DC housing priorities and the dearth of 'family housing'

[Anonymous]

I would argue that there is no shortage of family housing in DC as a whole. In fact, as I drive around my corner of NW and NE, there are row houses such as you described as far as the eye can see. The issue at hand isn't supply of family-friendly housing, it's supply of affordable family-friendly housing in desirable areas.

+1

P.S. -- As a lifelong Washingtonian, I beg you not to root for the local football team. It's not good for your sanity.

+1000

[Anonymous]

There's tons of family housing in DC.

Just not in the cool outside of DCUM neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

The city has no desire to lure families...much better to have singles and DINKs. These groups pay more in taxes than they consume in services. DC has actively encouraged developers to build smaller units for years, and the market has responded.

[Anonymous]

OP you are one of only a relatively few people that want to raise a family in the district. Everyone else prefers good schools and low crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I suppose we could pack into a condo but let's face it, DC is not New York. It would be tough to justify a New York-like existence with DC amenities (as good as they are). Additionally, I suppose we could move out to Aldie, but frankly we can live in the suburbs anywhere, and sitting in traffic around here is obviously miserable.

I guess. It just seems more and more the norm in many cities these days for more families to live in condos. Not to mention in Europe and much of Asia where land is more dense, even in "lower amenity" cities, it is far more the norm for kids to grow up in condo/flat style housing. As Americans, we're pretty spoiled.

Yep. It's quite the norm for cities to have mostly condos/apartments. Look at any major city in the world.

My friends in Berlin and Paris all had to move outside the city center to have a more typical family home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you are one of only a relatively few people that want to raise a family in the district. Everyone else prefers good schools and low crime.

That's not true anymore. My DCPS is full to bursting with kids from families who have the means to move elsewhere but chose to stay in the city. DC is a great place and I'm happy to be raising my kids here instead of MoCo where I grew up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are one of only a relatively few people that want to raise a family in the district. Everyone else prefers good schools and low crime.

That's not true anymore. My DCPS is full to bursting with kids from families who have the means to move elsewhere but chose to stay in the city. DC is a great place and I'm happy to be raising my kids here instead of MoCo where I grew up.

Yes--DC has a lot of areas that are more suburban than the suburbs!! A lot of the those far-reaching NW suburbs are less urban than close-in with nothing to walk to.

I think, perhaps, OP is talking more along the lines of the urban center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are one of only a relatively few people that want to raise a family in the district. Everyone else prefers good schools and low crime.

That's not true anymore. My DCPS is full to bursting with kids from families who have the means to move elsewhere but chose to stay in the city. DC is a great place and I'm happy to be raising my kids here instead of MoCo where I grew up.

Once kindergarten hits A lot of people leave or use private school, even more by the time high school hits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are one of only a relatively few people that want to raise a family in the district. Everyone else prefers good schools and low crime.

That's not true anymore. My DCPS is full to bursting with kids from families who have the means to move elsewhere but chose to stay in the city. DC is a great place and I'm happy to be raising my kids here instead of MoCo where I grew up.

Once kindergarten hits A lot of people leave or use private school, even more by the time high school hits.

That used to be the case. However, I am consistently surprised by the number of parents (often who went to private schools themselves) have been opting to keep their DC in through high school. It's just not a general rule of thumb the way it used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are one of only a relatively few people that want to raise a family in the district. Everyone else prefers good schools and low crime.

That's not true anymore. My DCPS is full to bursting with kids from families who have the means to move elsewhere but chose to stay in the city. DC is a great place and I'm happy to be raising my kids here instead of MoCo where I grew up.

Once kindergarten hits A lot of people leave or use private school, even more by the time high school hits.

That used to be the case. However, I am consistently surprised by the number of parents (often who went to private schools themselves) have been opting to keep their DC in through high school. It's just not a general rule of thumb the way it used to be.

Many are broke and can't afford it. It will be interesting to see what happens 5 years from now once this experiment has concluded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^My point is, why/when did development 'stop' building new ""family"" houses?

Until the last 15 years, DC was losing residents at a steady clip. Many of those that left were families who headed out to the suburbs leaving their row houses behind. I would argue that there is no shortage of family housing in DC as a whole. In fact, as I drive around my corner of NW and NE, there are row houses such as you described as far as the eye can see. The issue at hand isn't supply of family-friendly housing, it's supply of affordable family-friendly housing in desirable areas. However, with land being as expensive as it is, there is no incentive for developers to build row houses when they can build luxury apartments, particularly in the city center. Apart from financial considerations, many urban planners would argue against the wisdom of building single-family housing in the areas where these condos are going up. The buzz word these days is "density."

Your best bet is to look a bit further afield. There are many lovely neighborhoods throughout the city that provide solid housing stock and short commutes. They might just be places you didn't think you would want to live 10 years ago. The city is changing rapidly, you could be making a really smart investment.

P.S. -- As a lifelong Washingtonian, I beg you not to root for the local football team. It's not good for your sanity.

Actually that's not quite it. There are plenty of family-friendly homes in desirable areas... 3-4br homes in Cleveland Park, Tenleytown, Capitol Hill, etc. Heck, there are even some rowhouses in Logan Circle and Dupont that haven't yet been split into condos.

It's just that all of those homes are very expensive. The problem is lack of affordable homes for families in desirable (i.e. safe, access to good schools) neighborhoods. This is just a problem that is created by the overall low level of supply in DC compared to high demand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are one of only a relatively few people that want to raise a family in the district. Everyone else prefers good schools and low crime.

That's not true anymore. My DCPS is full to bursting with kids from families who have the means to move elsewhere but chose to stay in the city. DC is a great place and I'm happy to be raising my kids here instead of MoCo where I grew up.

Once kindergarten hits A lot of people leave or use private school, even more by the time high school hits.

That used to be the case. However, I am consistently surprised by the number of parents (often who went to private schools themselves) have been opting to keep their DC in through high school. It's just not a general rule of thumb the way it used to be.

Many are broke and can't afford it. It will be interesting to see what happens 5 years from now once this experiment has concluded.

How are they not able to afford to move to the suburbs? If they have a house in DC they should be able to sell and find something comparable in MoCo or Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^My point is, why/when did development 'stop' building new ""family"" houses?

Until the last 15 years, DC was losing residents at a steady clip. Many of those that left were families who headed out to the suburbs leaving their row houses behind. I would argue that there is no shortage of family housing in DC as a whole. In fact, as I drive around my corner of NW and NE, there are row houses such as you described as far as the eye can see. The issue at hand isn't supply of family-friendly housing, it's supply of affordable family-friendly housing in desirable areas. However, with land being as expensive as it is, there is no incentive for developers to build row houses when they can build luxury apartments, particularly in the city center. Apart from financial considerations, many urban planners would argue against the wisdom of building single-family housing in the areas where these condos are going up. The buzz word these days is "density."

Your best bet is to look a bit further afield. There are many lovely neighborhoods throughout the city that provide solid housing stock and short commutes. They might just be places you didn't think you would want to live 10 years ago. The city is changing rapidly, you could be making a really smart investment.

P.S. -- As a lifelong Washingtonian, I beg you not to root for the local football team. It's not good for your sanity.

Actually that's not quite it. There are plenty of family-friendly homes in desirable areas... 3-4br homes in Cleveland Park, Tenleytown, Capitol Hill, etc. Heck, there are even some rowhouses in Logan Circle and Dupont that haven't yet been split into condos.

It's just that all of those homes are very expensive. The problem is lack of affordable homes for families in desirable (i.e. safe, access to good schools) neighborhoods. This is just a problem that is created by the overall low level of supply in DC compared to high demand.

Oh, sorry, I just noticed that you also included the "affordable" qualifier, so we're saying the same thing.

[Anonymous]

OP, I definitely understand your frustration, as a parent who wants to stay in DC. I live in Columbia Heights in a 1.5 bedroom apartment that rents for the same price friends of mine pay for their mortgage on a rowhouse in the suburbs that has one bedroom more than my place does. I agree with the poster who remarked on the European cafe lifestyle and (at least one) reason for its existence.

I find it frustrating sometimes that we live in a small place, but it was a choice we made in order to remain close to other aspects of our life. I'm not saying that there are not trade offs, but they are trade offs that we made willingly and knowingly. I know a lot of people who moved to the suburbs when their kids were born. I also know a lot of people who bought "smaller" (read: <1500 square feet) rowhouses in various parts of the city for huge amounts of money when they had kids. Some of these neighborhoods are "not desirable" for parents due to school concerns - including Columbia Heights, Petworth, Shaw, etc. Note: there are a lot of families who live in these areas who do send their kids to neighborhood schools - school choice and relocation are luxuries that many, many families in DC simply do not have.

I think that your expectations of changing the DC housing market are unrealistic. It is simply more profitable for developers to knock down a block of 2-3 floor single family rowhouses that would need major renovations to be habitable and put in a 5-10 floor apartment building that can be divided into 0-2 bedroom condos/apartments that rent for $1500-3000/month. It's a better investment for them long term, as there are always new 20- and 30-somethings moving to the area who will rent those units. Developers by and large do not care about the sustainability and stability of the community. They don't care if you live there until you have a kid and then move somewhere else. They likely will not have too much trouble filling your place after you leave.

My choice was to adjust my expectations of what "life with a family" looks like. I wasn't raised in a city. I was raised in a medium sized college town in the midwest. My mom stayed home with us until my youngest sibling was in elementary school. We went to the neighborhood schools, with the neighborhood kids, and generally there was not tension between "living in the city" or "living in the suburbs". There were not a lot of apartments outside of campus, so everyone basically lived in the same kind of house unless they were really poor or under 22 years old. Housing prices were relatively stable and also affordable on one decent income or two smaller incomes. Childcare did not cost the same as an apartment. DC is different than that. There are a lot of really exciting things that I love about raising a child in the city. I just had to let go of the idea that DD's childhood would look exactly like mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are one of only a relatively few people that want to raise a family in the district. Everyone else prefers good schools and low crime.

That's not true anymore. My DCPS is full to bursting with kids from families who have the means to move elsewhere but chose to stay in the city. DC is a great place and I'm happy to be raising my kids here instead of MoCo where I grew up.

Once kindergarten hits A lot of people leave or use private school, even more by the time high school hits.

That used to be the case. However, I am consistently surprised by the number of parents (often who went to private schools themselves) have been opting to keep their DC in through high school. It's just not a general rule of thumb the way it used to be.

Many are broke and can't afford it. It will be interesting to see what happens 5 years from now once this experiment has concluded.

In these instances it isn't a matter of being able to afford it. Plus people could always move. My cohort is old enough to have purchased before the housing boom of the early 2000s. They have huge amounts of equity built up and houses in our neighborhood are in great demand.