Reply to If you are middle class (<150k HHI), how would things be different if you were rich (>400k HHI)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yes it is middle class. I standard government or military salary is middle class. If you have to live far from the city and have a long commute to work in order to comfortably afford housing, you are middle class.

The point is that people in the &gt;400k range don’t need to make those compromises. That is the difference. Whdd we n you are rich you can have what you want.[/quote]

$150 is Not middle class.  You don't have to have a far commute, you just get a smaller house, like we did.  And very few people need to live close to DC/city.  We don't.

At under $150K we live very comfortably.  Kids are in multiple activities (expensive), private weekly music lessons, almost paid off house, college savings (at this point enough to pay for a state school, room and board and extras), retirement savings, paid cash for our last vehicle and will for our next.  And, we do things like carry out a few times a week.  Its how you spend your money.  If you choose crazy high housing costs, sure, you can be house poor but is poor financial decisions not middle class.[/quote]

PP, when did you buy your home? You say it's almost paid off, so did you buy a long time ago, put down a huge downpayment, or double-up on payments? What is your PITI? [/quote]

100% thus person bought 20+ years ago. That is not the reality of someone today warning 150K. There are 0 homes or condos under 400K.[/quote]

[b]There are plenty of houses in Wheaton, Silver Spring and other areas of MoCo for that price. [/b] We have a 900 square foot house.  Its very doable.  Buying a condo is dumb as you have HOA fees. But, there are plenty of condos for that price or less too.  Maybe not in DC but not everyone wants to live in DC and you live where you can afford, not always where you want.  We also bought a shack that no one else except builders and flippers wanted and had to invest money in repairs.[/quote]

...what?

NP here. I live in DTSS, and only bought 3 years ago, without a huge budget. There were very few non-condos that were under $500k, let alone $400k, and the few homes under $500k were 1) major fixer-uppers and/or 2) very very small (&lt;1000 sq ft) or 3) townhomes with condo fees, of which there aren't many anyway, like a few dozen that even exist, forget about them coming up for sale more than 1 or 2 at a time. This also meant bidding wars that usually pushed them over $500k.

But under $400k? Not really, no. I just looked at realtor.com and found 0 non-condos under $400k in SS below the Beltway.

Now, Wheaton? I'm seeing a few under $400k, but believe me, I looked at those 3 years ago, too, and they are either sort of &quot;half-townhomes&quot;-- like duplexes, more like 2-3 story &lt;1000 sq ft condos-- AND they have condo fees-- or a couple SFH that were very small, like yours-- 900 sq ft, 2 BR, 1 BA.

Silver Spring being unincorporated and half the county having a &quot;Silver Spring&quot; address-- sure, you can go up closer to Leisure World or even close to Howard County and get something modest, but totally reasonable for under $400k. You won't have a million options, but you'll definitely have a few if you want to live up Columbia Pike or wherever.

Before we bought our SFH-- about 1200 sq ft for us and we could afford it only because we rent out the basement-- we lived in a 900 sq ft apartment with a kid. I am always happier with less space in a more convenient location, so this was fine enough at the time, pre-pandemic, with one kid &lt;5 years old. And of course, lots of families make do with more kids and less space. But in general, people with the average 2 kids are going to want/&quot;need&quot; more than 1000 sq ft. Ideally at least 1200.

So, yeah, actually-- virtually no options for that in &quot;Silver Spring/Wheaton&quot; under $400k without a condo/HOA fee. [/quote]

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