Legit, but dumb question about MoCo (property values & housing)

[Anonymous]

So a lot of the DCUM posters come from a very different SES than me. I'm not married, I don't own a home, I'm not a political centrist, I don't make six figures, and I have a tight budget with only a couple hundred a month put away in savings (and I have to really try) with a boatload of student loan debt.

I lean quite left politically but am also a pragmatist who would vote in my own interests. I almost sat out the last County Executive election because I hated all the candidates. I like Elrich on a lot of things but heard that he was terrible on housing, which is important for me. I've changed my mind though. For a while I bought the argument that more housing supply would lower costs, and people like Elrich are NIMBYs who don't allow more housing to be built since wealthy homeowners are afraid it would lower their property values. Now I am more cynical about housing policy. I don't believe the YIMBY or "filtering" model works either (look up "filtering" and housing if you aren't familiar with the term), while it is true that not building anything at all doesn't help either unless there is county-wide rent control which is not happening, even with Elrich in charge.

I just want to be able to own a home. My partner and I don't want to move into each other's places (our respective places are too small) and if we move in together, we'd like to own. But home prices are astronomical.

Most of y'all on DCUM seem to talk about this from the other side of the white picket fence, so to speak, and would like to keep your property values up. (I see this attitude in your discussions about schools especially, and about the County's alleged downward economic spiral).

My dumb question is this: If Marc Elrich is as bad as you say he is, and is leading the County in a downward economic spiral and kicking out businesses, will home prices go down? Could it benefit someone like me? I like Montgomery County and I'd like to to be my forever home, I don't want to have to go hunt for affordable housing in some far flung place that's far away from my friends and my community and my favorite places. Could Elrich and his policies ultimately make MoCo less elitist and attractive to rich yuppies, and when the Boomers die off, will their homes be affordable for people like us (we make $70K a piece, and I have massive student loan debt). Kind of like how people can buy homes for dirt cheap in Detroit?

By the way - this should speak to you about what our economic system has come to. Young people have to resort to gaming the system and rooting for capitalism to fail in order to have the basic things to live, since middle class jobs no longer pay for middle class lifestyles.

[Anonymous]

OP, Elrich is terrible on housing. His position against accessory dwelling units was unforgiveable hypocrisy. Also, housing in Montgomery County is unaffordable because we are not building anywhere near enough housing and because under current zoning, it's illegal in most parts of the county to build the kind of housing that would make housing more affordable. And he supports those policies too.

On the other hand, the stuff you read on DCUM about Elrich is mostly pure bunkum. Half of the posters can't even spell his name right.

So: is Elrich going to make Montgomery County a hellhole, thereby lowering housing costs, thereby making housing more affordable? No.

I'm just going to note two things:

1. there aren't any more yuppies; they were in their 20s & 30s in the 80s, which means (40 years later) that they're now pushing 70.
2. if you moved in with your partner, your combined household income of $140,000 would be 30% higher than the median household income in the county (though student loan debt is an issue, of course).

(

[Anonymous]

I haven't been following this forum, but I wouldn't believe the stuff about Marc Elrich leading the county into a downward economic spiral. Nobody has that much influence. Sounds like an unhappy conservative poster to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, Elrich is terrible on housing. His position against accessory dwelling units was unforgiveable hypocrisy. Also, housing in Montgomery County is unaffordable because we are not building anywhere near enough housing and because under current zoning, it's illegal in most parts of the county to build the kind of housing that would make housing more affordable. And he supports those policies too.

On the other hand, the stuff you read on DCUM about Elrich is mostly pure bunkum. Half of the posters can't even spell his name right.

So: is Elrich going to make Montgomery County a hellhole, thereby lowering housing costs, thereby making housing more affordable? No.

I'm just going to note two things:

1. there aren't any more yuppies; they were in their 20s & 30s in the 80s, which means (40 years later) that they're now pushing 70.
2. if you moved in with your partner, your combined household income of $140,000 would be 30% higher than the median household income in the county (though student loan debt is an issue, of course).

(

and yet, some are convinced that people are moving out of moco in droves.

I have a question for OP.

Let's say at some point, you are able to buy a house in a nice area in MoCo, and eventually, your property value starts to go up to the point where now younger people can't afford to buy a home. Would you want your property value to go down so that these young folks can afford a home in your neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, Elrich is terrible on housing. His position against accessory dwelling units was unforgiveable hypocrisy. Also, housing in Montgomery County is unaffordable because we are not building anywhere near enough housing and because under current zoning, it's illegal in most parts of the county to build the kind of housing that would make housing more affordable. And he supports those policies too.

On the other hand, the stuff you read on DCUM about Elrich is mostly pure bunkum. Half of the posters can't even spell his name right.

So: is Elrich going to make Montgomery County a hellhole, thereby lowering housing costs, thereby making housing more affordable? No.

I'm just going to note two things:

1. there aren't any more yuppies; they were in their 20s & 30s in the 80s, which means (40 years later) that they're now pushing 70.
2. if you moved in with your partner, your combined household income of $140,000 would be 30% higher than the median household income in the county (though student loan debt is an issue, of course).

(

and yet, some are convinced that people are moving out of moco in droves.

I have a question for OP.

Let's say at some point, you are able to buy a house in a nice area in MoCo, and eventually, your property value starts to go up to the point where now younger people can't afford to buy a home. Would you want your property value to go down so that these young folks can afford a home in your neighborhood?

Correct me if i'm wrong but my understanding is that for a long time housing was generally a break-even type proposition. Your value didn't go up as much, and barely offset depreciation. 30 year mortgages were basically a forced savings/equity building excercise. But then the boom came and astronomical price increases with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, Elrich is terrible on housing. His position against accessory dwelling units was unforgiveable hypocrisy. Also, housing in Montgomery County is unaffordable because we are not building anywhere near enough housing and because under current zoning, it's illegal in most parts of the county to build the kind of housing that would make housing more affordable. And he supports those policies too.

On the other hand, the stuff you read on DCUM about Elrich is mostly pure bunkum. Half of the posters can't even spell his name right.

So: is Elrich going to make Montgomery County a hellhole, thereby lowering housing costs, thereby making housing more affordable? No.

I'm just going to note two things:

1. there aren't any more yuppies; they were in their 20s & 30s in the 80s, which means (40 years later) that they're now pushing 70.
2. if you moved in with your partner, your combined household income of $140,000 would be 30% higher than the median household income in the county (though student loan debt is an issue, of course).

(

and yet, some are convinced that people are moving out of moco in droves.

I have a question for OP.

Let's say at some point, you are able to buy a house in a nice area in MoCo, and eventually, your property value starts to go up to the point where now younger people can't afford to buy a home. Would you want your property value to go down so that these young folks can afford a home in your neighborhood?

I find housing stability more important. I want to own a home so that I don’t have to worry about my landlord taking my place off the market or raising the rent. I just want a forever home, the equity issue is secondary to me. So of course I’d be more concerned win other people having homes than me making money off owning mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

and yet, some are convinced that people are moving out of moco in droves.

I have a question for OP.

Let's say at some point, you are able to buy a house in a nice area in MoCo, and eventually, your property value starts to go up to the point where now younger people can't afford to buy a home. Would you want your property value to go down so that these young folks can afford a home in your neighborhood?

Also, some are convinced that the earth is flat.

I'm not the OP, but I am a longtime homeowner in Montgomery County, and no, I don't think that my desire to sell my house for a lot more than I paid for it, when I finally come to sell it, outweighs younger people's needs for housing and financial stability.

[Anonymous]

That’s really funny that you think most of DCUM has centrist political leanings.

If you take the left-right continuum of only this area - which leans significantly left - then maybe DCUM is in the middle for this very liberal area.

But if you are talking the overall political spectrum, DCUM isn’t remotely in the center.

[Anonymous]

Also on Elrich and housing, yes, I have read all over the place how bad he is on housing if you believe that increasing supply lowers costs. Unfortunately, the type of housing that his opponents seem to like are these micro-units developers build intended for young high-earning transient singles with high turnaround. This is the kind of housing and kind of resident that the pro-growth ilk seems to like. People who make a lot of money and eat out at restaurants and bars but don’t use a lot of services. Not so much multi-bedroom forever homes for poeple who want to stay here and raise a family. Ultimately, I voted for Elrich because he seemed to want to encourage paths to home ownership.

I don’t need to get rich off my home, I just want a modest bungalow or a duplex with a small shared yard that I can live in forever and not have to worry about moving. I want to plant my roots and stay.

I’m pro-ADU and pro-duplex which is what I disagreed with Elrich on, but in principle I’d like to see more homes priced modestly within reach of middle class people to own, not snazzy high rises that corporate landlords own to profit off a continuous turnover of high earning young professionals. That’s why I like the suburbs, not Adams Morgan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s really funny that you think most of DCUM has centrist political leanings.

If you take the left-right continuum of only this area - which leans significantly left - then maybe DCUM is in the middle for this very liberal area.

But if you are talking the overall political spectrum, DCUM isn’t remotely in the center.

I’m a socialist.

[Anonymous]

I work in county government. Backstory:

1. MoCo decline is real and has been going on for a while. Elrich not the cause. You can go to empowermontgomery.com and read a whole report about it if you want.

2. To stop that it would be helpful to make MoCo an easier place to do business.

3. Elrich and his policies and his personality aren't helping with that.

4. County is already unattractive to businesses, making it also unattractive to rich residents is going to cause tax revenues to collapse. Which would have a lot of bad knock-on effects.

5. If you want housing affordability, it would be much more logical to just support more affordable housing development rather than purposefully try to make the place you want to live so unappealing that nobody else wants to live there. That would seem to me to be a bad plan for you and everyone else.

Aside, parts of county government are dsyfunctional and it would be fine with me if someone came in and cleaned house (as long as they got rid of the right people). I have little hope that will actually happen (or if it does they will actually get rid of the right people rather than just do some first-in first-out thing which is probably the opposite of what's needed, honestly).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I work in county government. Backstory:

1. MoCo decline is real and has been going on for a while. Elrich not the cause. You can go to empowermontgomery.com and read a whole report about it if you want.

2. To stop that it would be helpful to make MoCo an easier place to do business.

3. Elrich and his policies and his personality aren't helping with that.

4. County is already unattractive to businesses, making it also unattractive to rich residents is going to cause tax revenues to collapse. Which would have a lot of bad knock-on effects.

5. If you want housing affordability, it would be much more logical to just support more affordable housing development rather than purposefully try to make the place you want to live so unappealing that nobody else wants to live there. That would seem to me to be a bad plan for you and everyone else.

Aside, parts of county government are dsyfunctional and it would be fine with me if someone came in and cleaned house (as long as they got rid of the right people). I have little hope that will actually happen (or if it does they will actually get rid of the right people rather than just do some first-in first-out thing which is probably the opposite of what's needed, honestly).

Care to elaborate? I’ve met him a few times, he seems like a nice guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, Elrich is terrible on housing. His position against accessory dwelling units was unforgiveable hypocrisy. Also, housing in Montgomery County is unaffordable because we are not building anywhere near enough housing and because under current zoning, it's illegal in most parts of the county to build the kind of housing that would make housing more affordable. And he supports those policies too.

On the other hand, the stuff you read on DCUM about Elrich is mostly pure bunkum. Half of the posters can't even spell his name right.

So: is Elrich going to make Montgomery County a hellhole, thereby lowering housing costs, thereby making housing more affordable? No.

I'm just going to note two things:

1. there aren't any more yuppies; they were in their 20s & 30s in the 80s, which means (40 years later) that they're now pushing 70.
2. if you moved in with your partner, your combined household income of $140,000 would be 30% higher than the median household income in the county (though student loan debt is an issue, of course).

(

and yet, some are convinced that people are moving out of moco in droves.

I have a question for OP.

Let's say at some point, you are able to buy a house in a nice area in MoCo, and eventually, your property value starts to go up to the point where now younger people can't afford to buy a home. Would you want your property value to go down so that these young folks can afford a home in your neighborhood?

I find housing stability more important. I want to own a home so that I don’t have to worry about my landlord taking my place off the market or raising the rent. I just want a forever home, the equity issue is secondary to me. So of course I’d be more concerned win other people having homes than me making money off owning mine.

You are thinking this way because you are not a long time home owner. Once you become one, I guarantee you that you will think differently.

My neighbors are pretty old and very liberal, yet they still care about their home values because they are about to sell soon. They want the neighborhood to be zoned for the "better" neighboring school district (ie, hardly any poor people) so their home values go up.

This will be you in 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I work in county government. Backstory:

1. MoCo decline is real and has been going on for a while. Elrich not the cause. You can go to empowermontgomery.com and read a whole report about it if you want.

2. To stop that it would be helpful to make MoCo an easier place to do business.

3. Elrich and his policies and his personality aren't helping with that.

4. County is already unattractive to businesses, making it also unattractive to rich residents is going to cause tax revenues to collapse. Which would have a lot of bad knock-on effects.

5. If you want housing affordability, it would be much more logical to just support more affordable housing development rather than purposefully try to make the place you want to live so unappealing that nobody else wants to live there. That would seem to me to be a bad plan for you and everyone else.

Aside, parts of county government are dsyfunctional and it would be fine with me if someone came in and cleaned house (as long as they got rid of the right people). I have little hope that will actually happen (or if it does they will actually get rid of the right people rather than just do some first-in first-out thing which is probably the opposite of what's needed, honestly).

? there are many cities that don't have a huge "rich resident" population, and their cities aren't collapsing. As stated up thread, MoCo keeps building new housing but it is not building enough affordable housing. So who is buying those $750K+ THs? Granted, these people aren't "rich" but I hardly think people who can afford such homes are not able to keep the tax base up, especially as we seem to getting more of those people as evidenced by the housing building boom.

[Anonymous]

Yes home prices will go down.

Elrich is your classic tax, spend, and over regulate liberal Democrat. Businesses are fleeing MoCo because of excessive regulation or not opening in MoCo at all. Job growth has been anemic. Jobs will leave, and people will flee as taxes continue to go up and up. They want to raise property taxes yet again. The county's budget deficit is also getting worse. Of course the solution will be to tax even more, which will cause even more people to leave. Home prices will tank.