Reply to Good schools EoTP

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Good schools EoTP"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I live on the Hill and I'll say one thing about this conversation:

Your attitude on the viability of MS/HS options on the Hill is often driven by whether you bought your home within the last 8-10 years, versus 10 or more years ago. People who bought earlier tend to have more willingness to figure it out because they are sitting on a gold mine -- relatively low mortgage plus skyrocketing house value gives you tons and tons of options. If you've got a basement you can lease out? Even better. The reason you encounter "middle class" people on the Hill who are blasé about these issues is that they are very fortunate (yes, fortunate, you didn't buy on the Hill when you did because you are some kind of real estate savant, you bought here because that's when you could afford to buy and housing on the Hill was affordable back then) in their housing timing and therefore have or can access cash more easily. This enables them to do things like "try out" SH for a year and see how it goes, hope for the best in the lottery and see how it goes, assume they can "always" rent or buy in NW or the suburbs if they need to.

If you bought long enough ago that your own a house on the Hill but pay less than say 2800 in monthly mortgage payments, you always have access to cash. You can lease your house for a few years and make money off of it. You could sell it for a huge cash windfall. Or you can just live in it and pocket the money that your neighbors are paying just to live there.

If you bought in the last 8 years or so years, you either have a huge mortgage payment (like 3k and up, maybe way up depending on location and size of your house) or you live in a teeny tiny home that you are struggling to imagine staying in as your kids hit MS age (a condo or condo-alternative house, no outdoor space, maybe just 700-800 sq ft).

People in the latter situation, even if they can afford their mortgage and have job security, are much more likely to go looking for more certainty in their school situation past elementary. They are in a fundamentally different financial situation and cannot simply magic up cash for private, nor do they have the flexibility with renting out their home, that people who bought earlier did. They also may worry more about things like saving for college or retirement because they are not going to see the same equity out of their homes and cannot save as aggressively as someone with a much lower mortgage payment.

It is annoying to me how few people seem to understand this and want to attribute these differences to personality or something. It's not. Most of this is just about timing, real estate, and $$$. And regardless of how modest you might think your income is ("DH is just a GS-11 and I'm a teacher! We're not rich."), if you are sitting on 500k or more in home equity in your CH row house, you are, for all intents and purposes, wealthy. Your education choices will reflect that.[/quote]

+100 This post just about sums it up![/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics