It’s extremely hard to raise kids in a nice neighborhood without generational wealth

[Anonymous]

We bought a small $250k starter apartment in NYC in our 20s, back in 1994. Being able to "trade up" twice as real estate prices skyrocketed into the early 2000s meant that we could stay in our neighborhood and comfortably raise children here without being priced out.

That kind of thing is not going to be an option for young adults. That "starter" apartment would now sell for $800k, and it's not going to double in appreciation in five years like it did between 1994 and 1999. If our DCs want to live in their hometown as adults, they will likely not be able to purchase a home without our help until they are significantly along in their careers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually a lot of couples without generational wealth are purchasing these homes.

It’s not that difficult when you’re young, married and renting to sock away a lot of cash.

And/or you get on the property ladder early

My DH and I saved 100k in one year on a 300k HHI without kids. It wasn’t that difficult. We purchased our first home with 15% down and then rolled the equity into our next home, which is $2 million.

Problem there are also plenty of couples who are too good for entry level homes and condos. They rent in expensive areas and complain about housing prices. You don’t start off in your dream home.

I’ve heard of couples looking for what they consider starter homes in our Fairfax County neighborhood, and they pass because they just aren’t large enough or they aren’t updated to their liking. It still surprises me because these couples are at most probably 30 years old. While not McLean, it’s a nice area with sought after schools and good neighbors who are active in the community.

That’s a very healthy income, especially without children. I can see where you’d be able to save.

We are 54/55. After we married, we bought a new 2 bedroom townhome condo. We lived there for about 7 years before selling and moving into a small, new SFH with our one year old. That house was further out and we did have to deal with a longer commute to work, but being able to take our DC to a daycare near work or to work with one of us allowed use of the HOV lanes. We then sold that house and moved to our current “forever” home almost 17 years ago. At that time the house was $430k and our HHI was probably $130k or so. Salaries slowly increased and our HHI is now approximately $250k. We were able to fund most of DC’s schooling through grad school and we have been very happy in our nice neighborhood while raising a child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually a lot of couples without generational wealth are purchasing these homes.

It’s not that difficult when you’re young, married and renting to sock away a lot of cash.

And/or you get on the property ladder early

My DH and I saved 100k in one year on a 300k HHI without kids. It wasn’t that difficult. We purchased our first home with 15% down and then rolled the equity into our next home, which is $2 million.

Problem there are also plenty of couples who are too good for entry level homes and condos. They rent in expensive areas and complain about housing prices. You don’t start off in your dream home.

I’ve heard of couples looking for what they consider starter homes in our Fairfax County neighborhood, and they pass because they just aren’t large enough or they aren’t updated to their liking. It still surprises me because these couples are at most probably 30 years old. While not McLean, it’s a nice area with sought after schools and good neighbors who are active in the community.

That’s a very healthy income, especially without children. I can see where you’d be able to save.

We are 54/55. After we married, we bought a new 2 bedroom townhome condo. We lived there for about 7 years before selling and moving into a small, new SFH with our one year old. That house was further out and we did have to deal with a longer commute to work, but being able to take our DC to a daycare near work or to work with one of us allowed use of the HOV lanes. We then sold that house and moved to our current “forever” home almost 17 years ago. At that time the house was $430k and our HHI was probably $130k or so. Salaries slowly increased and our HHI is now approximately $250k. We were able to fund most of DC’s schooling through grad school and we have been very happy in our nice neighborhood while raising a child.

How much do starter homes in your neighborhood cost?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually a lot of couples without generational wealth are purchasing these homes.

It’s not that difficult when you’re young, married and renting to sock away a lot of cash.

And/or you get on the property ladder early

My DH and I saved 100k in one year on a 300k HHI without kids. It wasn’t that difficult. We purchased our first home with 15% down and then rolled the equity into our next home, which is $2 million.

Problem there are also plenty of couples who are too good for entry level homes and condos. They rent in expensive areas and complain about housing prices. You don’t start off in your dream home.

I’ve heard of couples looking for what they consider starter homes in our Fairfax County neighborhood, and they pass because they just aren’t large enough or they aren’t updated to their liking. It still surprises me because these couples are at most probably 30 years old. While not McLean, it’s a nice area with sought after schools and good neighbors who are active in the community.

That’s a very healthy income, especially without children. I can see where you’d be able to save.

We are 54/55. After we married, we bought a new 2 bedroom townhome condo. We lived there for about 7 years before selling and moving into a small, new SFH with our one year old. That house was further out and we did have to deal with a longer commute to work, but being able to take our DC to a daycare near work or to work with one of us allowed use of the HOV lanes. We then sold that house and moved to our current “forever” home almost 17 years ago. At that time the house was $430k and our HHI was probably $130k or so. Salaries slowly increased and our HHI is now approximately $250k. We were able to fund most of DC’s schooling through grad school and we have been very happy in our nice neighborhood while raising a child.

How much do starter homes in your neighborhood cost?

Well, that’s part of my point. I don’t consider these to be starter or entry level homes. To me a starter home is an apartment, small townhome or condo. Maybe it needs some work. It’s not an updated SFH with 4 bedroom and 3 baths on .25-.50 acres.

[Anonymous]

It sounds normal to me to not be able to buy a 2-3 mil house under the age of 35.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually a lot of couples without generational wealth are purchasing these homes.

It’s not that difficult when you’re young, married and renting to sock away a lot of cash.

And/or you get on the property ladder early

My DH and I saved 100k in one year on a 300k HHI without kids. It wasn’t that difficult. We purchased our first home with 15% down and then rolled the equity into our next home, which is $2 million.

Problem there are also plenty of couples who are too good for entry level homes and condos. They rent in expensive areas and complain about housing prices. You don’t start off in your dream home.

I’ve heard of couples looking for what they consider starter homes in our Fairfax County neighborhood, and they pass because they just aren’t large enough or they aren’t updated to their liking. It still surprises me because these couples are at most probably 30 years old. While not McLean, it’s a nice area with sought after schools and good neighbors who are active in the community.

That’s a very healthy income, especially without children. I can see where you’d be able to save.

We are 54/55. After we married, we bought a new 2 bedroom townhome condo. We lived there for about 7 years before selling and moving into a small, new SFH with our one year old. That house was further out and we did have to deal with a longer commute to work, but being able to take our DC to a daycare near work or to work with one of us allowed use of the HOV lanes. We then sold that house and moved to our current “forever” home almost 17 years ago. At that time the house was $430k and our HHI was probably $130k or so. Salaries slowly increased and our HHI is now approximately $250k. We were able to fund most of DC’s schooling through grad school and we have been very happy in our nice neighborhood while raising a child.

How much do starter homes in your neighborhood cost?

To answer the cost question, I see $640-750k as far as the few houses that have sold or are on the market. A 5 bedroom sold for a little more, but again, I don’t consider these to be starter homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearly everyone making enough to buy in McLean or Bethesda is 35+ and probably 40+. By then you can barely even have kids. If you’re of actual child bearing age you’re probably too broke to comfortably raise a family. Every couple I’ve known who has a SFH in a good zip code and has kids before 30 in this area comes from a UHNW family and buys a house that is 10-20x their annual salary. How many folks under 35 are actually buying 2-3M houses completely on their own without generational wealth? It’s not zero but pretty damn close.

This was true 30 years ago too. It has worsened, but it isn’t a new phenomenon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re conflating the value of homes in a neighborhood with the value of the neighbors. Teachers, nurses, firefighters, etc., may not live in the most expensive neighborhoods, but I’d be thrilled to have them as neighbors. Moreover, even the most expensive neighborhoods aren’t immune from crime.

You gotta be careful with nurses. Some of them are very decent but others have low value and sleep around with other staff members.

People in McLean and Bethesda don’t sleep around? None of them?

Nurses do a lot more.

[Anonymous]

7 pages in and everyone is contributing their own version of “screw you, I got mine” while ignoring OP was focused on those under 35 buying $2-3M homes.

We get that many of you saved aggressively and traded up between mid 30s to 50s. You all keep repeating the same story that ironically was only possible for most of you because of unprecedented property appreciation in this country since 2008. Yet you all think you’re brilliant for benefitting from a macroeconomic trend.

How many PP’s bought a $2-3M home under 35 with kids without parental support or a trust in the DC area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought a small $250k starter apartment in NYC in our 20s, back in 1994. Being able to "trade up" twice as real estate prices skyrocketed into the early 2000s meant that we could stay in our neighborhood and comfortably raise children here without being priced out.

That kind of thing is not going to be an option for young adults. That "starter" apartment would now sell for $800k, and it's not going to double in appreciation in five years like it did between 1994 and 1999. If our DCs want to live in their hometown as adults, they will likely not be able to purchase a home without our help until they are significantly along in their careers.

You don’t know what will happen to prices. But even with average appreciation, an owner will pay down principle and accumulate some equity. That extra 100-200k you walk away with is what allows you to upgrade to a nicer home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearly everyone making enough to buy in McLean or Bethesda is 35+ and probably 40+. By then you can barely even have kids. If you’re of actual child bearing age you’re probably too broke to comfortably raise a family. Every couple I’ve known who has a SFH in a good zip code and has kids before 30 in this area comes from a UHNW family and buys a house that is 10-20x their annual salary. How many folks under 35 are actually buying 2-3M houses completely on their own without generational wealth? It’s not zero but pretty damn close.

One solution to this issue, is do IVF/Embryo banking shortly after you get married when you are in your late 20's or early 30's. You only need 3 chromosomally normal embryos to have a 94% of having at least one kid. So just multiply the number of kids you want by 3 to determine how many embryos you need to bank for later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 pages in and everyone is contributing their own version of “screw you, I got mine” while ignoring OP was focused on those under 35 buying $2-3M homes.

We get that many of you saved aggressively and traded up between mid 30s to 50s. You all keep repeating the same story that ironically was only possible for most of you because of unprecedented property appreciation in this country since 2008. Yet you all think you’re brilliant for benefitting from a macroeconomic trend.

How many PP’s bought a $2-3M home under 35 with kids without parental support or a trust in the DC area?

I suspect the answer is none because very few people do this. OP started with a false premise, bemoaning that everyone is doing this—when in fact very few people are. It’s like bemoaning that everyone is spending their spring break skiing in Switzerland and it’s so sad that she can’t. Yeah, there are rich people that do rich people things that the rest of us can’t do.

We also had zero appreciation on our starter home — we sold it for exactly what we bought it for. But because we bought in a neighborhood with terrible schools, it was super cheap and allowed us to save money when our kids were little and the schools didn’t matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda will always be nicer than Rockville just as McLean will always be nicer than Vienna, but people should live within their means and not obsess about what they can’t reasonably afford or the extra parental help they aren’t receiving.

You mean, more expensive, not nicer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 pages in and everyone is contributing their own version of “screw you, I got mine” while ignoring OP was focused on those under 35 buying $2-3M homes.

We get that many of you saved aggressively and traded up between mid 30s to 50s. You all keep repeating the same story that ironically was only possible for most of you because of unprecedented property appreciation in this country since 2008. Yet you all think you’re brilliant for benefitting from a macroeconomic trend.

How many PP’s bought a $2-3M home under 35 with kids without parental support or a trust in the DC area?

Who the hell needs a $2M-$3M home to live in a nice neighborhood? The answer is absolutely no one, so this isn't an issue. This entire thread is based on nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought a small $250k starter apartment in NYC in our 20s, back in 1994. Being able to "trade up" twice as real estate prices skyrocketed into the early 2000s meant that we could stay in our neighborhood and comfortably raise children here without being priced out.

That kind of thing is not going to be an option for young adults. That "starter" apartment would now sell for $800k, and it's not going to double in appreciation in five years like it did between 1994 and 1999. If our DCs want to live in their hometown as adults, they will likely not be able to purchase a home without our help until they are significantly along in their careers.

Adjusting purely for inflation, $250k is $574k. However, I am sure the neighborhood hasn't remained stagnant over those 30+ years with new amenities but little additional housing leading to increased competition.