I will never be able to afford a house in Arlington

[Anonymous]

Do you have to be in Arlington, could you move across the Potomac to MD? Or move further out in VA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Let’s say we can add 20% more housing. It will still not meet demand. And therefore we will still have high prices.

Supply, demand.

The jobs need to be more spread out then, both at the national and regional level. Move more federal jobs to Fairfax, Gaithersburg, Frederick, and Fort Meade. The schools in Gambrills, Odenton, Crofton, Arnold, Severna Park, Davidsonville, Edgewater, Urbana, and almost all of Howard County are much more desirable than the vast majority of schools in Arlington as well. There’s lots of amenities in this region besides DC: Frederick, Annapolis, Baltimore, and Columbia. Some of these places are near MARCs and the metro as well, so if one spouse works in one place and the other works in DC, they’d still have easy access to it.

You can't force companies to locate in specific locations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so----
you picked a job with a low salary ceiling
you chose to have a baby
you chose to have a baby with a so-so husband or boyfriend
you chose to not stick with said baby daddy
you are choosing to target one of the most expensive areas in the metro


You need to make better decisions or accept your reality because it is all due to you or lack of there

i don't share with that assessment. life happens and you can't force things.. like trying to force yourself to live in arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have lived in Arlington for 15 years, mostly as a renter. I bought a condo a couple of years ago because that’s what I can afford and I wanted to stay in Arlington for the commute and because my kids are in school here. I’m in my mid 40s. I’m a single mom. Income of $170k. Even if I sell this condo in a few years and break even or make a small profit and am able to roll that money into a down payment on a larger home, I will never be able to afford the monthly payment on a larger home because my income isn’t going up. I’m maxed out as a GS15. So my choices are live in a condo forever, change jobs, or move further out, right? There is no property ladder for me.

Move further out is the easy answer. We make $240k and couldn’t afford an older but nice enough 4bedroom house in North Arlington even five years ago. We moved to outside the beltway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have something very rare that given our geography some underappreciate - a high paying job you can't be fired from and a pension. You can get that SFH, just not now or not in Arlington, but in the meantime you should wake up singing every day.

I was just wondering what her job title was, to get $170k after 20 years in the government. $170k is very high for GS salaries. In my agency,, you have to be an Administrative Law Judges to make $170k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have lived in Arlington for 15 years, mostly as a renter. I bought a condo a couple of years ago because that’s what I can afford and I wanted to stay in Arlington for the commute and because my kids are in school here. I’m in my mid 40s. I’m a single mom. Income of $170k. Even if I sell this condo in a few years and break even or make a small profit and am able to roll that money into a down payment on a larger home, I will never be able to afford the monthly payment on a larger home because my income isn’t going up. I’m maxed out as a GS15. So my choices are live in a condo forever, change jobs, or move further out, right? There is no property ladder for me.

Move further out is the easy answer. We make $240k and couldn’t afford an older but nice enough 4bedroom house in North Arlington even five years ago. We moved to outside the beltway.

She is just going to have to stay in that condo or look for a townhouse while the kids are in daycare and probably in elementary school. If you have to do drop off and pick up and have to work 8.5 hours at your job, you need to be very close to daycare/aftercare from your job. Once life opens up again, you can’t do it everyday from downtown to outside the beltway. I worked six miles from daycare, dropped my kid at 7:45, wasn’t reliably at work until 8:30, left at five, and more days than not I was stressing about making it back by six. And that’s staying in central and north Arlington and McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have something very rare that given our geography some underappreciate - a high paying job you can't be fired from and a pension. You can get that SFH, just not now or not in Arlington, but in the meantime you should wake up singing every day.

I was just wondering what her job title was, to get $170k after 20 years in the government. $170k is very high for GS salaries. In my agency,, you have to be an Administrative Law Judges to make $170k.

It’s a maxed out GS-15 in the DC area. Because of the bunching at the top, it starts at a 15/7. Not uncommon for lawyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have lived in Arlington for 15 years, mostly as a renter. I bought a condo a couple of years ago because that’s what I can afford and I wanted to stay in Arlington for the commute and because my kids are in school here. I’m in my mid 40s. I’m a single mom. Income of $170k. Even if I sell this condo in a few years and break even or make a small profit and am able to roll that money into a down payment on a larger home, I will never be able to afford the monthly payment on a larger home because my income isn’t going up. I’m maxed out as a GS15. So my choices are live in a condo forever, change jobs, or move further out, right? There is no property ladder for me.

News flash: millions upon millions of metro DC residents have eventually realized this, welcome to the club.

[Anonymous]

Op can afford Arlington. I bought a house recently with a substantially lower salary, but...it’s in south Arlington. Most commercial areas in DC (Farragut Sq, Navy Yard, Metro Center etc) are a 30-45 minute door to door commute away depending on transfers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have something very rare that given our geography some underappreciate - a high paying job you can't be fired from and a pension. You can get that SFH, just not now or not in Arlington, but in the meantime you should wake up singing every day.

I was just wondering what her job title was, to get $170k after 20 years in the government. $170k is very high for GS salaries. In my agency,, you have to be an Administrative Law Judges to make $170k.

Fed Scientists (non judge) at my agency make slightly more than that amount at GS-14. PTO. They offer up to $15k in yearly production bonuses on top of base which is at competitive rate.

[Anonymous]

Same situation even the gs issue. But I don’t like Arlington anymore. I was here before the Whole Foods when the resturants were all family owned and authentic . Now it’s just bros and skanks.
If I stay in Arlington it will be further out near falls church, McLean, direction. But frankly, I’m looking at Rockville (Maryland bad word I know), Potomac, McLean , great falls (all fixer uppers on my budget and Alexandria and Springfield at the bottom. Also I have a plan to move warmer (so fl or so ca) as I get closer to KMA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op can afford Arlington. I bought a house recently with a substantially lower salary, but...it’s in south Arlington. Most commercial areas in DC (Farragut Sq, Navy Yard, Metro Center etc) are a 30-45 minute door to door commute away depending on transfers.

Ok we all no south Arlington is not the Arlington people are interested in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op can afford Arlington. I bought a house recently with a substantially lower salary, but...it’s in south Arlington. Most commercial areas in DC (Farragut Sq, Navy Yard, Metro Center etc) are a 30-45 minute door to door commute away depending on transfers.

Ok we all no south Arlington is not the Arlington people are interested in.

Which is fantastic because it’s a great place to live but not as expensive as other areas in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op can afford Arlington. I bought a house recently with a substantially lower salary, but...it’s in south Arlington. Most commercial areas in DC (Farragut Sq, Navy Yard, Metro Center etc) are a 30-45 minute door to door commute away depending on transfers.

Ok we all no south Arlington is not the Arlington people are interested in.

Which is fantastic because it’s a great place to live but not as expensive as other areas in Arlington.

But that is changing daily despite the ACB efforts to ghettoize Columbia Pike

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op can afford Arlington. I bought a house recently with a substantially lower salary, but...it’s in south Arlington. Most commercial areas in DC (Farragut Sq, Navy Yard, Metro Center etc) are a 30-45 minute door to door commute away depending on transfers.

Ok we all no south Arlington is not the Arlington people are interested in.

Which is fantastic because it’s a great place to live but not as expensive as other areas in Arlington.

But that is changing daily despite the ACB efforts to ghettoize Columbia Pike

Do you mean giving poor people a place to live?