My aunt started working as a maid at the Watergate after graduating HS & bought a home in Arlington

[Anonymous]

They would be able to afford to buy a condo or small townhouse in the worse section of Wheaton if they work really hard, have roommates and save their money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back then you could pay for in state college with a part time job, because tuition was so cheap. You can't do that today.

Wages have not kept pace with the increase in housing costs and tuition costs.

In 1980 my state college tuition was $900 A year. But incomes were very low.

But remember, no iPhones, WiFi, cable, Uber, streaming, Starbucks, fish taco places, nannies, maids, housekeepers, landscapers, nail salons etc unless rich. and interest rates sky high.

There is a lot of wasteful spending today from folks who claim they can’t afford a house

[/b]Give me a break. [b]WiFi and smart phones are now essential for having a job. Many people Uber INSTEAD of buying a car. No one gets cable anymore and streaming instead is cheaper.

The people who have nannies, maids, housekeepers, and landscapers are home owners.

It is an undeniable macroeconomic fact that housing prices and college tuition have skyrocketed while salaries have stagnated. But keep blaming me for the iPhone I upgrade once every 4-5 years.

Not to mention, if you know home ownership is wildly out of reach for you, you’re going to spend your disposable income differently. A SFH may be out of reach, but a monthly iPhone bill is something you can swing. It’s not like people are choosing an iPhone and the occasional $5 latte in lieu of a house.

[Anonymous]

My great uncle worked as an engineer for a government agency and bought a house in Bethesda when he was 29 making the equivalent of 60k USD in today’s dollars. Single income. House hasn’t been renovated much at all since and is worth around 900k-1mil

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Up in the Baltimore suburbs there's a lot of decent if unremarkable housing in working class suburbs that sell for 250-350. Doable for most people with some discipline, which was always the case for lower income homeowners.

Arlington in the 60s-80s was basic middle class with some working class areas and some upper middle class areas. It was no Chevy Chase.

Even Bethesda in those days was dominated by the fed family household, not dual law firm partners.

Heck. Even Chevy Chase had a lot of modest houses. The real money was in parts of NW. The wealthy monies crowd was much smaller.

DC is a different world altogether these days.

Here are some of the NW DC and Montgomery County delinquents I grew up around and attended school with.

That could have been my graduating class at Laurel High.

Do you recognize this guy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Days like that will not come back. America's population increased about 50% since 1970. In the meantime, we don't have any additional land, especially in the DC area.

Agree with this.

The US population has increased dramatically. Land is in short supply.

Also, add in that the US has seen an increase in real estate investment from people overseas. People in other countries are buying up properties here in the US, which jacks up the prices for everyone (larger market).

‘Running out of land’ is a cliche that appears during bubbles.

So you think the fact that the population is much larger now has nothing to do with the cost of housing? Okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, yes, these days will return. But it takes political action to push upzoning in Arlington and surrounding areas. Lobby to allow much more dense urban infill. 2-4 units per lot instead of 1 SFH now. The tide is changing rapidly but it will be another few years before we're fully there. You won't have a 5k sq ft SFH on a 7k sq ft lot but fewer people want that much space these days anyway, with smaller families.

Shut up already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hispanic are buying houses in DMV their their landscaping or maid income. Many of them own houses in Rockville, SS, Gaithurberg. 20-30 years from now,, the value of their houses will double$ or triple.

Do they pay taxes on their income or they work under the table?

[Anonymous]

I saw an article last week in high price suburban areas of the United States such as Bethesda MD or Great Neck Long Island the average blue collar person could not afford a house if they got it for free.

Property taxes, utilities, insurance and maint and repairs are alone above what folks can afford.

Gone are days of $3,000 property tax, 89 cents a gallon oil heat and $800 a year property tax. Also days if neighbors helping out on home repairs and cheap handiman

My mothers house back in 1981 paid $800
A year property tax in 2021 it pays $13,000 taxes and everything else has gone up. Houses have become to point where middle to lower class seniors in retirement can’t afford their own paid off homes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hispanic are buying houses in DMV their their landscaping or maid income. Many of them own houses in Rockville, SS, Gaithurberg. 20-30 years from now,, the value of their houses will double$ or triple.

Do they pay taxes on their income or they work under the table?

I don't know (not that pp) but the hispanic families who own in my neighborhood usually have several adults living in the house and they all park their work trucks on the street. I mean, there is enough room and they don't cause any issues yet. Seems like adult kids and other adult relatives live with them and they all pool together to afford the house.

My white relatives did this during the great depression. Had three generations living together: grandparents, three uncles, and one aunt, her dh and kids. Same kind of thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hispanic are buying houses in DMV their their landscaping or maid income. Many of them own houses in Rockville, SS, Gaithurberg. 20-30 years from now,, the value of their houses will double$ or triple.

Do they pay taxes on their income or they work under the table?

I don't know (not that pp) but the hispanic families who own in my neighborhood usually have several adults living in the house and they all park their work trucks on the street. I mean, there is enough room and they don't cause any issues yet. Seems like adult kids and other adult relatives live with them and they all pool together to afford the house.

My white relatives did this during the great depression. Had three generations living together: grandparents, three uncles, and one aunt, her dh and kids. Same kind of thing.

I have a landscaper down the block from my. A rambler in original condition dipped in price to 990k and a corner house on 1/2 acre. A Spanish family jumped in Parked work truck side of house, junkyard barking dog in yard and six or seven cars piled in driveway. It seem in Dc area anything under one million is the slums. Around 1.4 and up is breaking point to have non shady neighbors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Days like that will not come back. America's population increased about 50% since 1970. In the meantime, we don't have any additional land, especially in the DC area.

Agree with this.

The US population has increased dramatically. Land is in short supply.

Also, add in that the US has seen an increase in real estate investment from people overseas. People in other countries are buying up properties here in the US, which jacks up the prices for everyone (larger market).

‘Running out of land’ is a cliche that appears during bubbles.

So you think the fact that the population is much larger now has nothing to do with the cost of housing? Okay.

Like so much on DCUM, that doesn't follow. Truth is, someone of us love playing a pearls before swine game with y'all. Big thanks on making my day!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hispanic are buying houses in DMV their their landscaping or maid income. Many of them own houses in Rockville, SS, Gaithurberg. 20-30 years from now,, the value of their houses will double$ or triple.

Do they pay taxes on their income or they work under the table?

I don't know (not that pp) but the hispanic families who own in my neighborhood usually have several adults living in the house and they all park their work trucks on the street. I mean, there is enough room and they don't cause any issues yet. Seems like adult kids and other adult relatives live with them and they all pool together to afford the house.

My white relatives did this during the great depression. Had three generations living together: grandparents, three uncles, and one aunt, her dh and kids. Same kind of thing.

+1 Our white immigrant family was the same. Three generations with multiple families in a typical brick four-square house. They were out of bedrooms so one person slept on the davenport in the front parlor and the second slept on the davenport in the side parlor. Three kids slept on the sleeping porch, which sounds lovely until you realize it was the midwest and that meant in subzero temps they were outside during the winter. They lived in an ethnic enclave in their town and their house was not the only house with that set up. One of my uncles said it was hard to know if they were hated more because of their religion, their ethnicity and country of origin or the fact that they had so many people shoved into the one house.

Look at the posts here. People mock and talk about "the Hispanics" but that was my family in the 1930s. They came here with the shirts on their backs to escape Hitler so bite me if you have a problem with it.

I won't get in anyone's face if their doing the same thing that my family did and I applaud them for their ingenuity. Seems like more "Americans" should be doing the same thing. If they did, like young families living with their parents or combining households, then savings would be increased and homeownership -would- be possible. A lot of people are foiled by their own petards because they want the HGTV house but they're not willing to sacrifice for it by taking some hard steps early on in order to reap the benefits later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hispanic are buying houses in DMV their their landscaping or maid income. Many of them own houses in Rockville, SS, Gaithurberg. 20-30 years from now,, the value of their houses will double$ or triple.

Do they pay taxes on their income or they work under the table?

I don't know (not that pp) but the hispanic families who own in my neighborhood usually have several adults living in the house and they all park their work trucks on the street. I mean, there is enough room and they don't cause any issues yet. Seems like adult kids and other adult relatives live with them and they all pool together to afford the house.

My white relatives did this during the great depression. Had three generations living together: grandparents, three uncles, and one aunt, her dh and kids. Same kind of thing.

It's not just you. It's that way in my 'hood and all over the county. The entire metro area, actually.

They'll buy cheap (for this area) houses, usually older houses that should be gutted or, at least, updated, then cram everyone they can into the house. In many cases, they'll slap on cheap and poorly made additions in order to fit more people into the home. Sometimes they'll rent out parts of the home to friends, family, or newly arrived. Sometimes the home almost becomes a motel or a frat house. It must really be annoying to live on streets with multiple houses like this. I have been on streets like this where there is no place to park because there are 8-10 cars per household. But, hey, converting single family homes into 6 unit multi homes is a great idea!

This also contributes the escalating home prices since all the lower end inventory is snatched up quickly and shuts out young, low to mid level class couples from buying a home. And we wonder why so many 25-35 year olds really love Karl Marx these days. To top it all off, most of these homes aren't being updated to modern standards. They are just being lived in. Some to the point of deterioration. So we have parts of the county demoing houses and building mini-mansions and other parts of the county where houses are being held in a state of slow decay. Fun times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My family is much like the maid in the OP. Middle-school educations, came to US in the early 1970s. All bought houses throughout the 1970s and 1980s, are now multi-home owning landlords. Here is how they did it.
1. They WORKED. I don't mean just a single job. Watergate maid was likely doing housekeeping work for other families who (key point) paid her under the table. My family was in various businesses - restaurant, construction, painting. The key thing is that they all ran cash businesses and they worked from 7am to 11pm, 6 days a week.
2. They spent VERY LITTLE MONEY. Think beans and rice, heat set to frozen, cold water showers. No cable TV, no dinners out, no health insurance and no doctors visits unless you were literally dying. Kids activities? LOL. Kids activities was having us join them at their jobs.

Housing now is more expensive relative to wages, yes. But you are still seeing immigrant families buying property, even in many close-in neighborhoods. This is how they do it. They live very spartan existences and work crazy hours. My 9-5 work life is a true luxury. My parents worked their *sses off so that I can experience it!

The difference is “many close in neighborhoods” is not the same thing as Arlington specifically which OP was talking about. Moving the goal posts. I’d imagine many of these families could buy places in PG County or some parts of Alexandria or Wheaton but that is not the same thing. I live and purchased a home here. There are no maids that pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and are now own homes in this community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There must have been some pretty well paid maids back in the 70s. Federal minimum wage in 1973 was $1.60/hour and a basic house in Arlington cost at least $40,000. Maybe if you go back to the Roosevelt years it was different but in my lifetime and my parents' lifetimes real estate in the DC area was never really cheap. The people who like to brag about their amazing real estate deals usually bought houses in former no-go zones like Logan Circle.

People worked multiple jobs back then unlike today’s lazybones. My father in law I recall got married at 21 to a 19 year old. She spoke no English he only HS degree.

They moved in as tenant upstairs elderly women with very cheap rent in return fur doing all maint on house, mowing, snow shoveling, groceries and lived in the upstairs for 7 years while saving. He worked two jobs and wife also was a seamstress. After 7 years of saving they bought a house with two “boarders” meaning two guys lived there in bedrooms and meals were included it so between that rent and dads two jobs they were able after six more years take over while house when third kid was burn.

Today that starter house is worth $650k they still have it. It is a lot cheaper today. I hardly recall folks having to do what they did.

Stuff like this is why so many kids ended getting molested. I’d rather live in an apartment than have two random unmarried men living in my house.