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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here again. Thanks for the comments received thus far.

A few points:
Part of our frustration is that while we live centrally, I work downtown and my wife works in Fairfax. So we can't really move further east without worsening her commute (which is already terrible on 66). Of course, going west really doesn't help the affordability problem at all. Otherwise, we'd be able to consider Brookland, H St., Takoma, or PG.

Additionally, another frustration has been our lack of being able to save due to childcare costs, etc. We have decent savings, retirement, and are beginning to save for college costs.

Saving for a down payment on top of that in this environment is intimidating and would take years. In fact, you could argue that houses are appreciating faster than we can save. What's the point of saving, say, $15,000 per year when house values rise $40,000 per year? It's clear that you've missed the boat and that 'path' is no longer viable. Further, I'm not comfortable putting only 3.5% down. I'll be paying PMI forever and I hate paying interest on anything as it is. It's just more money down the drain.[/quote]

I love it when people want to live in "Downtown" or close to "Downtown" and they WORK IN FAIRFAX?!?!?!?!?!  Are you serious?  You have been throwing money away month after month to live in downtown DC when one of you works in FAIRFAX!  Any you don't know why you can't afford a house?!  You seem to lack basic judgement (as well as basic financial sense).

If, for example, you were willing to use one of you 7 path, specifically, move out near your wife's job in Fairfax and become a commuter to you job in DC, you would accomplish a couple of important things.  1) You could find a more affordable house and 2) presumably, you could find cheaper child care cost.  Reading your 7 paths (and your subsequent postings), it appears that on some level you think people are able to follow one of these paths as if by magic.  NO.  It is by hard work and, often, by doing things that aren't exactly what you want.  For ex., I imagine that you love the idea of living downtown.  You are in a high-rent area (waste of money).  In addition, your cost of eating out, child care, etc. is all high.  And you do this b/c you VALUE that lifestyle more than you VALUE homeownership.

Those of us who did take a path like the one's you've listed simply VALUE homeownership over downtown living, eating out, etc, etc.  I rented in Dupont for a while after getting married.  But, when all of our friends remained in cool rentals, my DH and I saved our money and bought a fixer-upper house WAAAAY out (by 20-something standards) in...Palisades.  Yup, it was pretty uncool amongst our friends at the time.  Fast forward about 10 years (and plenty of home projects, missed vacations, un-purchased clothes/shoes), we sold that house for about $1mm more than we bought it for.  We VALUED home ownership, so we made it happen for ourselves (whilst paying off student loans, saving for kids' college, etc.) even when it would have been "easier" "cooler" "hipper" or "more fun" just to stay downtown renting.

You have plenty of options.  You just need to decide what you value and then work toward that.

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