Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they compare? I am struggling coming to terms with the fact that our likely forever home is older, smaller by 1k sq ft (more for DH), and in a less desirable neighborhood than the home I grew up in. We make way more than either set of parents ever did and they were in this area as well, but of course housing prices have rapidly outpaced income so comparable homes to those we grew up in are hundreds of thousands out of reach for us. What about you?

Find something real to struggle about. Thanks.

Anonymous wrote:
If you move to an area that is like the area here was when your parents bought, you can have a big house.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you move to an area that is like the area here was when your parents bought, you can have a big house.

What a crock.

Hmm let's see what AU Park was like when my parents bought back in 1985:

Nice housing stock, check!

Great public schools, check!

Short commute downtown, check!

Low crime, check!

Walkable to grocery stores and restaurants, check!

Affordable to regular middle class people, check!

Now let's jump to 2022, where exactly can you buy that checks all those boxes? My wife and I make significantly more than my parents did, inflation adjusted, when they bought their AU Park house and we are nowhere near being able to afford a SFH in that neighborhood or any neighborhood that checks even half of those boxes.

You’re absolutely right, and it’s why so many millennials feel downwardly mobile. But what you’re missing is that DC was a much crappier and more dangerous city. You can have all that now in Baltimore but you don’t want to live there.

Was AU Park "dangerous and crappy" though? Bethesda (where prices were roughly similar)? North Arlington? Of course not - I grew up there, I know. I'd gladly let Shaw or Columbia Heights (where I never go anyway) get crappy again in exchange for an affordable house in Upper NW exactly the way it was in the 80s.

And of course I don't want to live in Baltimore. It's an insane commute to DC and a completely different city, not comparable at all. If Baltimore had the jobs and pay and transit and museums and theaters and concert venues and restaurants of DC I'd gladly live there, but it doesn't even come close so it's a completely irrelevant comparison.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quality over quantity here. Considerably smaller, but in a much better location. I would not be able to live in the isolated, wooded cul-de-sac that I grew up on. Now we're smaller (townhouse) but can walk to everything. The quality of life is infinitely better.

+1. I grew up in a brand new 3,000 square foot house in Florida. Current house is 2,300 square feet. My kids walk to school, playgrounds, Starbucks, etc. You couldn’t pay me to move back home, which was walkable to nothing and I was dependent on my parents to drive me everywhere and anywhere I needed to go. My kids are having a much better childhood than I did.

Yup, nothing like a walkable Starbucks to improve your kids quality of life. The only thing kids care about being walkable is their friends' houses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you move to an area that is like the area here was when your parents bought, you can have a big house.

What a crock.

Hmm let's see what AU Park was like when my parents bought back in 1985:

Nice housing stock, check!

Great public schools, check!

Short commute downtown, check!

Low crime, check!

Walkable to grocery stores and restaurants, check!

Affordable to regular middle class people, check!

Now let's jump to 2022, where exactly can you buy that checks all those boxes? My wife and I make significantly more than my parents did, inflation adjusted, when they bought their AU Park house and we are nowhere near being able to afford a SFH in that neighborhood or any neighborhood that checks even half of those boxes.

You’re absolutely right, and it’s why so many millennials feel downwardly mobile. But what you’re missing is that DC was a much crappier and more dangerous city. You can have all that now in Baltimore but you don’t want to live there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quality over quantity here. Considerably smaller, but in a much better location. I would not be able to live in the isolated, wooded cul-de-sac that I grew up on. Now we're smaller (townhouse) but can walk to everything. The quality of life is infinitely better.

+1. I grew up in a brand new 3,000 square foot house in Florida. Current house is 2,300 square feet. My kids walk to school, playgrounds, Starbucks, etc. You couldn’t pay me to move back home, which was walkable to nothing and I was dependent on my parents to drive me everywhere and anywhere I needed to go. My kids are having a much better childhood than I did.

Yup, nothing like a walkable Starbucks to improve your kids quality of life. The only thing kids care about being walkable is their friends' houses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you move to an area that is like the area here was when your parents bought, you can have a big house.

What a crock.

Hmm let's see what AU Park was like when my parents bought back in 1985:

Nice housing stock, check!

Great public schools, check!

Short commute downtown, check!

Low crime, check!

Walkable to grocery stores and restaurants, check!

Affordable to regular middle class people, check!

Now let's jump to 2022, where exactly can you buy that checks all those boxes? My wife and I make significantly more than my parents did, inflation adjusted, when they bought their AU Park house and we are nowhere near being able to afford a SFH in that neighborhood or any neighborhood that checks even half of those boxes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Millennials have never grown up.

Yeah, it is becoming more and more apparent. Unfortunately now they're raising kids. Yikes. This is an accident that's happening before our very eyes.

They have kids, daycare workers, teachers and grandparents are raising them

Ah, yes, because Boomers and Gen X never had teachers or grandparents help them raise their kids... (please note the dripping sarcasm).

In my case my parents and nearly all my friends parents were First Generation Irish, German, Italian etc. None of them had zero help from family or could afford to pay for anything at all to help raise their kids.

My co-workers and nieces and nephews who are Millennials it takes an entire village to raise two kids. Like day care during school year, camps in summer, after school programs, baby sitters, in-laws covering, maid, lawn service, handimen, tutors, pre-cooked meals. All for 1-2 kids.

If your parents didn't have family to help and couldn't afford to hire help, what did they do with their kids? Did both parents work? Did they leave the kids with neighbors? Did the toddlers raise themselves?

My husband and I (Millennials) both work full time and are transplants to the area (as are a lot of people in the DMV) without family nearby to help, so, yes, we send our kids to daycare and summer camp. And we clean our own house, mow our own lawn, do our own home repairs, and cook our own meals.

To OP's original question, the house I grew up in in the suburban Midwest is a lot like my current house in Northern Virginia, except I grew up with two full-time-working blue collar parents and the regular help of both sets of grandparents who lived nearby, plus babysitters and after school programs and summer camps. Those things aren't some unique Millennial-parent need that no generation has used before.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Millennials have never grown up.

Yeah, it is becoming more and more apparent. Unfortunately now they're raising kids. Yikes. This is an accident that's happening before our very eyes.

They have kids, daycare workers, teachers and grandparents are raising them

Ah, yes, because Boomers and Gen X never had teachers or grandparents help them raise their kids... (please note the dripping sarcasm).

In my case my parents and nearly all my friends parents were First Generation Irish, German, Italian etc. None of them had zero help from family or could afford to pay for anything at all to help raise their kids.

My co-workers and nieces and nephews who are Millennials it takes an entire village to raise two kids. Like day care during school year, camps in summer, after school programs, baby sitters, in-laws covering, maid, lawn service, handimen, tutors, pre-cooked meals. All for 1-2 kids.

If your parents didn't have family to help and couldn't afford to hire help, what did they do with their kids? Did both parents work? Did they leave the kids with neighbors? Did the toddlers raise themselves?

My husband and I (Millennials) both work full time and are transplants to the area (as are a lot of people in the DMV) without family nearby to help, so, yes, we send our kids to daycare and summer camp. And we clean our own house, mow our own lawn, do our own home repairs, and cook our own meals.

To OP's original question, the house I grew up in in the suburban Midwest is a lot like my current house in Northern Virginia, except I grew up with two full-time-working blue collar parents and the regular help of both sets of grandparents who lived nearby, plus babysitters and after school programs and summer camps. Those things aren't some unique Millennial-parent need that no generation has used before.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Millennials have never grown up.

Yeah, it is becoming more and more apparent. Unfortunately now they're raising kids. Yikes. This is an accident that's happening before our very eyes.

They have kids, daycare workers, teachers and grandparents are raising them

Ah, yes, because Boomers and Gen X never had teachers or grandparents help them raise their kids... (please note the dripping sarcasm).

In my case my parents and nearly all my friends parents were First Generation Irish, German, Italian etc. None of them had zero help from family or could afford to pay for anything at all to help raise their kids.

My co-workers and nieces and nephews who are Millennials it takes an entire village to raise two kids. Like day care during school year, camps in summer, after school programs, baby sitters, in-laws covering, maid, lawn service, handimen, tutors, pre-cooked meals. All for 1-2 kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you move to an area that is like the area here was when your parents bought, you can have a big house.

What a crock.

Hmm let's see what AU Park was like when my parents bought back in 1985:

Nice housing stock, check!

Great public schools, check!

Short commute downtown, check!

Low crime, check!

Walkable to grocery stores and restaurants, check!

Affordable to regular middle class people, check!

Now let's jump to 2022, where exactly can you buy that checks all those boxes? My wife and I make significantly more than my parents did, inflation adjusted, when they bought their AU Park house and we are nowhere near being able to afford a SFH in that neighborhood or any neighborhood that checks even half of those boxes.