Reply to If you were born in 1990, how do you plan on ever affording a house?

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Reply to "If you were born in 1990, how do you plan on ever affording a house?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I am absolutely sympathetic. Things are crazy expensive in DC now, and if you come with student loans and no family help, the numbers in 2017 bear no resemblance to the stories of woe about the kid who graduated in 1993, bartended to pay for school, and "scrimped" for all of 2 years and then bought a house that appreciated 3x within 8 years. Those days are done.  You have nothing but sympathy from me, and the back patters on this site are delusional if they think their fortune comes only from their own hard work and smart choices.  Statistics and data say otherwise.

All that said, when I moved to DC in the late 90s, this city sucked.  Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle were essentially exactly what they are today. Then you had a handful of restaurants up by the National Cathedral. And Georgetown. And the same strip in Glover Park that exists today.  housing was quite a bit cheaper, but still decently expensive in the nicer parts of town.  Jobs were not flashy, and the options were much more limited than today. You had government workers, and associations and nonprofits, and embassies.  A few government consultants and contractors.  But in general, most people were tied to shitty government salaries. It wasn't the booming economy it is today.  There was almost no private industry, and none of the salaries that went along with them.  Law firms were tiny little offshoots in the 90s with salaries in the 5-figures.  [b]In 1995, there was no concept of gentrification.  No one was moving to 14th street and making money, because the idea was lunacy back then.  There were no cute gentrifying neighborhoods where prices were lower.  [/b]So there were a lot of people making $50k living in a small, dull town with very little to do.  We used to live in Dupont, and people used to regularly go up to cactus cantina by the cathedral because it was "a restaurant". People used to line up for hours at Two Amys.  There were two places to get an after dinner drink downtown: John Harvards and Harrys.  Can you imagine that now?

The point of all this is: We were able to buy houses on much lower salaries yes. And maybe enjoyed price appreciation.  But it wasn't a super fun, trendy city back then.  If your primary concern is just being able to buy a house (which is the only thing you complained about; you weren't complaining about not enjoyed price appreciation), then I'd suggest leaving the DC area.  Go to Baltimore. Or philly. Or somewhere in the southwest, or Tampa, or Raleigh.  Sure, those are all smaller, less interesting towns. But they all look a lot like what DC looked like 20 years ago (cost of living, traffic, typical salaries, job opportunities). [/quote]

Tell that to someone who bought on Capitol Hill (3 blocks from Eastern Market) in 1996. We did ok.[/quote]

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