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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=ikornika]We're relocating to somewhere in the DMV in June.

Currently in Jacksonville with mortgage of just under $900/month PITI for 3100 square feet 4bd/3.5ba SFH built in 2005 on 0.25 acres with a 2 car garage in decent school district.

So, looking at our options in DMV has been quite eye opening.

We're wanting, at minimum, a 3/2, 1100 sq ft, <1 hour commute to N Street area DC, good school districts with AAP/TAG/whatever y'all call it here, and W/D in unit.

No preference on house vs condo vs whatever. Would like at least one car garage, but not mandatory. Prefer some sort of yard; if not, access to outdoor play space.

We have a 6.5 DD and 2.5 DS. No pets.

Budget is flexible, but, in my head, I thought 3k/month would suffice to meet our desires. However, on a different board, I was told it probably isn't. So now I'm thinking my searches on realtor.com and apartments.com have been misleading me.

We'd more than likely rent for the first year, possibly two. Absolute max budget for rent would be 4500. We'd like to rent where we'd eventually buy as to avoid switching school districts. Once we're ready to buy, forecasted budget is max 1.5m, preferably in the 600-800k range, though.

Where can we afford to live? Where should I be looking? We wanted to avoid Maryland because of local income taxes, but can be convinced.

There is no rush on our move as husband will precede me to DMV to start working and will Airbnb until school is over for our DD and we'll be renting out our current home once we've relocated. [/quote]

We moved from Miami Beach to the DC area. I feel your pain. HHI is 300K and we rent in 22046 City of Falls Church. 3K (including parking and utilities 1700 sq feet 2.5 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms). We decided to rent here while shopping for a home. Our preference is DC, since DH works in Dupont Circle. I've been posting on several threads trying to find out what I can really afford (real life experience vs. what mortgage broker said I should target). I'm not charmed by a lot of DC. I'm the person who wrote about all the garbage cans in front of people's townhouses and row houses. It looks like the low-income neighborhoods in FL to me. City of Falls Church is affordable and a reasonable 30 minute commute (non rush hour), but it's ugly. The schools are good. The taxes for real estate are stupidly high. Again, it looks like one of the run down neighborhoods you'd find in Florida. I don't know where to live. I was hoping to find a charming DC neighborhood that would suit our needs (Georgetown? Burleith?). In that thread I mentioned with my HHI (will will be similar to yours), people told me not to over-exend myself and stay around $2500-$3000 PITI. That's not even possible. I'm looking at spending at least 5K month for anything livable, and more like $6500 for something I actually *want* to live in. I understand your struggle.[/quote]

I've lived in FL and what you're forgetting is the fact that you need to get in a car and drive a few miles to get to your grocery store....and to your Starbucks...and to your schools...and to your doctors appointments, that's if the only emergency care center isn't a 2-3 hour drive away. I don't miss it. Yes, it took getting used to the half-million to million price tags attached to what most people would only live in if they were drug addicts 'back home' but then again I also don't have to deal with the traffic, bad attitudes, pretty insular communities, and crazy insurance prices.

I don't miss it. But then again I wasn't living on the coastline in Coral Gables either but in the suburbs. [/quote]

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