Things will be better when we are in charge. Boomers are going to start kicking the can pretty soon and between their departure and driverless cars things will only look up! If the commute isnt a big deal anymore, theres plenty of land in a 40mile radius that hasnt been developed or is super cheap and affordable.

I'm a young x-er/late millennial who is lucky to have rich parents who paid for law school and then my husband and i both ended up in much better career trajectories than our friends. Some was hard work and smarts on our part, but some was just luck (including our smarts - not everyone has that). We are in a $1.4m house with 60% equity.

All that said, i have no idea how regular people with regular jobs born in 1990 are ever going to be able to afford a house in DC without an outrageous comment. It's BS when people say stuff like "I bought next to a crack house; i lived for two years with my parents; i didn't eat out for 5 years".

So you're making $50k out of college. Sure, some college kids make more than that. Most don't. Jobs out of college are shitty for most kids these days. Even if you live with your parents and literally do not spend a penny of your money for 5 years (no savings, no 401k, etc), you end up with $150k after 5 years. But that's not anyone's reality. You need to save, and have a 401k, and eat, and pay for a car and/or commute. So in reality, in some insanely frugal world, you save $10k-$15k a year. After 5 years of socking that away, that doesn't buy you a 1 bedroom apartment in a safe part of DC. More likely on $50k, you're saving about $5-10k a year.

The comments about not eating out or having room mates or expecting granite are red herrings. That's not the difference between being able to buy and not.

Anonymous wrote:I think the answer is people of your generation need to vote in droves in your local elections and show up at city council meetings and public comment meetings to advocate for large increases in housing stock in your communities. The price explosion of housing near cities is almost entirely driven by the lack of supply. And every time developers propose projects to increase the numbers of units, homeowners show up to oppose them in order to protect their home values. You can't have a say in your community if you don't show up to voice it.

Good point, though part of the problem is that the people who want the density often don't live in the jurisdictions. I live near the proposed Westbard development in Bethesda, and the NIMBYs opposing it all are SFH owners in the neighborhood who don't want further development because of all the usual ostensible reasons - schools, traffic, environmental, overcrowding. (Unsaid, of course, is that brown or, even worse, moderate income people might move in. the horror!) The people who would benefit form the additional housing often don't even know about it.

Down payment from parents. No clue how else we would do it on HHI of 100k without deathly commutes.

I think the answer is people of your generation need to vote in droves in your local elections and show up at city council meetings and public comment meetings to advocate for large increases in housing stock in your communities. The price explosion of housing near cities is almost entirely driven by the lack of supply. And every time developers propose projects to increase the numbers of units, homeowners show up to oppose them in order to protect their home values. You can't have a say in your community if you don't show up to voice it.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe Op needs to look a little further out instead of wanting the perfect house in the perfect location on her/his first try. It took me 20 years before I was able to purchase "close in" with a minimal commute. Life changing for us, yes, but it takes time. You can't have the perfect everything the first time around. Compromise.

Yep.

I am 88 and recently bought a house in SS for 500k. We put 5% down, and asked a seller subsidy towards closing costs, so we only needed 25k saved for down payment and closing costs. Our PITI is 2750/mo, which is high, but not that much higher than the 2200/mo we were paying for an apartment in DC. Our HHI is not ridiculously high, about 180k, but that is enough to make owning a 500k house ok.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're a bit older, but still millenials. We bought a two bedroom rowhouse, next door to a crack house (literally) in a gentrifying neighborhood (H St NE). We renovated the interior ourselves (no contractors) and sold 6 years later for a hefty profit. We now have a $1.1M house at age 35 with more than 45% equity.

We had no financial assistance from parents beyond college tuition help many years earlier. I had substantial undergrad and law school loans that I also paid off myself in that period.

Save a down payment and get your toe in the door in a small place in an up and coming neighborhood. Don't be afraid to do some renovations yourself.

Do not take this advice. The gentrification lottery is over in D.C. The market only goes down from here.

My point is but a place you are happy to live in just in case it doesn't double in value (it sounds like PP didn't really like the crackhouse next door).

Anonymous wrote:We're a bit older, but still millenials. We bought a two bedroom rowhouse, next door to a crack house (literally) in a gentrifying neighborhood (H St NE). We renovated the interior ourselves (no contractors) and sold 6 years later for a hefty profit. We now have a $1.1M house at age 35 with more than 45% equity.

We had no financial assistance from parents beyond college tuition help many years earlier. I had substantial undergrad and law school loans that I also paid off myself in that period.

Save a down payment and get your toe in the door in a small place in an up and coming neighborhood. Don't be afraid to do some renovations yourself.

Do not take this advice. The gentrification lottery is over in D.C. The market only goes down from here.

We're a bit older, but still millenials. We bought a two bedroom rowhouse, next door to a crack house (literally) in a gentrifying neighborhood (H St NE). We renovated the interior ourselves (no contractors) and sold 6 years later for a hefty profit. We now have a $1.1M house at age 35 with more than 45% equity.

We had no financial assistance from parents beyond college tuition help many years earlier. I had substantial undergrad and law school loans that I also paid off myself in that period.

Save a down payment and get your toe in the door in a small place in an up and coming neighborhood. Don't be afraid to do some renovations yourself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You start small and build equity, and then you trade up. That's how most people do it.

Oh, and you don't get granite countertops the first time out of the gate.

NP but granite countertops are like $3500. Chump change compared to housing prices.

Exactly that's why almost all housing has nice finishes now. Compared to cost of property it's a rounding error

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You start small and build equity, and then you trade up. That's how most people do it.

Oh, and you don't get granite countertops the first time out of the gate.

NP but granite countertops are like $3500. Chump change compared to housing prices.

My 1st townhouse had crappy tile counters. It cost $450K. My current single family home in upper NW has tile countertops as well.

1. Either live with roommates or buy a condo

I'm guessing your rent is at least 2k cut it down to below 1k or thats a 300k mortgage payment = get a condo

2. Then build equity and trade up like others have been saying

You are 27 - where are you looking to buy? Do you have a Masters/JD?

When I was 27, I had just graduated from getting my MBA. I had a few friends who owned property. Most of them lived abroad as an ex-pat and had housing costs covered for a few years. The rest of us were balancing making student loan payments and paying rent. A few had significant help from parents. All of my friends who lived in major cities (NY / San Francisco) were renters. My friend who purchased a condo in Chicago used his signing bonus as his down payment.

Anonymous wrote:You start small and build equity, and then you trade up. That's how most people do it.

Oh, and you don't get granite countertops the first time out of the gate.

NP but granite countertops are like $3500. Chump change compared to housing prices.