Reply to Starter home with newborn (DC)

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[quote=Anonymous]I'm going to disagree with others on this.  Here's the decision trees:

- others are saying not to buy now unless you can plan on saving/earning a lot of money in order to trade up after several years.  So their implicit suggestion seems to be to save now and buy the larger house down the road when you can afford it.  But that logic still relies on you having to be able to save a lot of money, with child, in the interim, or have increased income. The reality is that DC close-in real estate goes up by around 5-10% a year. So if you don't buy now, and you're not planning on saving/earning more in the interim, you are definitely locking yourself out of certain neighborhoods for the long term.

- My experience is that it's a lifetime from the birth of a child to sending them to "real" school. Search this forum and you'll see a million people, including teachers, admit that most of the DCPS PK programs are going to serve your kids really well. And they're only getting more competitive through the increased interest in the lottery - so with exceptions in SE, the vast majority of PK programs are going to be great options.  And most teachers will say that even K and 1st grade at the "gentrifying" schools are probably fine as well. And a little secret that others have noted is that childcare costs are still really expensive when your kids are in free PK. You still have to pay for aftercare and summer care. I ran a spreadsheet and the cost differential between DCPS PK, plus after school high school babysitter (no classes or activities) and same babysitter all summer was only about $6000 cheaper than our private year round preschool for the year. So getting into a good free PK is not the be-all and end-all. Where it is useful is by trying to lottery into a good school in one of the three years (PK3, PK4 and K). That gives you three years to, say, lottery into Mundo Verde - which is a decent commute from a lot of cheaper neighborhoods.  So essentially you have a 6 or 7 year window from pregnancy to K (even later, if you only care starting in first grade) to live in the place you want.

- I would buy now where you can afford - target houses if you can, only because appreciation is likely to be better. I just checked and Eckington and Brookland have a couple places for $550,000 that look really nice. Save as much money during those years as you can -- which presumably is the same amount you'd be saving if you were renting (taking into account equity through mortgage payments).  Live there for 7 years, see price appreciation and either move into a better neighborhood, or use the interim to lottery somewhere good.

- We've lived in 6 houses in the last 8 years. We both work full time and my husband travels a lot. Not ideal, but I have no idea why people have a kid and then somehow find it impossible to move.  It's really not hard.  Espeically in town. [/quote]

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