build and have a longer commute. we went with the former, and are happy.

the concentration of highly paid people here is high, possibly higher than other, larger U.S. cities. while DC may not have the super outlier multi-millionaire hedge fund founders, it does have millionaires, as well as a large band of people paid $200,000 per year, including Club Feds. they can afford those $800,000+ homes.

[Anonymous]

Plus tenured professors and doctors. this IS a university town and several teaching hospitals with senior staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is interesting. I have a question, if you need to be in banking, law, and similar to afford these DC homes...then where do the middle class of DC live? Do they all commute from the outer suburbs? Where do the teachers, social workers, small business owners, accountants live?

They live in Arlington/Alexandria condos, Fairfax townhouses, and Loudoun/PWC houses and have a greater tolerance for commuting than most on here will cop to. I will say this -- someone determined to be miserable will be miserable -- if they don't have a 45 minute each way commute, they'll find something else to be miserable about.

Remember, not everyone works in DC these days.

[Anonymous]

this one, apparently
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/225820.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a row house in the city we bought in 2004 for $610k and never sold. We bought a $1.075 mill house in 2009.

No inheritance, never sold a home. Two very frugal people married for 7 years prior to procreating and buying first home at 34. We had HHI about $220k and since has hovered around $350-400k. Tenant pays mortgage on first home.

We are not lawyers or doctors. I am a scientist for FEds. DH is an independent IT consultant.

Down payments on both homes were from our own cash savings.

We met at 25/26 and had pooled income for many years. I think this is different from friends that met in 30s and popped out first kid right away.

good "friend" you are

condescending much?