DC Chosen Best Place to Raise a Family

[Anonymous]

Sorry 11:37 was in re: southern California housing being significantly cheaper. It's not; it looks to be in line with the DC.

[Anonymous]

I'm the first poster who brought up the issue of schools. We actually looked to buy in Capitol Hill, but felt we were priced out. Instead, we live in Alexandria City (Del Ray), in a place that was probably $100-$200k cheaper for the same size space (1600 sf). We love our 'hood, and our schools are probably no better or no worse than the schools in Capitol Hill (I don't really know), and I certainly don't think we're abusing our son by sending him them to our neighborhood elementary school with the okay-ish test scores. Like many parents who live in the city, the issue gets trickier as our sons gets older. Do we send him to the high school with the so-so rep? Do we want to be living in such close quarters with a teenaged son? I don't have the answers. More than likely, we will end up moving to a more "affordable" city so that we can live in a small house within city limits (and either go private or public, depending on the place). Of course, the term affordable is subjective, but I don't think you can argue that DC has one of the highest costs of living in the country.

So, given some of the issues we've encountered living here with two working parents with good jobs, the article bugged me. That was and is my only point. Please don't hate on us suburbanites. Many of us don't hate city folk but are simply working within the confines of our somewhat limited resources.

[Anonymous]

Parenting.com also listed Omaha as one of the best cities. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

I don't want daily urban stress...

Different folks have different stressors, obviously. The most stressful two years of my life were the period where I had to commute to Rockville from the city every morning. It turned me into a completely different person--and not in a good way. I cannot spend that much time in a car ever again.

Where did you move? West Virginia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure that's the case:

3BR/2.5BA house in San Diego for $745k

Within walking distance to the "good stuff" in SD.

Where are the cheap houses in walkable parts of SD?

All over! The market crashed. Foreclosures are everywhere. If you are financially set now is a great time to buy in SD. We still own our house and are 100k underwater. No we did not buy at the peak of the market - we bought in 2003.

The other thing is that the good stuff in San Diego is spread out, the museums are not nearly as great here and are only free on Tuesdays.

I don't want to debate. I lived in San Diego for ten years and I love it there. But now we are here and DC pretty awesome too. Again, currently DC is more expensive, but my salary went up 20% here, so for us it is pretty much a wash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the first poster who brought up the issue of schools. We actually looked to buy in Capitol Hill, but felt we were priced out. Instead, we live in Alexandria City (Del Ray), in a place that was probably $100-$200k cheaper for the same size space (1600 sf). We love our 'hood, and our schools are probably no better or no worse than the schools in Capitol Hill (I don't really know), and I certainly don't think we're abusing our son by sending him them to our neighborhood elementary school with the okay-ish test scores. Like many parents who live in the city, the issue gets trickier as our sons gets older. Do we send him to the high school with the so-so rep? Do we want to be living in such close quarters with a teenaged son? I don't have the answers. More than likely, we will end up moving to a more "affordable" city so that we can live in a small house within city limits (and either go private or public, depending on the place). Of course, the term affordable is subjective, but I don't think you can argue that DC has one of the highest costs of living in the country.

This is one of those things that everyone knows to be true, but which is only true in a limited sense: DC's cost of living is roughly on par with Boston. So it has one of the "highest costs of living in the country" in the sense that all top-tier cities with high salaries and viable economies have high costs of living.

http://activerain.com/blogsview/311916/washington-d-c-area-cost-of-living-high-but-not-the-highest

A pretty good summary of the issues here:

And that’s where Greater Washington DC really stands out. It is a big diverse metro – the nation’s eighth largest. It is a human capital magnet, home to four of the five counties nationwide with the highest concentrations of college educated adults and the third largest creative class concentration in the nation. With an unemployment rate of just 5.4 percent, the second lowest of any metro with more than one million people, its economy has proven to be among the nation’s most resilient. Still, its housing prices and overall cost of living allow it to remain relatively affordable, providing great value for its residents. And it’s the only large metro in the country to see its housing values appreciate over the past year (more here). While most commentators and economic developers remain fixated on trying to build the next Silicon Valley, replicating aspects of LA’s film industry, or trying to generate New York-style entertainment clusters, it’s worth paying a good deal more attention to what’s behind greater Washington’s capacity to strike such a nice balance between clustering, and affordability, allowing its residents’ paychecks to stretch much further than most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parenting.com also listed Omaha as one of the best cities. Seriously.

and my guess is that this is the OP's point. DC has tons going for it in terms of culture, opportunities and so forth. BUT, to your average suburban American reading Parenting magazine, for lower-end housing (read: condo or tiny townhome) in a decent or good neighborhood to run at least $600K, DC is not affordable which is supposedly one of the criteria that Parenting is using. Who knows, maybe they use some sort of algorithm that weights the museums and history higher than the cost of living or hit or miss school quality.

People who would choose Omaha are different than the people who would choose DC. And, remember, they do this sort of survey every year. You can't list the same 20 cities year after year, so they have to get creative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure that's the case:

3BR/2.5BA house in San Diego for $745k

Within walking distance to the "good stuff" in SD.

Where are the cheap houses in walkable parts of SD?

All over! The market crashed. Foreclosures are everywhere. If you are financially set now is a great time to buy in SD. We still own our house and are 100k underwater. No we did not buy at the peak of the market - we bought in 2003.

The other thing is that the good stuff in San Diego is spread out, the museums are not nearly as great here and are only free on Tuesdays.

I don't want to debate. I lived in San Diego for ten years and I love it there. But now we are here and DC pretty awesome too. Again, currently DC is more expensive, but my salary went up 20% here, so for us it is pretty much a wash.

Sorry, didn't mean to be combative. I was genuinely curious. I think you're point about SD being spread out is a good one: the bottom line is that outside a few cities on the East Coast and Chicago, there just aren't that many relatively dense (e.g. you can walk to the theater) places. That's a large part of why you pay a premium. DC is one of only a few such places, and when compared to comparable cities, it's relatively cheap.

Of course, you could argue that housing in any such environment is expensive, but that's a different ball of wax. For folks who want to live in a walkable/bikeable neighborhood with amenities, saying Manassass is cheap compared to DC is like saying a golf cart is cheap compared to a car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure that's the case:

3BR/2.5BA house in San Diego for $745k

Within walking distance to the "good stuff" in SD.

Where are the cheap houses in walkable parts of SD?

All over! The market crashed. Foreclosures are everywhere. If you are financially set now is a great time to buy in SD. We still own our house and are 100k underwater. No we did not buy at the peak of the market - we bought in 2003.

The other thing is that the good stuff in San Diego is spread out, the museums are not nearly as great here and are only free on Tuesdays.

I don't want to debate. I lived in San Diego for ten years and I love it there. But now we are here and DC pretty awesome too. Again, currently DC is more expensive, but my salary went up 20% here, so for us it is pretty much a wash.

I used to live in Hillcrest and loved it. I could walk to Balboa Park, restaurants, bars, and catch a quick cab ride downtown or to Little Italy. Miss it, but I like my DC neighborhood too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parenting.com also listed Omaha as one of the best cities. Seriously.

I bet this poster has never been to Omaha. People choose where to live for different reasons, and frankly if you want/need to live in the middle of the country and want to live in a mid-sized city, Omaha is a pretty good choice and has a lot to offer (though obviously not as much as NY, DC, SF, because it's smaller. Same thing with Austin (which is listed second).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure that's the case:

3BR/2.5BA house in San Diego for $745k

Within walking distance to the "good stuff" in SD.

Where are the cheap houses in walkable parts of SD?

All over! The market crashed. Foreclosures are everywhere. If you are financially set now is a great time to buy in SD. We still own our house and are 100k underwater. No we did not buy at the peak of the market - we bought in 2003.

The other thing is that the good stuff in San Diego is spread out, the museums are not nearly as great here and are only free on Tuesdays.

I don't want to debate. I lived in San Diego for ten years and I love it there. But now we are here and DC pretty awesome too. Again, currently DC is more expensive, but my salary went up 20% here, so for us it is pretty much a wash.

Sorry, didn't mean to be combative. I was genuinely curious. I think you're point about SD being spread out is a good one: the bottom line is that outside a few cities on the East Coast and Chicago, there just aren't that many relatively dense (e.g. you can walk to the theater) places. That's a large part of why you pay a premium. DC is one of only a few such places, and when compared to comparable cities, it's relatively cheap.

Of course, you could argue that housing in any such environment is expensive, but that's a different ball of wax. For folks who want to live in a walkable/bikeable neighborhood with amenities, saying Manassass is cheap compared to DC is like saying a golf cart is cheap compared to a car.

Agreed. At some point I hope that the houses will be back to the ridiculous, but sustainable prices in SD. Downtown SD is not the mecca that is DC. DC would be comparable city wise to Chicago, LA and NYC. Of those four, DC wins for best family lifestyle hands down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parenting.com also listed Omaha as one of the best cities. Seriously.

and my guess is that this is the OP's point. DC has tons going for it in terms of culture, opportunities and so forth. BUT, to your average suburban American reading Parenting magazine, for lower-end housing (read: condo or tiny townhome) in a decent or good neighborhood to run at least $600K, DC is not affordable which is supposedly one of the criteria that Parenting is using. Who knows, maybe they use some sort of algorithm that weights the museums and history higher than the cost of living or hit or miss school quality.

People who would choose Omaha are different than the people who would choose DC. And, remember, they do this sort of survey every year. You can't list the same 20 cities year after year, so they have to get creative.

You can get a 3BR/2.5BA 2500+ square foot townhouse in Columbia Heights for $600k. That whole area is experiencing a middle-class baby boom, and is right near EL Haynes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parenting.com also listed Omaha as one of the best cities. Seriously.

I bet this poster has never been to Omaha. People choose where to live for different reasons, and frankly if you want/need to live in the middle of the country and want to live in a mid-sized city, Omaha is a pretty good choice and has a lot to offer (though obviously not as much as NY, DC, SF, because it's smaller. Same thing with Austin (which is listed second).

I'm the PP, and I had to spend a week and a half in Omaha. That was enough for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can get a 3BR/2.5BA 2500+ square foot townhouse in Columbia Heights for $600k. That whole area is experiencing a middle-class baby boom, and is right near EL Haynes.

And for most people not living on either coast, $600K buys you a mansion. My parents are currently selling their home in the suburbs of a medium-size Midwest city. 3500sq ft, 5 acres of land, good schools. Asking price is about $330K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parenting.com also listed Omaha as one of the best cities. Seriously.

I bet this poster has never been to Omaha. People choose where to live for different reasons, and frankly if you want/need to live in the middle of the country and want to live in a mid-sized city, Omaha is a pretty good choice and has a lot to offer (though obviously not as much as NY, DC, SF, because it's smaller. Same thing with Austin (which is listed second).

I'm the PP, and I had to spend a week and a half in Omaha. That was enough for me.

I just heard a story on NPR about how Omaha was becoming the new city for hipsters due to its alternative music/theater scene downtown. You never know...