Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A reminder of how incredibly affordable the DC area is.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1535-Lincoln-Way-102-McLean-VA-22102/2061487338_zpid/

249k is not affordable for a one bedroom. Plus insurance, utilities and how. And what if you have kids? Hoa is $600 a month.

lol are you serious?? What do you expect home prices to be? I honestly want to know what you think you a 3 bedroom house in McLean should cost.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A reminder of how incredibly affordable the DC area is.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1535-Lincoln-Way-102-McLean-VA-22102/2061487338_zpid/

249k is not affordable for a one bedroom. Plus insurance, utilities and how. And what if you have kids? Hoa is $600 a month.

Anonymous wrote:As a middle class person with a family who actually does live in an apartment (gasp) in NE DC (shocked silence), I just want to point out that actually there are thousands and thousands of homeless or under housed people in the area. I know because they hang out in my neighborhood.

I have zero issues living in an apartment but it seems obvious to me that we don't have enough low- and middle-income housing that is either close to commercial corridors or accessible to reliable transit. My spouse and I have also done the math on moving further out and commuting so that we could afford a SFH with a yard. For starters, everything further out is also more expensive than it used to be. And second, this would necessitate owning two cars, a major expense. And third it would require additional childcare to cover the hours we'd both spend commuting, at least three days a week. So it doesn't really work out even assuming we could find a SFH for 500k or less.

We are presently looking for jobs in another city where yes, pay is lower overall, but also where housing is much cheaper. I don't think we're the only middle-income family I'm this situation.

My spouse is a civil engineer and I am a preschool teacher.

Anonymous wrote:A reminder of how incredibly affordable the DC area is.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1535-Lincoln-Way-102-McLean-VA-22102/2061487338_zpid/

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the OP on this but there should be middle ground. For example, Fairfax County and Alexandria City (I believe) used to have special grants that helped teachers, police officers, firefighters, etc. purchase homes within the county/city to address this problem. That is a better solution than building tons of apartments. Our schools, hospitals, grocery stores, etc. would be overwhelmed and the way of life we all moved to our homes for would be degraded. Suburbanites chose not to live in the city for a reason. Please don't bring the overcrowded city life (and crime) to the suburbs!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its all a tube of toothpaste. You want low wage workers so you can get a burger for under $10? Well you either need to build enough cheap or subsidized housing for them, or deal with 270/495/most other roads being jammed up with drive-till-you-qualifiers coming to make your sandwich.

See, this is where the free market takes over. If burger flippers, teachers, and barbers can't afford to live in the area then the supplies of those who do that labor will go down, leading to a premium in wages that will allow them to eventually afford housing. No one is entitled to live wherever they want. We do not need to upend our way of life because people don't like their personal choices. There is plenty of cheap housing stock in Iowa, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Western MD, etc. It's not my responsibility to provide you housing because you don't want to live there.

Why don't people move to places where housing is cheap because there's very little demand for housing because there's no economic opportunity?!?!?!

Nonsense.

You all complain burger flippers, restaurant staff, teachers and firefighters can't afford to live in this area. Guess what? All of those jobs exist in Kansas, Ohio, Iowa, or Arkansas! Hell, the Dakotas have some of the top performing schools in the entire country if you care about your kids' education so much. You are not entitled to live wherever you want.

Here's a perfectly fine house for $375K in York, PA:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2415-Wildon-Dr-York-PA-17403/60492446_zpid/

York is a small city with jobs for all of the people complaining about costs. They need teachers and restaurant staff.

Here are good enough homes for desperate people in Columbus, Ohio, which is a vibrant enough town for people if all they care about is owning a home:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1465-Lockbourne-Rd-Columbus-OH-43206/33850877_zpid/

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8437-Nimitz-Dr-Powell-OH-43065/34124344_zpid/

There is no housing crisis. The only crisis is that peoples' expectations don't match the realities of their current situations and that maybe they should make better choices for where they can truly afford to live relative to their education, income, and status in life. No one wants to be told the cold harsh reality of their networth. I'm sorry you can't afford to live in the DMV when you work a job earning $23/hour. Why should we tear down our neighborhoods to cater to your desires simply because you don't want to live in a more affordable area of the country? There are plenty of affordable places to live, you just refuse to move there.

You know the people you're telling to move to Ohio? They're the ones who make your life possible.

Again, if it was truly so unaffordable then all of those people who make all of our lives work would move because they know their true value. Yet they don't.

Welcome to the free market. Who is holding a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to live in this area? Oh wait, that's right, literally no one. Personal choices. Don't complain about dumping $3000 per month in rent because you demand to live in DC as a secretary while there are completely affordable homes in Columbus for under $300k and plenty of companies that need your line work there as well.

Anonymous wrote:There is definitely no housing crisis. We have migrants and immigrants finding housing no problem. I mean look how cheap housing is compared to incomes compared to most of the world.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its all a tube of toothpaste. You want low wage workers so you can get a burger for under $10? Well you either need to build enough cheap or subsidized housing for them, or deal with 270/495/most other roads being jammed up with drive-till-you-qualifiers coming to make your sandwich.

See, this is where the free market takes over. If burger flippers, teachers, and barbers can't afford to live in the area then the supplies of those who do that labor will go down, leading to a premium in wages that will allow them to eventually afford housing. No one is entitled to live wherever they want. We do not need to upend our way of life because people don't like their personal choices. There is plenty of cheap housing stock in Iowa, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Western MD, etc. It's not my responsibility to provide you housing because you don't want to live there.

Why don't people move to places where housing is cheap because there's very little demand for housing because there's no economic opportunity?!?!?!

Nonsense.

You all complain burger flippers, restaurant staff, teachers and firefighters can't afford to live in this area. Guess what? All of those jobs exist in Kansas, Ohio, Iowa, or Arkansas! Hell, the Dakotas have some of the top performing schools in the entire country if you care about your kids' education so much. You are not entitled to live wherever you want.

Here's a perfectly fine house for $375K in York, PA:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2415-Wildon-Dr-York-PA-17403/60492446_zpid/

York is a small city with jobs for all of the people complaining about costs. They need teachers and restaurant staff.

Here are good enough homes for desperate people in Columbus, Ohio, which is a vibrant enough town for people if all they care about is owning a home:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1465-Lockbourne-Rd-Columbus-OH-43206/33850877_zpid/

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8437-Nimitz-Dr-Powell-OH-43065/34124344_zpid/


There is no housing crisis. The only crisis is that peoples' expectations don't match the realities of their current situations and that maybe they should make better choices for where they can truly afford to live relative to their education, income, and status in life. No one wants to be told the cold harsh reality of their networth. I'm sorry you can't afford to live in the DMV when you work a job earning $23/hour. Why should we tear down our neighborhoods to cater to your desires simply because you don't want to live in a more affordable area of the country? There are plenty of affordable places to live, you just refuse to move there.

There are also areas of the country where SFH zoning will persist indefinitely. Why should MoCo cater to your desires because you don’t want to move to a more desirable (to you) area of the county? There are plenty of cities with SFH zoning to live, you just refuse to move there.

I did move to an area with SFH zoning, yet the work idiot council manufacturers crises like a so called housing issue. Their solution of course is never to tell people to live where they can afford it. Their solutions are to take away from people who've earned it and redistribute because there is so much lazy entirement mentality these days.

Anonymous wrote:Remember to stay involved in local politics people...the only way to change zoning laws is to influence the politicians who control them. Homeowners are fiercely protective of their property values, and they go out and vote to maintain them. Those who want more affordable housing have to vote in larger numbers for any meaningful change to happen!