Chantilly High or Langley?

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03/14/2022 14:23

Subject: Chantilly High or Langley?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those are two very different communities and your housing budget would place you in very different social places - you’d be rich at Chantilly and poor at Langley. What are your other priorities?

I hear you. May be that’s the reason I want to move to GF.
We are an Asian couple and part of me wants to transition to that social strata.

DH is afraid to make that transition. I want kids to have that taste of a different social circle. My personal belief is that you become what group you are part of. We combined make around 275K and I am sure we would be in lower spectrum at Langley.

Please enlighten or correct me if my way of thinking is wrong.
Is there a different lens I should be looking through as well?

We make what you do and I would not want to spend that much money on a mortgage. We prefer to be saving for retirement, college, and other activities. Intentionally moving into a rich school knowing that you are likely to be at the top end of your budget means knowing that your kids are not going to have what their peers have. They are not likely to travel to the places their peers travel to or have the same clothes or shoes or cars. They are going to have different opportunities for colleges.

Do you really think that it is important enough to be surrounded by a different social strata that you are willing to deal with the downsides of hearing your kids talk about the trips they can't take and things they can't do that their peers are doing?

Personally, and it is 100% based on your own priorities, I would buy a house that I can more easily afford and where my kids don't feel deprived based on their classmates experiences. But that is me. I also don't care about social circles or buy into pressuring kids so they can go to schools with the elite for the networks. Different mind sets.

+1. We lived in a 600k townhouse zoned for Oakton— a decade ago, before prices jumped. Your zoning or house alone doesn’t buy you cachet. It the know people since your kids were in K and having on the nicest mansions in the nicest neighborhood, and having the staff, and driving the luxury car— and buying them for your kids, and taking the luxury vacations and placing a high premium of materialism— newest iproduct for the kid, in Oakton, mom to working and available for yoga and lunch. Buying the house is not enough to move your kids up a social stata. They need to buy the cars and clothes and vacations and SAHM their peers have.

I wouldn’t do it on our income(about 350k). We are paying and saving a lot for college and my kids can share the used Toyota. And we are saving a lot for retirement.

I would also say with what you should pay for a house— 2-3x your income— You are going to have to be fast and lucky to get a house in Franklin Fram, Oak Hill, Armfield Farm. Nice SF houses are going for more than 800k because Chantilly has become a “hot”pyramid. You won’t be rich. You will be comfortable. Although I certainly know 250-300k couple taking out loans and stressing about college because they over extended.

I wouldn’t spend more than 80k, staring down the barrel of college tuition.