Reply to There is no housing crisis in MoCo or most of the DMV for that matter

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a middle class person with a family who actually does live in an apartment (gasp) in NE DC (shocked silence), I just want to point out that actually there are thousands and thousands of homeless or under housed people in the area. I know because they hang out in my neighborhood.

I have zero issues living in an apartment but it seems obvious to me that we don't have enough low- and middle-income housing that is either close to commercial corridors or accessible to reliable transit. My spouse and I have also done the math on moving further out and commuting so that we could afford a SFH with a yard. For starters, everything further out is also more expensive than it used to be. And second, this would necessitate owning two cars, a major expense. And third it would require additional childcare to cover the hours we'd both spend commuting, at least three days a week. So it doesn't really work out even assuming we could find a SFH for 500k or less.

We are presently looking for jobs in another city where yes, pay is lower overall, but also where housing is much cheaper. I don't think we're the only middle-income family I'm this situation.

My spouse is a civil engineer and I am a preschool teacher.[/quote]

Exactly. Personal decisions. You've now made the wise decision to move to another area with a lower COL so that you can buy.  Literally proves my point.  There is no crisis. There's only bloated expectations and entitlement. [/quote]

Good luck when you can't find experienced teachers or civil engineers in the DMV because they all moved to Columbus and St. Louis and Philly where they can afford to own a SFH with okay schools close in.

It will be great when the city is just wealthy people, poor people, and a bunch of young professionals passing through on their way to other things. Have fun with that.[/quote]

[b]If we couldn't find teachers and civil engineers, etc., yes that would be a problem.  But the fact is we don't have this problem at all.  All service needs are met!  There is literally no problem at all. [/b]

[/quote]

Do you read the educational forum? Teaching needs are not adequately met, at least in Fairfax County. As a former teacher, I couldn’t afford a tent in the town where I taught, so we moved. When I return to education, my expertise, gained from Fairfax County training, will benefit students that compete against DMV kids for college spots.[/quote]

Look on the county websites.  Lots of vacancies that 15 years ago would not have been there.  As a woman, with a masters I stopped working as my entire county salary would have gone to child care and that was 15 years ago for one child. These jobs are not easily filled. [/quote]

+1, it's genuinely hard to fill a lot of these roles. Another thing that happens is that you can hire freshly minted professionals into these jobs, but then they leave 5-10 years later because they have, or want to have, kids and they can't share a condo with a roommate anymore to save money. It is genuinely becoming critical because 10 years ago these folks had a decent number of options -- Wheaton, Rockville, parts of Alexandria, PG County. Now a 2 bedroom, one bathroom bungalow in Wheaton runs 500-600k, which at current interest rates is not affordable for a family of 3 with an HHI of 160k, especially when factoring in the cost of both commuting and childcare. When educated professionals can't afford 1200 square foot unrenovated homes outside the beltway, where the schools are so-so anyway, what do you expect them to do? Commute in from Howard County? At that point they will just get jobs in HoCo or Baltimore.

People in this thread keep saying "the market will correct" by raising wages, but that's not always what happens. Another option is to lower standards, and for cash strapped organizations (which includes most state and municipal government, including most school districts), they will often opt to go the other direction and lower entry standards. That means hiring less qualified, less educated, and less experienced people to perform the same jobs. So congrats! Your teachers and bridge inspectors won't be as good anymore. Surely that won't have any impact on your quality of life. Same thing with the people who manage the bureaucracy of government. You want to complain about your tax assessment? Good luck, because the assessor's office is understaffed with a 3 year backlog, and the people in charge can barely string three sentences together.

But you know, good luck with that. DC is going to be great when it's a few thousand very wealthy people and then millions of people living in poverty, with no middle class to speak of. What could go wrong?[/quote]

Stop trying to buy a home then, idiots. Of you make $160k, go buy a condo or townhome in an affordable area.  You realize billions of people with families make it work on the planet?  What's wrong with living in a condo?

Here's a condo for below $190k with 3 bedrooms, which is plenty for a family of 4:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8830-Piney-Branch-Rd-APT-507-Silver-Spring-MD-20903/37325973_zpid/

Again, so many stupid expectations. Heaven forbid you live within your means. [/quote]

That condo has a $1,126/mo HOA fee. That's why it's so cheap. It's not worth buying because it will never appreciated because that fee is likely to go up, not down. You would be better off renting.[/quote]

I seriously question whether condos are good investments at all, at any price range.  I likewise question the notion that condos are the means for middle income taxpayers to grow their wealth.   And, certainly, the small condos that are being developed will never increase much in value.  [/quote]

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