Reply to My aunt started working as a maid at the Watergate after graduating HS & bought a home in Arlington

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]OP, yes, these days will return. But it takes political action to push upzoning in Arlington and surrounding areas. Lobby to allow much more dense urban infill. 2-4 units per lot instead of 1 SFH now. The tide is changing rapidly but it will be another few years before we're fully there. You won't have a 5k sq ft SFH on a 7k sq ft lot but fewer people want that much space these days anyway, with smaller families.[/quote]

No, I dont think those days wont return where someone making minimum wage can afford a house in a relatively high COL area. Appreciation will continue to rise, but the availability of that kind of house to someone making minimum wage is not possible. Most wages have remained flat even as COL (for healthcare, college, etc) has skyrocketed. Regressive tax policies have not helped. If the minimum wage had increased along with the COL and productivity, it should be closer to 2-25/hr, not 7.25. The path to wealth through home ownership remains valid, but most ppl who can afford homes at a young age that will appreciate have already come from money and are making money.  Lots of threads on this. Generational wealth is the largest indicator of future wealth.

My parents bought a house in Brentwood (Los Angeles) in 1969 for 55k on one professor's salary and raised us there. The mortgage was so low it allowed my parents to give us all the basics and a lot of the extras and save for both kids for college. Its now worth 3 millon. My spouse and I make far more than my father did when they bought that house (even adjusted for inflation), but the COL and real estate is such that we cannot afford the kind of lifestyle my parents provided on one middle class salary, unless perhaps we moved to a very LCOL area.

Here's another interesting piece of information. If my sibling and I inherit the house, we continue to pay the same taxes that my parents pay--something like 3900/year (!! I currently pay 14k/year for a 875k/house where I live). If the house is sold a new owner would pay 27k a year. This is why in california people dont sell houses they give them to their kids and that tax money doesn't pay for schools, etc. [/quote]

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