How are you able to afford the DC area - from an out-of-towner?

[Anonymous]

I live in the Midwest. $330,000, ten year old house with 2,600 square feet and a nice back yard. The other day may spouse and I were looking at the DC area cost of living because a recruiter called me about a job opportunity. So I went on realtor.com to look at houses. OMG, in Maryland a house built in 1951 for over $700,000 that looks like it needs work!

Let's say I earn $125,000 and the DC area pays more so I will get $140,000 or slightly more. After taxes, there is no way that increase makes up anywhere near the cost of living difference. Are most of you lawyers, lobbyists, or ex-military that join defense contractors? How can you afford that kind of housing unless you have a job like that or an inheritance? We figured out that if we moved, there would be no money left to do anything for fun. In fact, we figured out that it would cost less to stay in the Midwest and fly to DC 4 or 5 times a year to do things than move there. Culture is great, but if you can't afford to do anything, what good does it do to be near it?

[Anonymous]

Yes, please stay where you are. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

You forgot the traffic too. Live in an absurdly expensive dump to sit in traffic 2 hours a day.

[Anonymous]

OP, you are correct. Housing costs here are crazy. Stay where you are unless being in DC means a lot to you for other reasons. It costs a lot to live well here (at least in terms of housing).

[Anonymous]

How do we afford it? Well, we moved here from another state where we sold our 3500 SF SFH. Here, by contrast, we live in a townhome. It's a nice townhome and we are happy, but we downsized a lot to be here. That's how we do it.

[Anonymous]

What's the point of your post? Apparently, millions of us are finding a way to make it work. When you come to visit, remember to stand on the left when you go on the metro.

[Anonymous]

We adjust our priorities. Live in a smaller house, don't drive new cars and shop less. We value "culture" in all its iterations differently and care perhaps less about convenience and comfort and more about experience. (And more concretely, there are more opportunities to make more than 140K a year, once you are here and networking, than I imagine there are in the Midwest.) It's all about tradeoffs.

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is about 130K. We don't own a house yet. We plan to move before we buy one. Of course, if we hit it big with a bonus or job we'll stay, but that's unlikely.

[Anonymous]

Well, we r used to obsurdly high COL because we r from CA. My DH makes $120k and I am mostly SAH and we have plenty of fun and take two vacations a year. A toddler in daycare. We live just outside the beltway in a 2br condo, 1600sq ft. We aren't poor at that salary.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of people who have high incomes - like any major city.

The rest of us make choices. For example, do you value sq footage / backyard OR location?


Also - if you make $140K what does your spouse make? If you answer SAH, that is the other part of the equation that many families in DC can not afford to do.

[Anonymous]

Grew up here. Don't know any different. When I went to visit a friend in Kansas or Iowa or where the hell Average people live I was shocked how little she paid for her house.

Then again, she can't eat after 8, because everything is closed, and has to drive 30 miles to go shopping and I think the nearest museum is on Mars. So there is that.

[Anonymous]

20:50 you are an ass. OP- you are right. My husband and I both work- live in DC, crappy school area but lucked out on charters for both kids, make about 150k EACH, and do not have a great big back yard or lots of sq ft in our 800k home. We have a very easy commute to our jobs, like what we do, and have lots of family in the area. But I always said, if we could make anything close to our income now (and by close, I mean 60%) of it - or if my husband could make his income somewhere else (he is in tech, and gets 30% of his income for clearances, we should go. Here is the thing, other places would not have the same culture and city life we love, but we would have larger yards,less stress, and most importantly less assholes like 20:50.

[Anonymous]

Money. We make a lot of it.

[Anonymous]

Well, I know we do it by not living in a 700k house!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:20:50 you are an ass. OP- you are right. My husband and I both work- live in DC, crappy school area but lucked out on charters for both kids, make about 150k EACH, and do not have a great big back yard or lots of sq ft in our 800k home. We have a very easy commute to our jobs, like what we do, and have lots of family in the area. But I always said, if we could make anything close to our income now (and by close, I mean 60%) of it - or if my husband could make his income somewhere else (he is in tech, and gets 30% of his income for clearances, we should go. Here is the thing, other places would not have the same culture and city life we love, but we would have larger yards,less stress, and most importantly less assholes like 20:50.

Oh please. Not 20:50 but OP comes on here and snarks about DC. What do you expect is going to happen?