This article makes it very clear that many people want to live in DC. It’s a hot spot!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/12/11/is-your-city-among-top-moving-destinations/?utm_term=.273f7f8b9422

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a young decent/highish earning couple (HHI north of 200k) and never considered DC for reasons in this article. Mainly the price. DC is too expensive, not enough space, and doesnt offer a good commute at all. If our jobs werent central do the DC area we would not live here. I love visiting the city, but would never live there.

We're a young high earning couple and never considered VA or MD because we didn't want to be stuck in traffic for most of our lives. It's very expensive here, but we love our house/neighborhood and walkability/accessibility.

Honestly if you love visiting cities but wouldn't want to live in one it probably wasn't the cost pushing you to the burbs. Everything's not for everybody.

DP. Young (how are we defining young here? Under 30? Under 35?) family. We used to live in DC until our HHI increased to $400k and this line of thinking really bothers me. For the amount of money you pay in taxes in dc you should really get more than walkability and the chance at free pre-k (because depending on where you live it’s not guaranteed at your neighborhood school and most folks don’t want to have to travel far for pre k). And add to that that you don’t get representation at the national level. No thanks.

Exactly. It’s like you lose your American citizenship when you move to DC.

DC is not hurting for residents so obviously these factors are not decision points for folks buying in the city. In fact, it is reaching an all time high. Bye now...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a young decent/highish earning couple (HHI north of 200k) and never considered DC for reasons in this article. Mainly the price. DC is too expensive, not enough space, and doesnt offer a good commute at all. If our jobs werent central do the DC area we would not live here. I love visiting the city, but would never live there.

We're a young high earning couple and never considered VA or MD because we didn't want to be stuck in traffic for most of our lives. It's very expensive here, but we love our house/neighborhood and walkability/accessibility.

Honestly if you love visiting cities but wouldn't want to live in one it probably wasn't the cost pushing you to the burbs. Everything's not for everybody.

DP. Young (how are we defining young here? Under 30? Under 35?) family. We used to live in DC until our HHI increased to $400k and this line of thinking really bothers me. For the amount of money you pay in taxes in dc you should really get more than walkability and the chance at free pre-k (because depending on where you live it’s not guaranteed at your neighborhood school and most folks don’t want to have to travel far for pre k). And add to that that you don’t get representation at the national level. No thanks.

Exactly. It’s like you lose your American citizenship when you move to DC.

DC is over. My old street has houses selling for 700/800k but it's still infested by rats, surrounded by criminals, ugly, and worthless schools

Of course I chose Maryland when it was time to buy

Congrats to the people who bought in Shaw in 2000 and are now rich, but the time to invest in DC has passed

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t leave pre-kids, wait until your kids are in one of the 2000 student cut-throat schools*50 of them in the dmv.
Stressful and total crapshoot applying to colleges around here.

But have fun with all the sports and arts cuts. Only <10% will make the cut! What a place to live.

Well, if you make the <10% in podunk high school, flyover country, it still may not cut it either for an elite college.

Keep telling yourself that. Ever heard of geographic diversity? I saw an interview with a Stanford admissions officer. When asked how to improve your kid’s chances of getting in, she said “Move to Alabama.”

Anonymous wrote:DC also has some of the lowest property taxes and the best deductions like the homestead and senior citizen property tax breaks. DC is a very inexpensive place to live if you own real estate.

Compared to other cities, property taxes for owner residents is unbeatable.

DC also has some of the lowest property taxes and the best deductions like the homestead and senior citizen property tax breaks. DC is a very inexpensive place to live if you own real estate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a young decent/highish earning couple (HHI north of 200k) and never considered DC for reasons in this article. Mainly the price. DC is too expensive, not enough space, and doesnt offer a good commute at all. If our jobs werent central do the DC area we would not live here. I love visiting the city, but would never live there.

We're a young high earning couple and never considered VA or MD because we didn't want to be stuck in traffic for most of our lives. It's very expensive here, but we love our house/neighborhood and walkability/accessibility.

Honestly if you love visiting cities but wouldn't want to live in one it probably wasn't the cost pushing you to the burbs. Everything's not for everybody.

DP. Young (how are we defining young here? Under 30? Under 35?) family. We used to live in DC until our HHI increased to $400k and this line of thinking really bothers me. For the amount of money you pay in taxes in dc you should really get more than walkability and the chance at free pre-k (because depending on where you live it’s not guaranteed at your neighborhood school and most folks don’t want to have to travel far for pre k). And add to that that you don’t get representation at the national level. No thanks.

As people have said, it's not for everybody. I've lived in Charlotte and Atlanta. I LOVE DC. People are smart here. There is more to life than a big house. At $700K HHI, I'm happy to pay my taxes here. To each his own.

PP. Who said anything about a big house? And you do know that people in places like Charlotte and Atlanta also pay taxes? My point is you get nothing for what you pay despite the fact that dc is actually financially better positioned than many other cities because it’s not heavily in debt.

This doesn't make any sense. You get a plethora of world class museums for free. You get a liberal community. You get one of the greenest cities in the country. You get sunshine because there aren't skyscrapers blocking out the sun. You get free pre-k (which will save us close to 100k). You get clean and mostly convenient transit. Saying you get nothing in DC is patently absurd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if anyone answered this, but if DC is out who is in?

Dayton

Dayton is “in” like Akron.

Anonymous wrote:We are a young decent/highish earning couple (HHI north of 200k) and never considered DC for reasons in this article. Mainly the price. DC is too expensive, not enough space, and doesnt offer a good commute at all. If our jobs werent central do the DC area we would not live here. I love visiting the city, but would never live there.

We're the same and we never considered the burbs because the lifestyle will kill you. We don't need 3,000 sq ft and 2 cars. Our life is simple, easy, and we have a stronger community here in the district than I ever did in Gaithersburg or Fairfax where I previously lived.

Just wishful thinking by those who cannot afford to live here like Manhattan, San Fran, Etc.They can’t afford housing nor paying for private schools.

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/realestate/the-new-boomtowns-why-more-people-are-relocating-to-secondary-cities/2018/11/07/f55f96f4-d618-11e8-aeb7-ddcad4a0a54e_story.html

Just one in a long line of recent articles pointing to a mass exodus of young people from cities like DC. Despite the groupthink here, I think it’s safe to say that prices can only go so high when young families have more options than they once did (you can move anywhere with telework and good jobs can be had basically anywhere). Also, the whole “____ is too conservative/southern” argument is losing steam because secondary cities are all flipping to blue zones.

Young families have always moved out of DC - schools suck, expensive housing - but it has always been a magnet for the young and childless.

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if anyone answered this, but if DC is out who is in?

Dayton

Not sure if anyone answered this, but if DC is out who is in?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t leave pre-kids, wait until your kids are in one of the 2000 student cut-throat schools*50 of them in the dmv.
Stressful and total crapshoot applying to colleges around here.

But have fun with all the sports and arts cuts. Only <10% will make the cut! What a place to live.

Well, if you make the <10% in podunk high school, flyover country, it still may not cut it either for an elite college.

This isn’t 100% accurate. Elite schools also care about geographic diversity so it can actually be easier to get in from a state where there are less applicants.

I was the shining star of a podunk high school, and got into elite Ivy. And barely survived freshman year bc I was in way over my head. I would rather my kids go to excellent high school, be middle of the pack, and then do stellar at VT or JMU.

+10000000

So you'd rather your kids have VT/JMU degrees over an Ivy degree?

Mildly curious.

I grew up here. I went to Brown. My DH went to UVA. He has done much better that me. He has a huge alumni network and that has benefited him very well. I would 100% rather my kids go to UVA or VT than an Ivy. I see no ROI there, other than the fact that you can impress douchebags at cocktail parties.

Well first of all UVA is much better than VT/JMU. I went to an ivy and would be ecstatic if my DC went to an ivy or UVA. That said there are entire industries that you basically have no shot of entering if you don’t go to an ivy or a handful of other schools. You aren’t going to be doing management consulting or investment banking straight out of undergrad at VT or JMU.

News to me. I know some recent grads from VT who are at large consulting firms. You are so wrong about that.

+1. Very wrong. When I was at a bulge bracket IB, the firm recruited at a good number of schools, including some state schools and black colleges. I’d almost argue it’s harder to get your Ib or consulting job out of an Ivy as probably more students there are competing for the slots. It wasn’t as popular of a path at my state school.

I think it’s so weird someone thinks investment banks and management consulting firms are made up almost entirely of Ivy League grads.

Reading comprehension is not your friend. My post said ivies and select other schools. Not sure how you get from that those jobs are entirely Ivy League grads. You will find people from every Ivy League school working in those environments. You will not find someone from every state school (note you said “some state schools”). You probably won’t even find people from every flagship state school. And you might (*gasp*) not find anyone that went to the super prestigious VT or JMU. And it would only be relatively harder to get those jobs coming out of an ivy if they have the same number of slots for each school. Which they do not.

And I’m not impressed that some VT grads are at Accenture...