Fitting into Upper Income Neighborhood Or Where Should Live/School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody in the other thread the OP referenced noted that many desirable neighborhoods are full of residents that were "grandfathered in" and could not now easily afford the houses they live in. So if you move into a $1 million house, there probably many families that bought their houses for half that a few years ago and are living a lifestyle well below what a $1 million house implies. So this would pose a favorable force on OP's concerns about being "outclassed" by neighbors.

Waving hand-- Over here! We are in southern McLean HHI of $150-$180k. We could not afford our current home and still keep our current work/family life balance. However, unless poster has children in MS and HS, that is changing fast. Families with younger kids definitely make more than the MS/HS cohort. We used to call our section of McLean the "braownbag" section, but that is changing faster than the teardowns are being turned into McMansions.

This stuff makes me upset but whatever. We have a HHI of over 300K but since we just started out and are in our early 30s and have high kids costs we don't have enough saved to buy in places where people make half.

Why is that upsetting to you. The pp just stated her HHI but not how hard she has worked to afford her lifestyle. I have a similar HHI and I live in a well over 1 million home, but we've worked and invested since we were in our early 20's. We are very handy with our hands and have invested in real estate by buying shitty homes and worked at it ourselves, we were landlords while our friends were partying in college. So yes, you make more money than we do, probably smarter too, but not more deserving of a better lifestyle, we likely have worked harder. But it's easier to think there's come kind of inheritance involve, not good planning and hard work.

I'm sure most people in DC work hard, whether hammering and painting or attorneying it teaching.

Please do not come off so much better than everyone else because you had the risk profile and resources to afford to be a real estate speculator while still in college. Most of us were borrowing money to pay for college.

You can afford hat fancy neighborhood only because the bubble paid off your speculation; your elbow grease and 'hard work' really had nothing to do with it and added little real value. You just won the roulette wheel, but with a speculative leveraged bet like real estate (like saying you graduated and didn't have a job and the bubble wasn't pushing up prices) you would quickly go bankrupt. Or be bailed out by family, I suspect.

If you have said I married a guy with a plain and who knows how to put is nose to the grinder you would be right. But you're completely wrong about you speculative idea. We moved here 4 years ago for our jobs from an average to low real estate market. We were shocked by the sticker price for real estate. It took us a year to recover from our shock and then we went to work. In our home state we had 6 rental units we have been renting for 15 years. Being a landlord, handyman, accountant for 6 units is no walk in the park when dealing with some of the renters we've had to deal with. Anyway, moving here meant we had to sell some of our real estate investments. We put down $750,000 on a 1.2 million dollar home that is now worth about 1.6 million. If we sell the rest of the stuff we can pay off the mortgage, but we're keeping them to pay for kids college. We're able to afford this area on < 200k because of elbow and grease hard work not real estate speculation.

You bought 15 years ago. I don't begrudge your elbow grease or 'plan' but your value was generated by the Fed then and in the last 4 years (go go gadget QE!). I mean 1.2 to 1.6 in 4 years? What improvements did you make, wallpaper with 100 dollar bills?

But your holier than though attitude about people partying in college was the annoying part, kind if judgemental and in no way related to this discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody in the other thread the OP referenced noted that many desirable neighborhoods are full of residents that were "grandfathered in" and could not now easily afford the houses they live in. So if you move into a $1 million house, there probably many families that bought their houses for half that a few years ago and are living a lifestyle well below what a $1 million house implies. So this would pose a favorable force on OP's concerns about being "outclassed" by neighbors.

Waving hand-- Over here! We are in southern McLean HHI of $150-$180k. We could not afford our current home and still keep our current work/family life balance. However, unless poster has children in MS and HS, that is changing fast. Families with younger kids definitely make more than the MS/HS cohort. We used to call our section of McLean the "braownbag" section, but that is changing faster than the teardowns are being turned into McMansions.

This stuff makes me upset but whatever. We have a HHI of over 300K but since we just started out and are in our early 30s and have high kids costs we don't have enough saved to buy in places where people make half.

Why is that upsetting to you. The pp just stated her HHI but not how hard she has worked to afford her lifestyle. I have a similar HHI and I live in a well over 1 million home, but we've worked and invested since we were in our early 20's. We are very handy with our hands and have invested in real estate by buying shitty homes and worked at it ourselves, we were landlords while our friends were partying in college. So yes, you make more money than we do, probably smarter too, but not more deserving of a better lifestyle, we likely have worked harder. But it's easier to think there's come kind of inheritance involve, not good planning and hard work.

I'm sure most people in DC work hard, whether hammering and painting or attorneying it teaching.

Please do not come off so much better than everyone else because you had the risk profile and resources to afford to be a real estate speculator while still in college. Most of us were borrowing money to pay for college.

You can afford hat fancy neighborhood only because the bubble paid off your speculation; your elbow grease and 'hard work' really had nothing to do with it and added little real value. You just won the roulette wheel, but with a speculative leveraged bet like real estate (like saying you graduated and didn't have a job and the bubble wasn't pushing up prices) you would quickly go bankrupt. Or be bailed out by family, I suspect.

If you have said I married a guy with a plain and who knows how to put is nose to the grinder you would be right. But you're completely wrong about you speculative idea. We moved here 4 years ago for our jobs from an average to low real estate market. We were shocked by the sticker price for real estate. It took us a year to recover from our shock and then we went to work. In our home state we had 6 rental units we have been renting for 15 years. Being a landlord, handyman, accountant for 6 units is no walk in the park when dealing with some of the renters we've had to deal with. Anyway, moving here meant we had to sell some of our real estate investments. We put down $750,000 on a 1.2 million dollar home that is now worth about 1.6 million. If we sell the rest of the stuff we can pay off the mortgage, but we're keeping them to pay for kids college. We're able to afford this area on < 200k because of elbow and grease hard work not real estate speculation.

You bought 15 years ago. I don't begrudge your elbow grease or 'plan' but your value was generated by the Fed then and in the last 4 years (go go gadget QE!). I mean 1.2 to 1.6 in 4 years? What improvements did you make, wallpaper with 100 dollar bills?

But your holier than though attitude about people partying in college was the annoying part, kind if judgemental and in no way related to this discussion.

P.s. I am sorry about your husbands nose, I know working with power tools can be dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree. I was that kid. I did more than ok. Also recommend taking a trip for a week to another part of the country. DCUM is not reality.

Yes. Or travel internationally, or do volunteer work with the truly needy in DC. My mom always reminded us that even if we felt "poor" we are really rich by international standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody in the other thread the OP referenced noted that many desirable neighborhoods are full of residents that were "grandfathered in" and could not now easily afford the houses they live in. So if you move into a $1 million house, there probably many families that bought their houses for half that a few years ago and are living a lifestyle well below what a $1 million house implies. So this would pose a favorable force on OP's concerns about being "outclassed" by neighbors.

Waving hand-- Over here! We are in southern McLean HHI of $150-$180k. We could not afford our current home and still keep our current work/family life balance. However, unless poster has children in MS and HS, that is changing fast. Families with younger kids definitely make more than the MS/HS cohort. We used to call our section of McLean the "braownbag" section, but that is changing faster than the teardowns are being turned into McMansions.

This stuff makes me upset but whatever. We have a HHI of over 300K but since we just started out and are in our early 30s and have high kids costs we don't have enough saved to buy in places where people make half.

Why is that upsetting to you. The pp just stated her HHI but not how hard she has worked to afford her lifestyle. I have a similar HHI and I live in a well over 1 million home, but we've worked and invested since we were in our early 20's. We are very handy with our hands and have invested in real estate by buying shitty homes and worked at it ourselves, we were landlords while our friends were partying in college. So yes, you make more money than we do, probably smarter too, but not more deserving of a better lifestyle, we likely have worked harder. But it's easier to think there's come kind of inheritance involve, not good planning and hard work.

I'm sure most people in DC work hard, whether hammering and painting or attorneying it teaching.

Please do not come off so much better than everyone else because you had the risk profile and resources to afford to be a real estate speculator while still in college. Most of us were borrowing money to pay for college.

You can afford hat fancy neighborhood only because the bubble paid off your speculation; your elbow grease and 'hard work' really had nothing to do with it and added little real value. You just won the roulette wheel, but with a speculative leveraged bet like real estate (like saying you graduated and didn't have a job and the bubble wasn't pushing up prices) you would quickly go bankrupt. Or be bailed out by family, I suspect.

If you have said I married a guy with a plain and who knows how to put is nose to the grinder you would be right. But you're completely wrong about you speculative idea. We moved here 4 years ago for our jobs from an average to low real estate market. We were shocked by the sticker price for real estate. It took us a year to recover from our shock and then we went to work. In our home state we had 6 rental units we have been renting for 15 years. Being a landlord, handyman, accountant for 6 units is no walk in the park when dealing with some of the renters we've had to deal with. Anyway, moving here meant we had to sell some of our real estate investments. We put down $750,000 on a 1.2 million dollar home that is now worth about 1.6 million. If we sell the rest of the stuff we can pay off the mortgage, but we're keeping them to pay for kids college. We're able to afford this area on < 200k because of elbow and grease hard work not real estate speculation.

Umm you have 6 rental units you bought BEFORE THE BUBBLE so please spare us and get over your hard work bullshit.

Kind of curious how someone who skipped college and just out of college could afford 1 let alone 6 rental units? Are like that girl on this American life who traded up from used appliances that her mom pilfered from foreclosed homes (but was lauded as a shrewd investor nonetheless).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing is worth the loss of time with your children.

OP here; that is our feeling as well, but we see a lot of middle income families moving out to those far-flung neighborhoods instead of living in the condos and townhouses we are squeezing into. We feel like we might have missed a memo!

The memo said, you can find a job in Rockville (or surrounding areas) and a house. No loss of time with your children and you can choose public vs. private instead of feeling forced into one or the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing is worth the loss of time with your children.

OP here; that is our feeling as well, but we see a lot of middle income families moving out to those far-flung neighborhoods instead of living in the condos and townhouses we are squeezing into. We feel like we might have missed a memo!

The memo said, you can find a job in Rockville (or surrounding areas) and a house. No loss of time with your children and you can choose public vs. private instead of feeling forced into one or the other.

Rockville is quite a hike from downtown. Most of friends commute an hr from north Bethesda to downtown, let alone rockville

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AU Park.

Its full of "mid 200" income couples.

You'll be dead center on the income range.

+1, and Glover Park.Good public schools, parks,quiet neighborhood. Our HHi is more like $130k and we fit in or at least nobody has to us to take a hike.

Once the kids hit middle school, the private school tuition starts to take its toll if you're making less than $250,000. Or you can gamble on Deal and Wilson, which are not very good.

Deal is fine. And who knows what Wilson will be like in 10 or 15 years or what your income would be. And anyway depends heavily on your planning as well - if you have a nanny now and manage - swapping that for $25 - or even $50K or so of private is no big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing is worth the loss of time with your children.

OP here; that is our feeling as well, but we see a lot of middle income families moving out to those far-flung neighborhoods instead of living in the condos and townhouses we are squeezing into. We feel like we might have missed a memo!

The memo said, you can find a job in Rockville (or surrounding areas) and a house. No loss of time with your children and you can choose public vs. private instead of feeling forced into one or the other.

Rockville is quite a hike from downtown. Most of friends commute an hr from north Bethesda to downtown, let alone rockville

Most my neighbors found jobs in Rockville (or surrounding areas).

I don't know 1 person (over the age of 35) that commutes to downtown. One flies to California every Monday and returns on Friday but that is temporary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody in the other thread the OP referenced noted that many desirable neighborhoods are full of residents that were "grandfathered in" and could not now easily afford the houses they live in. So if you move into a $1 million house, there probably many families that bought their houses for half that a few years ago and are living a lifestyle well below what a $1 million house implies. So this would pose a favorable force on OP's concerns about being "outclassed" by neighbors.

Waving hand-- Over here! We are in southern McLean HHI of $150-$180k. We could not afford our current home and still keep our current work/family life balance. However, unless poster has children in MS and HS, that is changing fast. Families with younger kids definitely make more than the MS/HS cohort. We used to call our section of McLean the "braownbag" section, but that is changing faster than the teardowns are being turned into McMansions.

This stuff makes me upset but whatever. We have a HHI of over 300K but since we just started out and are in our early 30s and have high kids costs we don't have enough saved to buy in places where people make half.

Why is that upsetting to you. The pp just stated her HHI but not how hard she has worked to afford her lifestyle. I have a similar HHI and I live in a well over 1 million home, but we've worked and invested since we were in our early 20's. We are very handy with our hands and have invested in real estate by buying shitty homes and worked at it ourselves, we were landlords while our friends were partying in college. So yes, you make more money than we do, probably smarter too, but not more deserving of a better lifestyle, we likely have worked harder. But it's easier to think there's come kind of inheritance involve, not good planning and hard work.

I'm sure most people in DC work hard, whether hammering and painting or attorneying it teaching.

Please do not come off so much better than everyone else because you had the risk profile and resources to afford to be a real estate speculator while still in college. Most of us were borrowing money to pay for college.

You can afford hat fancy neighborhood only because the bubble paid off your speculation; your elbow grease and 'hard work' really had nothing to do with it and added little real value. You just won the roulette wheel, but with a speculative leveraged bet like real estate (like saying you graduated and didn't have a job and the bubble wasn't pushing up prices) you would quickly go bankrupt. Or be bailed out by family, I suspect.

If you have said I married a guy with a plain and who knows how to put is nose to the grinder you would be right. But you're completely wrong about you speculative idea. We moved here 4 years ago for our jobs from an average to low real estate market. We were shocked by the sticker price for real estate. It took us a year to recover from our shock and then we went to work. In our home state we had 6 rental units we have been renting for 15 years. Being a landlord, handyman, accountant for 6 units is no walk in the park when dealing with some of the renters we've had to deal with. Anyway, moving here meant we had to sell some of our real estate investments. We put down $750,000 on a 1.2 million dollar home that is now worth about 1.6 million. If we sell the rest of the stuff we can pay off the mortgage, but we're keeping them to pay for kids college. We're able to afford this area on < 200k because of elbow and grease hard work not real estate speculation.

You bought 15 years ago. I don't begrudge your elbow grease or 'plan' but your value was generated by the Fed then and in the last 4 years (go go gadget QE!). I mean 1.2 to 1.6 in 4 years? What improvements did you make, wallpaper with 100 dollar bills?

But your holier than though attitude about people partying in college was the annoying part, kind if judgemental and in no way related to this discussion.

I didn't mean to sound judgmental but the pp said she was upset by those with lower income being able to afford places that she can't. However, at 22 we were buying shitty places, gutted, remodel and then rent them. We could not afford to hire any of the work done so our weekends until mid 30's were spent working on those properties, almost all were desperate shit holes, as a result exposing ourselves to potential toxins too. My point being, our lower income doesn't reflect a lower effort on our part to afford this area.

[Anonymous]

We live in close-in S.S., had a number of neighbors move out to Olney/Rovkville/Howard County, and they all want to come back. When they left their homes sold for $600k, now they are $800k, and their new homes haven't appreciated in value so now they're stuck.

A more urban lifestyle doesn't suit everyone, especially the trade-off for a smaller home and less yard (although we have 1/4 acre and I can't imagine taking care of more.) And yes, being so close to metro we do worry about car break-ins and the like, which we wouldn't think much of in Olney.

This is purely personal preference territory. I would say though that if you like Takoma Park / Arlington, you will probably not like Rockville as much, just from an urban/suburban divide.

[Anonymous]

I understand the partying comment.

We spent our $ on sweat equity. Our friends were literally partying/drinking/other cool event-ing while we could only afford our home projects.

We are financially farther ahead because of the home, but they are farther ahead in the cool story department because they were able to spend their disposable income on fun. Our fun and our hobby was our house.

Our home went from 530G to 689G in 4 years. Not a lot but enough to put into our next home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody in the other thread the OP referenced noted that many desirable neighborhoods are full of residents that were "grandfathered in" and could not now easily afford the houses they live in. So if you move into a $1 million house, there probably many families that bought their houses for half that a few years ago and are living a lifestyle well below what a $1 million house implies. So this would pose a favorable force on OP's concerns about being "outclassed" by neighbors.

Waving hand-- Over here! We are in southern McLean HHI of $150-$180k. We could not afford our current home and still keep our current work/family life balance. However, unless poster has children in MS and HS, that is changing fast. Families with younger kids definitely make more than the MS/HS cohort. We used to call our section of McLean the "braownbag" section, but that is changing faster than the teardowns are being turned into McMansions.

This stuff makes me upset but whatever. We have a HHI of over 300K but since we just started out and are in our early 30s and have high kids costs we don't have enough saved to buy in places where people make half.

Why is that upsetting to you. The pp just stated her HHI but not how hard she has worked to afford her lifestyle. I have a similar HHI and I live in a well over 1 million home, but we've worked and invested since we were in our early 20's. We are very handy with our hands and have invested in real estate by buying shitty homes and worked at it ourselves, we were landlords while our friends were partying in college. So yes, you make more money than we do, probably smarter too, but not more deserving of a better lifestyle, we likely have worked harder. But it's easier to think there's come kind of inheritance involve, not good planning and hard work.

I'm sure most people in DC work hard, whether hammering and painting or attorneying it teaching.

Please do not come off so much better than everyone else because you had the risk profile and resources to afford to be a real estate speculator while still in college. Most of us were borrowing money to pay for college.

You can afford hat fancy neighborhood only because the bubble paid off your speculation; your elbow grease and 'hard work' really had nothing to do with it and added little real value. You just won the roulette wheel, but with a speculative leveraged bet like real estate (like saying you graduated and didn't have a job and the bubble wasn't pushing up prices) you would quickly go bankrupt. Or be bailed out by family, I suspect.

Wrong again. Not so fancy neighborhood. My type of house is commonly referred as a "shit shack" on this board. Our first house was purchased in 1990 (Dh was 30, well out of college) just after another "bubble burst" it had 750sqft. We sold it in 1997 at a LOSS, because housing in this area went down and was then basically flat for 8+ years, people were whining just like they do today (and it wasn't the first time either, this bubble and burst real estate has been going on for a long time) We bought our current house (1900sqft) and have put in $, as a result, it has doubled in value (CV-purchase price-additional investment) - So from 1990 to 2013, we have had a doubling in value of our house. Sure, we have made some money, but as investments go- it is fairly average. We haven't seen the rewards (just the increased property taxes)because we have to still live here. (I am the PP who posted the HHI of $150k-$180k in southern McLean)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused here, you worry about "exotic vacations" but you are willing to spend 1mil on a house? And your HHI is 200K?

I would worry about not fitting in with you in your 1 million dollar house.

Agreed, and OP seems to be in my HHI (and I'm essentially without debt other than the mortgage).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused here, you worry about "exotic vacations" but you are willing to spend 1mil on a house? And your HHI is 200K?

I would worry about not fitting in with you in your 1 million dollar house.

Agreed, and OP seems to be in my HHI (and I'm essentially without debt other than the mortgage).

Should clarify - and I wouldn't spend $1M on a home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody in the other thread the OP referenced noted that many desirable neighborhoods are full of residents that were "grandfathered in" and could not now easily afford the houses they live in. So if you move into a $1 million house, there probably many families that bought their houses for half that a few years ago and are living a lifestyle well below what a $1 million house implies. So this would pose a favorable force on OP's concerns about being "outclassed" by neighbors.

Waving hand-- Over here! We are in southern McLean HHI of $150-$180k. We could not afford our current home and still keep our current work/family life balance. However, unless poster has children in MS and HS, that is changing fast. Families with younger kids definitely make more than the MS/HS cohort. We used to call our section of McLean the "braownbag" section, but that is changing faster than the teardowns are being turned into McMansions.

This stuff makes me upset but whatever. We have a HHI of over 300K but since we just started out and are in our early 30s and have high kids costs we don't have enough saved to buy in places where people make half.

Why is that upsetting to you. The pp just stated her HHI but not how hard she has worked to afford her lifestyle. I have a similar HHI and I live in a well over 1 million home, but we've worked and invested since we were in our early 20's. We are very handy with our hands and have invested in real estate by buying shitty homes and worked at it ourselves, we were landlords while our friends were partying in college. So yes, you make more money than we do, probably smarter too, but not more deserving of a better lifestyle, we likely have worked harder. But it's easier to think there's come kind of inheritance involve, not good planning and hard work.

I'm sure most people in DC work hard, whether hammering and painting or attorneying it teaching.

Please do not come off so much better than everyone else because you had the risk profile and resources to afford to be a real estate speculator while still in college. Most of us were borrowing money to pay for college.

You can afford hat fancy neighborhood only because the bubble paid off your speculation; your elbow grease and 'hard work' really had nothing to do with it and added little real value. You just won the roulette wheel, but with a speculative leveraged bet like real estate (like saying you graduated and didn't have a job and the bubble wasn't pushing up prices) you would quickly go bankrupt. Or be bailed out by family, I suspect.

If you have said I married a guy with a plain and who knows how to put is nose to the grinder you would be right. But you're completely wrong about you speculative idea. We moved here 4 years ago for our jobs from an average to low real estate market. We were shocked by the sticker price for real estate. It took us a year to recover from our shock and then we went to work. In our home state we had 6 rental units we have been renting for 15 years. Being a landlord, handyman, accountant for 6 units is no walk in the park when dealing with some of the renters we've had to deal with. Anyway, moving here meant we had to sell some of our real estate investments. We put down $750,000 on a 1.2 million dollar home that is now worth about 1.6 million. If we sell the rest of the stuff we can pay off the mortgage, but we're keeping them to pay for kids college. We're able to afford this area on < 200k because of elbow and grease hard work not real estate speculation.

Do you read what you type?