I don't need a garage. I do need off street parking.

We toured I don't know how many houses, and the only ones we saw with garages were townhouses. We ended up not loving the layout of townhouses, especially when combined with the typically non-existent yard, so it definitely was not a requirement. It would be nice to have one, but in our post-WWII, inside the beltway neighborhood, they are the exception. The houses that do have them have just converted the carport into a one car garage. I think if we had wanted to live farther out, I might have cared more about it, but honestly around here, it's just not that big of a deal. Now, in Texas, where golf ball-softball-sized hail is not an infrequent occurrence....we always had a garage there. (Of course I wasn't at home when we had the worst storm ever.) Yea it's annoying to have to rinse the pollen off or scrape/brush off ice/snow, but those are inconveniences only.

I would hypothesize that those "requiring" garages are in a different socio-economic sphere than myself, though. I'll just take myself back on over to the Pimmit Hills/under $600k thread where I belong now.

It was a deal breaker for our first home - hence we live in the driving suburbs. My husband came with two cars (One "old car" to fix up) and I had one. Now, many years later I laugh that we had 4 cars at one point and none of them were actually parked in the garage. My rule is we can only have "one" more car than the number of drivers in the house. The garage is filled with crap and on a rare occasions two cars are parked in it. Every 5 years I purge it. So, I would love to move closer in and ditch the crap. Maybe later in life...

I really wanted a driveway, but there were basically no garages in the areas of Silver Spring just outside the beltway where we were looking, so I didn't expect to get one. We do just fine without it, especially as we're used to street parking. We have a basement now to store things like lawn mowers.

Anonymous wrote:My dream is to be in a close in area with all garages so that the streets aren't filled with parked cars.

Parked cars on the street are important: it slows traffic down and provides some physical protection for pedestrians between sidewalk and street.

Deal breaker here.

Been there, done that without a garage and never want to be without again.

Live in NW DC. We have a garage but never use it except to store junk. Many of our neighbors don't have garages. Their houses are still selling in 24 hours for over a million dollars.

Don't care about a garage. I really wanted a driveway though.

There are plenty of places outside the Beltway (then again, they are barely outside the Beltway) where there are no garages. Lots of the homes in South Four Corners and Old Greenbelt don't have garages. Some of the homes in SFC don't even have driveways.

Anonymous wrote:Never cared or go thy people did until I had one.

Should be got why.

Never cared or go thy people did until I had one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a dealbreaker inside the Beltway. Definitely a dealbreaker outside the Beltway.

This is probably about right. I've only owned homes inside the beltway and never had a garage, and most of my neighbors also did not. It sucked in the beginning coming from an apartment building with garage parking but I've gotten used to it and it's no big deal. Of course I'd love to have one but I manage just fine without it.

I'm inside the Beltway and have a garage. It would not have been a dealbreaker but having lived with it for 15 years (and w/no garage prior to that), I would not want to give it up.

When I moved here, I found it so strange that most houses do not have a garage.

Deal breaker...although I could work with a sturdy carport IF it is set back from the street so the garage or carport is not the first thing one sees.


Prefer and need a garage to protect the finish of the car. I run mine into the ground and yes, keeping the cars out of the elements helps protect the finish. Currently driving a 17 year old Suburu that looks about 5 years old.

We lived for 20 years in a 1920's colonial with a large detached garage. The garage was about a minute walk from the house, so not too convenient to park there in inclement weather. We have an attached garage now and it's so much nicer : )

I think price point and neighborhood norm matter here. The higher the price point, the more important the garage. I've never parked in my garage in 8 years (doors are narrow because it is an old house and my car is big), but we have a huge driveway, and use the garage for storage for all the kid's outdoor stuff, bikes, ride-ons etc. . . We are looking in the high range price range in our area, and even the city homes we've seen have at least a one car detached garage.

It's 2014, people want garages. Big deal breaker for me.