Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question: For 8 years you rented and had a great landlord that did not increase your rent. So how much did you save?

I did not have a designer wadrobe during my 20s. I did not have any debt either. Some of my friends jetted all over the world for fancy vacations - I visited family. When it came time to purchasing my 1st place, I had $90K saved for a down payment. (I paid my way through undergrad and grad school so there was a lot of loans to pay off).

It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences.

Oh please. We saved 200k+ on 160 HHi and still can't afford anything we like. We simply refuse to pay over 500k for the BS housing here.

so you made an arbitrary decision that 500K was the most you wanted to spend - and when you can't find anything that fits the bill complain? "It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences."

Its not arbitrary - we don't want to sink all of our savings into a home and we want 15y mortgage. if we could spend 1.5 mil we would buy. I think around 500k is a reasonable budget - less conservative than OP's.

I am personally not complaining about "consequences" - I am bitching occasionally for having to rent while making a decent salary. But 500k is a lot of money and I want to buy something I like. I don't like anything here. This is not a consequence of our choice not to spend more than we can afford (would you really advocate that?) it's a matter of living in an architecturally deprived area undergoing housing boom.

500k is barely above the average price and much lower than average in most places. It seems like a lot but it doesn't buy you anything above average unless you move way out.

http://www.zillow.com/local-info/DC-Washington-home-value/r_41568/

Its not arbitrary - we don't want to sink all of our savings into a home and we want 15y mortgage. if we could spend 1.5 mil we would buy. I think around 500k is a reasonable budget - less conservative than OP's.

I am personally not complaining about "consequences" - I am bitching occasionally for having to rent while making a decent salary. But 500k is a lot of money and I want to buy something I like. I don't like anything here. This is not a consequence of our choice not to spend more than we can afford (would you really advocate that?) it's a matter of living in an architecturally deprived area undergoing housing boom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question: For 8 years you rented and had a great landlord that did not increase your rent. So how much did you save?

I did not have a designer wadrobe during my 20s. I did not have any debt either. Some of my friends jetted all over the world for fancy vacations - I visited family. When it came time to purchasing my 1st place, I had $90K saved for a down payment. (I paid my way through undergrad and grad school so there was a lot of loans to pay off).

It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences.

Oh please. We saved 200k+ on 160 HHi and still can't afford anything we like. We simply refuse to pay over 500k for the BS housing here.

so you made an arbitrary decision that 500K was the most you wanted to spend - and when you can't find anything that fits the bill complain? "It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences."

Its not arbitrary - we don't want to sink all of our savings into a home and we want 15y mortgage. if we could spend 1.5 mil we would buy. I think around 500k is a reasonable budget - less conservative than OP's.

I am personally not complaining about "consequences" - I am bitching occasionally for having to rent while making a decent salary. But 500k is a lot of money and I want to buy something I like. I don't like anything here. This is not a consequence of our choice not to spend more than we can afford (would you really advocate that?) it's a matter of living in an architecturally deprived area undergoing housing boom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question: For 8 years you rented and had a great landlord that did not increase your rent. So how much did you save?

I did not have a designer wadrobe during my 20s. I did not have any debt either. Some of my friends jetted all over the world for fancy vacations - I visited family. When it came time to purchasing my 1st place, I had $90K saved for a down payment. (I paid my way through undergrad and grad school so there was a lot of loans to pay off).

It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences.

Oh please. We saved 200k+ on 160 HHi and still can't afford anything we like. We simply refuse to pay over 500k for the BS housing here.

so you made an arbitrary decision that 500K was the most you wanted to spend - and when you can't find anything that fits the bill complain? "It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences."

Question: For 8 years you rented and had a great landlord that did not increase your rent. So how much did you save?

...

It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the 200k+ poster/160 HHi poster, don't pay more for a house than you can afford and what the market will bear in bad times.

My neighbors bought their house at the height of the market, couldn't sell it when they wanted to get out and are now foreclosing on the house. They tried to short sale the house but the bank wouldn't accept a low offer.

I am waiting for them to totally vacate the house, so I can contact the bank about cleaning it up. I am so pissed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question: For 8 years you rented and had a great landlord that did not increase your rent. So how much did you save?

I did not have a designer wadrobe during my 20s. I did not have any debt either. Some of my friends jetted all over the world for fancy vacations - I visited family. When it came time to purchasing my 1st place, I had $90K saved for a down payment. (I paid my way through undergrad and grad school so there was a lot of loans to pay off).

It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences.

Oh please. We saved 200k+ on 160 HHi and still can't afford anything we like. We simply refuse to pay over 500k for the BS housing here.

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I have rented in the West End for the past 8 years. Since that time we've had a child and hope to have another one in the not too distant future. In other words, we're outgrowing our apartment and are considering the need to live in a larger space.

We like the DC area and would like to stay, but we're pricing out houses in the area and it's clear that it's going to be tough if not impossible to do so. My wife and I make a combined income of approximately $158K, and according to most house-affordability calculations that results in being able to afford $375K houses. This figure, as you know, does not go far in the area.

We are still left wondering how people afford homes in this area. We thought about what others have done and eventually compiled a list which comprise what we've called 'the seven paths to DC-area home ownership' (in no particular order):
1. Command a massive dual-income salary
2. Willing to live far outside the beltway/endure a long commute
3. Willing to live in an undesirable area (poor housing stock, bad schools, no nearby amenities, high crime rate, etc.)
4. Have saved up a down payment over a very long time
5. Willing to be extremely 'house poor' (>35-40% of income going to mortgage service)
6. Get help from family (inheritance, or have gotten help from family for other costs (ex. parents paying for college) which allowed saving for down payment)
7. Bought pre-boom (and have since enjoyed incredible appreciation)

Of course, some folks have taken multiple and overlapping approaches, and there's also the chance we're missing some.

At the end of the day we recognize that we are much better off than most and count our lucky stars each day that we have what we do. We recognize we are truly fortunate. And we don't want this post to be construed as a 'woe is us' lament. However, it's disheartening that mid-career professional families can scarcely afford the area.

I would like to hear about those of you who want to buy in the area eventually and face similar circumstances as us. Which path to home ownership are you planning to take?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question: For 8 years you rented and had a great landlord that did not increase your rent. So how much did you save?

I did not have a designer wadrobe during my 20s. I did not have any debt either. Some of my friends jetted all over the world for fancy vacations - I visited family. When it came time to purchasing my 1st place, I had $90K saved for a down payment. (I paid my way through undergrad and grad school so there was a lot of loans to pay off).

It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences.

Oh please. We saved 200k+ on 160 HHi and still can't afford anything we like. We simply refuse to pay over 500k for the BS housing here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question: For 8 years you rented and had a great landlord that did not increase your rent. So how much did you save?

I did not have a designer wadrobe during my 20s. I did not have any debt either. Some of my friends jetted all over the world for fancy vacations - I visited family. When it came time to purchasing my 1st place, I had $90K saved for a down payment. (I paid my way through undergrad and grad school so there was a lot of loans to pay off).

It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences.

Oh please. We saved 200k+ on 160 HHi and still can't afford anything we like. We simply refuse to pay over 500k for the BS housing here.

Anonymous wrote:Question: For 8 years you rented and had a great landlord that did not increase your rent. So how much did you save?

I did not have a designer wadrobe during my 20s. I did not have any debt either. Some of my friends jetted all over the world for fancy vacations - I visited family. When it came time to purchasing my 1st place, I had $90K saved for a down payment. (I paid my way through undergrad and grad school so there was a lot of loans to pay off).

It gets really old when people make choices - and complain about the consequences.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$156K is a good salary for the region. $375k on that salary is too conservative. Even with a 5% mortgage and 0 down, 30 year fixed on that is $2k a month. Add in 350 for taxes and insurance and you are looking at only 18% debt to income ratio, *FAR* shy of the 28%-33% ratio that most people subscribe to. Using 28% as a ratio, your "affordability" figure jumps to about $580k, which can buy you a nice townhome in Fairfax, or even a single family in some of the older but still nice neighborhoods like Burk.

I am not a Realtor, just someone who has done enough of these types of calculations to know when people are over/under extending themselves.

you're out of your damn mind

Your calculations are confusing me - are you confusing gross and net? Because we make about what OP and spouse do, and after taxes/insurance etc. on our take-home, a mortgage of "only" $2350/month comes pretty damn close to being 33%.

Being conservative is really tough in this area, but it is definitely a positive thing and not one to necessarily advise against.

Not the PP, but the 28-33% recommendations are of gross income, not net.

I guess by your list we were house poor--we bought our house for $475k, with $50k down when our combined income was about $140K. Never had the slightest problem making the mortgage payment and still were putting money in savings each month. We had minimal student debt (scholarships and state schools)and no kids though, and since we were on upward income trajectories we were used to not spending large amounts of money. Interest rates were a lot higher then though--so we were paying more per month than you would be on an equivalent size mortgage now.

Some people would probably also sneer at our house (3 bedrooms, 1360 sq feet, very small yard) and/or our neighborhood (Alexandria City) but we can walk to tons of stuff, only need one car, are metro accessible, and like the local elementary school--so we feel pretty good about it even if others might consider it undesirable.