maybe housing in dc isn't as expensive as everyone thinks

[Anonymous]

A lot of us have jobs that don't even involve work, so it makes sense that houses are cheaper here based on the work we do vs. what we get paid to do.

[Anonymous]

I think until real estate agents stop thinking that AA neighborhoods are automatically low income, nothing will change. There are places with predom AA communities like Largo and Laurel which have a high AA middle class population, in really nice homes, but because they are AA communities, their values are much lower. Until that stigma changes, it will lead to further eradication of the black middle class in the region.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Half the city though is not livable because of high crime and terrible schools. It's easy to state things aren't expensive when you are looking across all values when half the properties included are in very high crime areas. No one wants to raise their family in an area where you have to risk life and death just to save on a mortgage.

Racist much?

Worthless without telling us where YOU live and your HHI.

It’s easy for the Bethesda and Upper Ward 3 crowd to call folks racist.

Until DC fully gentrifies (aka get rid of the low income poc East of the anacostia), DC will never meet its full potential. There’s so many good houses and neighborhoods with potential. Time for Mayor Bowser to raise the property taxes on ward 7 and 8.

I can’t wait until that issue is resolved. I’d like to buy at least two homes there.

You want to wait until prices increase to buy? You’re not smart. And also racist.

We’re not racist. The policies that the housing market is run by is racist. POC neighborhoods don’t appreciate in value like white neighborhoods do. Even decently maintained black neighborhoods don’t. Just look at PG County for example. Don’t blame the buyers, blame the industry for sticking with outdated guidelines like redlining.

This is utter nonsense.

If you bought a house 15 years ago in Brookland or Petworth or Eckington or along H Street or any number of other historically black neighborhoods, the value of your home would have grown several times as fast as if you had bought in Tenleytown.

PG County prices are low because white people (like those pushing to change zoning laws) are afraid of being in predominantly black neighborhoods and won't move there (that is, until someone else gentrifies it for them -- by which time they'll then complain PG county is too expensive).

I bought in Petworth more than a decade ago, lived there for nine years, sold my house and bought in Ward 3, and now that I'm here, I, also, think home prices in Tenleytown are too expensive and the city should do something to make it way easier for people with less money than I have to move here. No one is pushing to change zoning in places like Petworth, which is already zoned for more density than Tenleytown is; your apparent belief that self-interest by single young white men is the only reason anyone wants to upzone Tenleytown is wrong. Why would a single person in their 20s want to live in Tenleytown? The idea is to make it more affordable for families.

Increasing density is anti-family. People with kids don't want to live in friggin' condos. Condos are for people who don't have children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think until real estate agents stop thinking that AA neighborhoods are automatically low income, nothing will change. There are places with predom AA communities like Largo and Laurel which have a high AA middle class population, in really nice homes, but because they are AA communities, their values are much lower. Until that stigma changes, it will lead to further eradication of the black middle class in the region.

Real estate agents? Give me a break. Real estate agents don't care where their clients buy. They just want to make sales, and collect their commissions.

Gentrification and increasing density is what pushes black people out of DC. Look at Petworth or any number of other neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think until real estate agents stop thinking that AA neighborhoods are automatically low income, nothing will change. There are places with predom AA communities like Largo and Laurel which have a high AA middle class population, in really nice homes, but because they are AA communities, their values are much lower. Until that stigma changes, it will lead to further eradication of the black middle class in the region.

People simply value safe areas with strong schools. Due to poverty and racism, African Americans tend to be more involved in criminal activity and they either don’t value education or don’t know how to prioritize it due to structural racism. This is why white people don’t gravitate to black neighborhoods.

Send me one SAFE area with strong public schools that is mostly black and I will consider moving there.

There are safe and well educated black communities in other states but I’m unaware of any in dmv.

[Anonymous]

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This is utter nonsense.

If you bought a house 15 years ago in Brookland or Petworth or Eckington or along H Street or any number of other historically black neighborhoods, the value of your home would have grown several times as fast as if you had bought in Tenleytown.

PG County prices are low because white people (like those pushing to change zoning laws) are afraid of being in predominantly black neighborhoods and won't move there (that is, until someone else gentrifies it for them -- by which time they'll then complain PG county is too expensive).

I bought in Petworth more than a decade ago, lived there for nine years, sold my house and bought in Ward 3, and now that I'm here, I, also, think home prices in Tenleytown are too expensive and the city should do something to make it way easier for people with less money than I have to move here. No one is pushing to change zoning in places like Petworth, which is already zoned for more density than Tenleytown is; your apparent belief that self-interest by single young white men is the only reason anyone wants to upzone Tenleytown is wrong. Why would a single person in their 20s want to live in Tenleytown? The idea is to make it more affordable for families.

Increasing density is anti-family. People with kids don't want to live in friggin' condos. Condos are for people who don't have children.

No, you don't want to live in a condo with kids. That doesn't mean no one does. Condos in neighborhoods with good public schools could be for people with children who don't have the money to buy a house there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think until real estate agents stop thinking that AA neighborhoods are automatically low income, nothing will change. There are places with predom AA communities like Largo and Laurel which have a high AA middle class population, in really nice homes, but because they are AA communities, their values are much lower. Until that stigma changes, it will lead to further eradication of the black middle class in the region.

People simply value safe areas with strong schools. Due to poverty and racism, African Americans tend to be more involved in criminal activity and they either don’t value education or don’t know how to prioritize it due to structural racism. This is why white people don’t gravitate to black neighborhoods.

Send me one SAFE area with strong public schools that is mostly black and I will consider moving there.

There are safe and well educated black communities in other states but I’m unaware of any in dmv.

PG County and Prince William County are black areas that are pretty safe.

Stereotyping black people as criminals and poor is still racism. There are plenty of middle class black regions in the nation such as the Atlanta GA area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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This is utter nonsense.

If you bought a house 15 years ago in Brookland or Petworth or Eckington or along H Street or any number of other historically black neighborhoods, the value of your home would have grown several times as fast as if you had bought in Tenleytown.

PG County prices are low because white people (like those pushing to change zoning laws) are afraid of being in predominantly black neighborhoods and won't move there (that is, until someone else gentrifies it for them -- by which time they'll then complain PG county is too expensive).

I bought in Petworth more than a decade ago, lived there for nine years, sold my house and bought in Ward 3, and now that I'm here, I, also, think home prices in Tenleytown are too expensive and the city should do something to make it way easier for people with less money than I have to move here. No one is pushing to change zoning in places like Petworth, which is already zoned for more density than Tenleytown is; your apparent belief that self-interest by single young white men is the only reason anyone wants to upzone Tenleytown is wrong. Why would a single person in their 20s want to live in Tenleytown? The idea is to make it more affordable for families.

Increasing density is anti-family. People with kids don't want to live in friggin' condos. Condos are for people who don't have children.

No, you don't want to live in a condo with kids. That doesn't mean no one does. Condos in neighborhoods with good public schools could be for people with children who don't have the money to buy a house there.

Oh, I see. So no single people in their 20s want to live in Tenleytown? But parents are totally cool with condos? Right. Get back to us when you have kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:prices are high but so are incomes. practically everyone here makes a lot more money than they would doing the same job in most other places in this country. the only way to tell whether housing is expensive is to compare the cost of housing to how much people earn.

harvard has done that, and it suggests that while housing prices here are high, they're not as high as they are in denver or arizona or oregon (let alone places like new york city and san francisco and boston)

https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/home-price-income-ratios

Wow. We're cheaper than a lot of places. Who knew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Wow. We're cheaper than a lot of places. Who knew.

Most of this thread has conflated price with affordability. A Maserati can be purchased for a third of the cost of a Rolls Royce. We don’t think about Maseratis as being “not as expensive as everyone thinks” or affordable.

Yes, DC-area incomes are higher. The 2017 median household income for the metropolitan statistical area was $99,669. But the 2018 median home price was $620k. With a 10 percent down payment, $100/mo HOA, and MD or VA property tax rates, the median home exceeds federal standards of affordability to debt-free median earning homeowners by about $700/mo. (Consider how many people aren’t debt free and how many haven’t been able to save a more than $60k in down payment and closing costs.)

But one of the greatest indicators of the region’s lack of affordability is the state of our sprawl, traffic, and transit. While some people do really like the exurban lifestyle, a lot of people “drive til they qualify.” When you’re on I-270 at Father Hurley or 66 west of Manassas or desperately trying to find a parking spot in a crowded Metro garage at 9 in the morning, so are police officers, hair dressers, security officers, teachers, and myriad other people whos incomes don’t allow them housing that meets their needs closer to their jobs. So even those of us who have comfortable, easy-to-afford homes pay for the lack of affordable housing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:
This is utter nonsense.

If you bought a house 15 years ago in Brookland or Petworth or Eckington or along H Street or any number of other historically black neighborhoods, the value of your home would have grown several times as fast as if you had bought in Tenleytown.

PG County prices are low because white people (like those pushing to change zoning laws) are afraid of being in predominantly black neighborhoods and won't move there (that is, until someone else gentrifies it for them -- by which time they'll then complain PG county is too expensive).

I bought in Petworth more than a decade ago, lived there for nine years, sold my house and bought in Ward 3, and now that I'm here, I, also, think home prices in Tenleytown are too expensive and the city should do something to make it way easier for people with less money than I have to move here. No one is pushing to change zoning in places like Petworth, which is already zoned for more density than Tenleytown is; your apparent belief that self-interest by single young white men is the only reason anyone wants to upzone Tenleytown is wrong. Why would a single person in their 20s want to live in Tenleytown? The idea is to make it more affordable for families.

Increasing density is anti-family. People with kids don't want to live in friggin' condos. Condos are for people who don't have children.

No, you don't want to live in a condo with kids. That doesn't mean no one does. Condos in neighborhoods with good public schools could be for people with children who don't have the money to buy a house there.

Oh, I see. So no single people in their 20s want to live in Tenleytown? But parents are totally cool with condos? Right. Get back to us when you have kids.

Not PP, but I have kids and live in Tenleytown. Would never have dreamed of moving here before I had kids. We have several friends who live in condos with kids, and at any rate, it hardly seems inconceivable that there is a market for condos in-bounds for good public schools that cost less than single-family homes do. Just because you and I would make a different choice doesn’t mean we should make it impossible for people who would be happy living in a condo — or trading off space for a guaranteed school path they can afford — to live here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This is utter nonsense.

If you bought a house 15 years ago in Brookland or Petworth or Eckington or along H Street or any number of other historically black neighborhoods, the value of your home would have grown several times as fast as if you had bought in Tenleytown.

PG County prices are low because white people (like those pushing to change zoning laws) are afraid of being in predominantly black neighborhoods and won't move there (that is, until someone else gentrifies it for them -- by which time they'll then complain PG county is too expensive).

I bought in Petworth more than a decade ago, lived there for nine years, sold my house and bought in Ward 3, and now that I'm here, I, also, think home prices in Tenleytown are too expensive and the city should do something to make it way easier for people with less money than I have to move here. No one is pushing to change zoning in places like Petworth, which is already zoned for more density than Tenleytown is; your apparent belief that self-interest by single young white men is the only reason anyone wants to upzone Tenleytown is wrong. Why would a single person in their 20s want to live in Tenleytown? The idea is to make it more affordable for families.

Increasing density is anti-family. People with kids don't want to live in friggin' condos. Condos are for people who don't have children.

No, you don't want to live in a condo with kids. That doesn't mean no one does. Condos in neighborhoods with good public schools could be for people with children who don't have the money to buy a house there.

Oh, I see. So no single people in their 20s want to live in Tenleytown? But parents are totally cool with condos? Right. Get back to us when you have kids.

Not PP, but I have kids and live in Tenleytown. Would never have dreamed of moving here before I had kids. We have several friends who live in condos with kids, and at any rate, it hardly seems inconceivable that there is a market for condos in-bounds for good public schools that cost less than single-family homes do. Just because you and I would make a different choice doesn’t mean we should make it impossible for people who would be happy living in a condo — or trading off space for a guaranteed school path they can afford — to live here.

This. I don’t understand people who say you can’t have kids in a condo, then buy an overpriced monstrosity house with 5 bedrooms and a giant yard that their kids have no interest in ever using. The smaller the home, the better. That way kids can bond with their families instead of having their iPhones raise them in a giant house where you never talk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Increasing density is anti-family. People with kids don't want to live in friggin' condos. Condos are for people who don't have children.

No, you don't want to live in a condo with kids. That doesn't mean no one does. Condos in neighborhoods with good public schools could be for people with children who don't have the money to buy a house there.

Oh, I see. So no single people in their 20s want to live in Tenleytown? But parents are totally cool with condos? Right. Get back to us when you have kids.

As the PP says: some parents are fine with living in condos. Some parents are even fine living in rental apartments! Not everyone has the same preferences as you.

-a parent who knows plenty of people who live in condos/apartments with kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think until real estate agents stop thinking that AA neighborhoods are automatically low income, nothing will change. There are places with predom AA communities like Largo and Laurel which have a high AA middle class population, in really nice homes, but because they are AA communities, their values are much lower. Until that stigma changes, it will lead to further eradication of the black middle class in the region.

Real estate agents? Give me a break. Real estate agents don't care where their clients buy. They just want to make sales, and collect their commissions.

Gentrification and increasing density is what pushes black people out of DC. Look at Petworth or any number of other neighborhoods.

WRONG. You clearly missed the story about real estate agents in Long island and their racist ways. They steered white people to certain homes and black people to undesirable areas. This happens more often that you think. Real estate agents can act as gatekeepers of racism where housing is concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think until real estate agents stop thinking that AA neighborhoods are automatically low income, nothing will change. There are places with predom AA communities like Largo and Laurel which have a high AA middle class population, in really nice homes, but because they are AA communities, their values are much lower. Until that stigma changes, it will lead to further eradication of the black middle class in the region.

Real estate agents? Give me a break. Real estate agents don't care where their clients buy. They just want to make sales, and collect their commissions.

Gentrification and increasing density is what pushes black people out of DC. Look at Petworth or any number of other neighborhoods.

WRONG. You clearly missed the story about real estate agents in Long island and their racist ways. They steered white people to certain homes and black people to undesirable areas. This happens more often that you think. Real estate agents can act as gatekeepers of racism where housing is concerned.

You have clearly never bought a house before.