Reply to We need homes. A lot of homes. Not just affordable, but also middle-income homes.

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Reply to "We need homes. A lot of homes. Not just affordable, but also middle-income homes."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You know, 20% of a $400k house is still $80k. That’s a lot to save on $108k household income (median for MoCo). I love how our definition of “affordable” has ballooned. [/quote]
So? There are options there as well.  One can get an FHA mortgage with 5% down (it might be as low as 3.5%), meaning all they need is $20,000. With an income of $108,000, they can save that in two or three years if they put their minds to it. And true, they'll have to pay PMI, but I had to do that with my first place, too.

What is it with all these people and the excuses for why people can't buy a home? And who says it has to be a single-family house? What's wrong with a 3-bedroom townhouse with two full bathrooms - one for the parents and one for the kids? Until I was 13, we lived in a house of five people with 1 full bathroom (plus a half-bath by the rec room). Way too much entitlement these days.[/quote]

Because there is demand at the low end that can never be satisfied as the politicians moved to eliminate that low end housing. Currently, the board is desperate to replace a couple trailer parks along Route 1. Those homes will be replaced with smaller apartments (rental only to ensure you don't build equity) and "middle income" townhouses. The trailer park home owners will be displaced becasue with a government subsidy, they aren't going to be able live in the same location. [/quote]
Where did we switch to talking about low-end housing? Isn't this thread about middle-income" buyers? And middle-income buyers can afford a $400,000 rancher or townhouse out in Sterling or Wheaton.

Trailer-park homeowners are a different topic. That's low-income.[/quote]

So, people with low incomes shouldn't have a path to home ownership unless they live two hours outside the metro area? Removing the low priced homes, only drives up the median and mean. [/quote]

I have a middle income and, until I was in my 40s, could only have afforded a single family home about 2 hours outside the District. Now, in my late 40s, I can probably do a little better but not by much. My solution has been to live in a 2-bedroom, 1bath apartment with my family. Even so, we were house poor for more than the first decade, and are finding that even with a slightly higher income now we still really can't buy what we would like to have. That's life. I'm more worried about people who can't get a roof over their heads at all. But I don't think the community has any kind of obligation to make it a desirable roof. Lots of us, even people with multiple graduate degrees working in  altruistic but not well-compensated jobs, can't live where we want.[/quote]
My story is similar. This is an expensive area, and the best I could afford as a college graduate 10 years out of school was some tiny condo near Landmark Mall. I would have loved to live in DC or Chevy Chase, but couldn't afford it. It took me another 10 years, with 20 years of professional work experience, to be able to afford a townhouse - in a nicer area but still a good 45 minutes out of town.

I see nothing wrong with low-income people continuing to rent until, and unless, they acquire job skills that enable them to earn enough to buy a modest home out in the suburbs somewhere. If they NEVER get to the point where a home purchase in the DC area is within reach, then they can choose to continue to rent or move to a cheaper area. [/quote]

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