09:39 back:

We have also noticed, colloquially, that people in the Midwest seem to have a lot more STUFF, prob b/c they have more disposable income and more place to put it. The circles we run in around here: everyone is making a choice b/w space and stuff and $$, so, all other things being equal, our friends out here may have made the decision to have a smaller house and spend the $$ to live closer in, and go to a park, say, instead of have a backyard. Whereas our friends back in the Midwest would seriously think someone was poor, destitute , on the streets if they did not have a backyard! Or, each kid didn't have their own bedroom! Or, a family chose not to have cable. Etc. (We don't have cable, and no one in DH's family can understand that about it. LOL. It is kind of funny everytime they visit us. I inwardly giggle everytime someone in DH"s family asks us, "You DON"T have CABLE?????????")

I am from here and my DH is from the Midwest. He moved here right out of college to work on the Hill and we met after we had both been working here for a few years. So, my frame of reference has always been based upon housing/COL costs here, and his, since he moved here right out of college, became accustomed to here too. So, it's all in your frame of reference. When we go back to visit his family members, we keep our thoughts to ourselves, of course, but we sometimes wonder whether to laugh or cry at the comparison: since the costs HERE are what we are used to, the costs back there seem teeny, miniscule, like maybe doll housing or somethign like that. Like, you said your house costs $125K, I think? Imagine if you were visiting a place where housing cost $25K. You'd be like, "What????? That's really: funny/sad/crazy!! Let's buy 2 or 3! Just toss them in the shopping cart and let's go!" So, I do think it's where you have started out, and what your frame of reference is. So, while I know there are still a few places in the States where we could move to and be still outpriced in housing/COL (California? NYC metro area?) I am kind of glad that we have a lot of options for our future (retirement? other?) b/c most other places (in the US) will seem relatively less expensive to us, as a comparison. Hope this makes sense.

If you get stressed about having enough money, do the math before moving here.

My friend moved to DC to take a low six figure govt.job. his wife works in retail and it had stunk for him because money is so tight.

OP, I'm from the South and live here. It's doable. You will trade off certain things- you will likely live in a much smaller, possibly older house than you would in other areas. But, you get great public schools! (So long as you're not in DC proper. Fairfax and Loudoun Counties have some of the best public schools in the country, and are probably more your speed coming from the Midwest.) Taxes are pretty high... but the trade off is you get to live in a really great area. What I love about it here is that very few areas look really seedy or run down. There's not a lot of tacky strip malls, or pawn shops or title pawns or things like that. The roads are in great condition. You may have to take less lavish vacations... but you live so close to so many things that people travel HERE for, like the museums and monuments and Cherry Blossom time and the Easter Egg roll (if you win the lottery).

Basically, the way I tell it to myself is this: we might have more expendable income if we lived elsewhere, but our quality of life would be much different. Where we're from, there's not much to do. It's a great place, don't get me wrong, but your options for entertainment are limited to high school football games, the movie theater, and the chain restaurant of your choice. (I confess, I like some chains, but it's nice to have the option not to eat at them too.) Here, there's always some event or activity going on you can go to on the weekends. We just make it work and try to look at the good!

We were in Frederick, MD last weekend and I looked briefly at the prices of housing there. You can get a lot for your money. Technically, Frederick is only about 35-40 minutes from D.C. straight down 270, but with traffic, I am sure it is much, much more on most days. However, many people who live in that area don't commute into D.C. They might commute to Rockville or other areas around there which are much closer. Yes, it's suburbia, but downtown Frederick is really cute and has lots of nice shops and restaurants, and you could get into D.C. on a weekend for theatre, etc pretty quickly.

http://www.redfin.com/MD/Frederick/2454-Five-Shillings-Rd-21701/home/15220239

http://www.redfin.com/MD/Frederick/2011-Chapel-Ct-21702/home/15219211

http://www.redfin.com/MD/Frederick/408-Elm-St-21701/home/15235473 (this one is really cute!!!)

Not everyone in the DC area lives in a $700,000 house. There are many price points for homes in the area. The closer in communities are more expensive just like everywhere else in the country. There are tons of people in the are who don't make as much money as you who manage to live here and have a great quality of life. It really all depends upon priorities. Are schools important, fast commute, suburban living, city living, do you own a car.... there are so many factors that play a part in where people choose to live based upon their income level and priorities in life.

Anonymous wrote:Its possible to get a decently nice house for 300k in some burbs.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/15449-Silvan-Glen-Dr_Dumfries_VA_22025_M63699-43804

DUMFRIES? Hardly a desirable far out suburb. There is a reason it is cheap.

The difference between Prince William County and Fairfax/Loudoun Counties is that PW is pretty much dump with a still sinking real estate market...while FFX and Loudoun have continued to rise, even through the slow down. No decent jobs on that side of NoVA. It is all along the Dulles Corridor. You can live in Reston, and walk to work the jobs just keep coming..growth, growth, growth. It is nice for the people in the far out suburbs...good job, good schools, good communities and little commute.

My DH is making 275K/yr and it only takes him 15 min to get to work each day, though he often works from home. It is nice because we purchased pre-boom and are sitting on a mortgage of 2K for a SFH. We are on track to have this house paid off in the next 5 years and we are in our mid-30s. I think the key for many of us and why many of us are fortunate is that we purchased our homes early. When loans were cheap and easy to get, DH and i started buying in our early 20s.

A healthy chunk of credit card debt! USA! USA! USA!

You can't bring your current definition of normal to this (or other areas) because they are not the same.

In the part of California where I came from, normal people drive huge pickup trucks and live in large ranch homes with pools and pool houses. Downtown is a dump (but improving!), and only poor people walk or ride transit, so they drive their truck 15 miles one way to work.

In DC, the majority of us don't live like that. I bicycle to work and save thousands on transportation including gas, parking, insurance, car maintenance, gym membership, Metro, etc.

Debt, mostly. Single parent (not when I moved here), living in a nice area of PG county, about 50% of my take home pay goes to housing. I'm from the Midwest and miss it, but I'm rooted here now and life's pretty good on the whole.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the point of your post? Apparently, millions of us are finding a way to make it work. When you come to visit, remember to stand on the left when you go on the metro.

The right. For the love of God, stand to the right, walk on the left.

You failed to see the humor in the quoted post!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the point of your post? Apparently, millions of us are finding a way to make it work. When you come to visit, remember to stand on the left when you go on the metro.

The right. For the love of God, stand to the right, walk on the left.

Not the PP, but I'm pretty sure this was meant to be a joke. Farcical, if you will.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the point of your post? Apparently, millions of us are finding a way to make it work. When you come to visit, remember to stand on the left when you go on the metro.

The right. For the love of God, stand to the right, walk on the left.

+1
I was waiting for someone to correct that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20:50 you are an ass. OP- you are right. My husband and I both work- live in DC, crappy school area but lucked out on charters for both kids, make about 150k EACH, and do not have a great big back yard or lots of sq ft in our 800k home. We have a very easy commute to our jobs, like what we do, and have lots of family in the area. But I always said, if we could make anything close to our income now (and by close, I mean 60%) of it - or if my husband could make his income somewhere else (he is in tech, and gets 30% of his income for clearances, we should go. Here is the thing, other places would not have the same culture and city life we love, but we would have larger yards,less stress, and most importantly less assholes like 20:50.

Oh please. Not 20:50 but OP comes on here and snarks about DC. What do you expect is going to happen?

I didn't detect any snark. Not even a whiff. Is my snarkometer off?

I don't think it was snark, it was earnest midwestern befuddlement, which we're not accustomed to around here and reasonably thought was snark.