Half acre lots exist in DC, but not ANYWHERE near your budget.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/5032-Fulton-St-NW-20016/home/9941749

Anonymous wrote:We have 300+ in equity and credit scores in 800+. Also make ~$350+ and we cannot afford anything in this area. It sucks. We feel we need to move to lower COL area to live comfortably.

Thinking about moving to Georgia or Alabama for affordability.

Any suggestions?

Really struggling to understand you OP. Like you, I have $300k in equity, credit scores 800+, but make only $230k (and just got here) and could afford an $850k home and still take a couple vacations a year. WHERE ARE YOU PUTTING THE REMAINING $100K OF YOUR INCOME THAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD THIS?

Is it because you want to afford other fancy things like a Tesla and spend $500 on a single designer dress or something that you can't afford the home?

Anonymous wrote:Op here. We want half acre. We are on postage stamp now and hate it. We want newer build so we don't have to replace appliances, roof, windows, electric.

And for those accusing troll. We want to spend max $720. For our salary, etc. it is upsetting we can't get what we want.

Well OP, I hear the owners of these brand new build properties on Foxhall Road might be looking to sell at a discount . New builds, what could go wrong?!?!!

https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/04/13/a-real-estate-nightmare-on-foxhall-road/

I mean, OP, you could rough it living in West Springfield or Burke, but not sure you want to condescend yourself to live in such areas among the peons.

We have a half acre in Centreville. Its worth well over 800k and has almost all original (1980) baths and the kitchen is 30 years old. Needs a ton of work. The lots in Loudoun are smaller. OP needs to go waay out to the exurbs to get half an acre for that price.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What size house do you need?

3br, 2ba. Relatively newer build. minimum half acre

LOL half acre!!! No one gets that around here. Unless you move out way out to fairfax, etc. Half acre in DC is not do-able unless you have several million dollars, and even then!

My house in CCDC has a .5 acre lot. Paid $900k in 2012.

Congratulations. What do you think it would sell for today?

720k on half an acre LMAO!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What size house do you need?

3br, 2ba. Relatively newer build. minimum half acre

If you are looking to stay in DC (and not VA or MD) there is literally nothing on the market right now that fits that description. It's not even a matter of price, what you are looking for flat out does not exist at this time.

We have the same HHI as OP and are looking for a 3br 2ba but no land requirement and would even do a row home or duplex and there is literally nothing available in NW for under $1.5M. And anything listed near 1.5 is going for way over. It’s effed, OP. I get it.

Do people have blinders on?

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3410-Morrison-St-NW-Washington-DC-20015/452246_zpid/
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3108-Worthington-St-NW-Washington-DC-20015/459705_zpid/

Well, this thread has been about as constructive as one would expect from DCUM.

OP (if you're still reading this—and why would you be?), you're not wrong. House hunting in DC is demoralizing. We have a similar HHI to yours, although our price limit is a bit higher, and it's depressing how little we've seen in the past two years that we actually like—much less that we like and can overbid enough to actually get. And having come to DC from lower cost-of-living areas, it's still hard to get our heads around the idea that we'd need to pay 2-3 times more and still get a much worse house than we'd have been able to get anywhere else we've lived. If I didn't have to live here for work, I probably wouldn't. Maybe that's the answer for you, too.

But I would suggest that if you do choose to remain in DC, you need to adjust your expectations. Half an acre close-in for $720k just isn't something you're going to find here in 2022. Unless you're rich (in DC terms, not in most-of-the-country terms), house-hunting in DC means prioritizing and compromising. Which is more important—the half acre, or being close in? You probably aren't going to get both. Is that $720k a hard limit due to your finances, or is it just what you're comfortable paying? If the latter, you might want to think about whether spending what you can afford is likely to get you a house you're happier with (and which would probably appreciate more), even if you're paying more than you've ever imagined spending on a house.

I know that can be tough—for us, it's hard for us to fathom spending as much on a house as we can technically afford. But overspending (from the perspective of someone with Midwestern sensibilities) is just about the only way to get a halfway decent house in this town. Whether that's worth it to you—or whether to say "screw it" and move somewhere with lower COL—is up to you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What size house do you need?

3br, 2ba. Relatively newer build. minimum half acre

You're not getting a new build or half acre in this area for under 1 million+. Where are you looking?

Not a new build, but you can't have everything.

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Sterling/20194-Broad-Run-Dr-20165/home/11977098

Here, move to Ohio. Here's your new build, so you can have it exactly how you want, and it meets your land requirement:
https://www.redfin.com/OH/Cincinnati/3462-Cardiff-Ave-45209/home/178263510

Cincinnati's an ok place. Lots of affordable private schools because the public schools are terrible because nobody wants to increase funding for the public schools because everybody sends their kids to private schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What size house do you need?

3br, 2ba. Relatively newer build. minimum half acre

LOL half acre!!! No one gets that around here. Unless you move out way out to fairfax, etc. Half acre in DC is not do-able unless you have several million dollars, and even then!

My house in CCDC has a .5 acre lot. Paid $900k in 2012.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What size house do you need?

3br, 2ba. Relatively newer build. minimum half acre

LOL half acre!!! No one gets that around here. Unless you move out way out to fairfax, etc. Half acre in DC is not do-able unless you have several million dollars, and even then!

Anonymous wrote:We have 300+ in equity and credit scores in 800+. Also make ~$350+ and we cannot afford anything in this area. It sucks. We feel we need to move to lower COL area to live comfortably.

Thinking about moving to Georgia or Alabama for affordability.

Any suggestions?

How long have you been making this much? I do trust you put it to work in the stock market meanwhile. The last two years have been crazy, and if you are not using the equity ladder, you should be using the stock market. Not saying all $350k should be there, but anything in there would have given you a good down payment.
Don't save money, invest it to keep up with inflation and real estate prices. Start now and you can buy a house in 3-5 years.