My family is much like the maid in the OP. Middle-school educations, came to US in the early 1970s. All bought houses throughout the 1970s and 1980s, are now multi-home owning landlords. Here is how they did it.
1. They WORKED. I don't mean just a single job. Watergate maid was likely doing housekeeping work for other families who (key point) paid her under the table. My family was in various businesses - restaurant, construction, painting. The key thing is that they all ran cash businesses and they worked from 7am to 11pm, 6 days a week.
2. They spent VERY LITTLE MONEY. Think beans and rice, heat set to frozen, cold water showers. No cable TV, no dinners out, no health insurance and no doctors visits unless you were literally dying. Kids activities? LOL. Kids activities was having us join them at their jobs.

Housing now is more expensive relative to wages, yes. But you are still seeing immigrant families buying property, even in many close-in neighborhoods. This is how they do it. They live very spartan existences and work crazy hours. My 9-5 work life is a true luxury. My parents worked their *sses off so that I can experience it!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one reason why racial gap is so high. So many minorities closed out of wealth-building opportunities like this.

Not true in DC. Areas like Georgetown and Old Town Alexandria were once majority black-owned. Not to mention more recently gentrified areas east of the Park. Most of the owners sold and moved to the suburbs. It’s why there are still large black churches in those areas.

Yes. I said that in a prior post. Everyone fled to the suburbs after the riots and DC was burning in the late 60s.

Suburbs were the American dream. We reversed course in the past decade or so when people wanted the urban, walkable environments and to be car-free.

Anonymous wrote:This is one reason why racial gap is so high. So many minorities closed out of wealth-building opportunities like this.

Not true in DC. Areas like Georgetown and Old Town Alexandria were once majority black-owned. Not to mention more recently gentrified areas east of the Park. Most of the owners sold and moved to the suburbs. It’s why there are still large black churches in those areas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There must have been some pretty well paid maids back in the 70s. Federal minimum wage in 1973 was $1.60/hour and a basic house in Arlington cost at least $40,000. Maybe if you go back to the Roosevelt years it was different but in my lifetime and my parents' lifetimes real estate in the DC area was never really cheap. The people who like to brag about their amazing real estate deals usually bought houses in former no-go zones like Logan Circle.

People worked multiple jobs back then unlike today’s lazybones. My father in law I recall got married at 21 to a 19 year old. She spoke no English he only HS degree.

They moved in as tenant upstairs elderly women with very cheap rent in return fur doing all maint on house, mowing, snow shoveling, groceries and lived in the upstairs for 7 years while saving. He worked two jobs and wife also was a seamstress. After 7 years of saving they bought a house with two “boarders” meaning two guys lived there in bedrooms and meals were included it so between that rent and dads two jobs they were able after six more years take over while house when third kid was burn.

Today that starter house is worth $650k they still have it. It is a lot cheaper today. I hardly recall folks having to do what they did.

The moralizing about laziness is BS.

True. I recall once in smart money magazine once a milenial complained his mortgage was large and will not have it paid off by retirement and asked for advice how to pay it down.

He looked at his expenses and he was spending $200 a month at gun and $200 for lawn service.

He quickly said mowing a lawn is same as going to gym. So do mow own lawn that is $200
A month. Guy quickly responded what does $200
A month do plus I go to gym four days a week so can’t quit gym.

He responds quit gym that is $200 a month and mow three other peoples lawns for $600
A month. Now you have an extra $1,000 a month to prepay mortgage and your will knock it down really quick, give up Starbucks, iPhone and leasing cars we can knock it out in 7 years. Guy was like really?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There must have been some pretty well paid maids back in the 70s. Federal minimum wage in 1973 was $1.60/hour and a basic house in Arlington cost at least $40,000. Maybe if you go back to the Roosevelt years it was different but in my lifetime and my parents' lifetimes real estate in the DC area was never really cheap. The people who like to brag about their amazing real estate deals usually bought houses in former no-go zones like Logan Circle.

People worked multiple jobs back then unlike today’s lazybones. My father in law I recall got married at 21 to a 19 year old. She spoke no English he only HS degree.

They moved in as tenant upstairs elderly women with very cheap rent in return fur doing all maint on house, mowing, snow shoveling, groceries and lived in the upstairs for 7 years while saving. He worked two jobs and wife also was a seamstress. After 7 years of saving they bought a house with two “boarders” meaning two guys lived there in bedrooms and meals were included it so between that rent and dads two jobs they were able after six more years take over while house when third kid was burn.

Today that starter house is worth $650k they still have it. It is a lot cheaper today. I hardly recall folks having to do what they did.

The moralizing about laziness is BS.

Big city sprawl and real estate costs can't be reversed.

Nowadays, in your aunt's line of work, it's either renting an apartment in a modest part of town, or buying a townhouse somewhere in the exurbs.

My grandmother was a young widow with four kids under the age of 7 and worked as a secretary for the department of agriculture and somehow she managed to buy a house in Clarendon. Like so many PPs have mentioned, neighborhoods were modest, even in close in North Arlington. They lived frugally (obviously) and rented rooms out in the house.

The house that’s on their old lot is valued at almost $2m today.

Anonymous wrote:There must have been some pretty well paid maids back in the 70s. Federal minimum wage in 1973 was $1.60/hour and a basic house in Arlington cost at least $40,000. Maybe if you go back to the Roosevelt years it was different but in my lifetime and my parents' lifetimes real estate in the DC area was never really cheap. The people who like to brag about their amazing real estate deals usually bought houses in former no-go zones like Logan Circle.

People worked multiple jobs back then unlike today’s lazybones. My father in law I recall got married at 21 to a 19 year old. She spoke no English he only HS degree.

They moved in as tenant upstairs elderly women with very cheap rent in return fur doing all maint on house, mowing, snow shoveling, groceries and lived in the upstairs for 7 years while saving. He worked two jobs and wife also was a seamstress. After 7 years of saving they bought a house with two “boarders” meaning two guys lived there in bedrooms and meals were included it so between that rent and dads two jobs they were able after six more years take over while house when third kid was burn.

Today that starter house is worth $650k they still have it. It is a lot cheaper today. I hardly recall folks having to do what they did.

This is one reason why racial gap is so high. So many minorities closed out of wealth-building opportunities like this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did your aunt demand an HGTV-ready kitchen? A bedroom for each child, plus a guest room, plus an office? A two-car garage? A master bathroom with dual sinks? Ten-foot ceilings, built-ins, and a screened-in porch with television hookup and wet bar?

Or did she buy a 2-3BR/1-2BA with street parking and no air conditioning, in a new tract development that used to be someone’s farm?

You can still get a bare-bones place built on newly developed farmland. But it will be a TH in Warrenton. Because that’s the way population and urban expansion work.

A 2-3BR in Arlington is still 800k minimum. I promise you there are no maids doing that. And of course you can do that in Warrenton but good luck commuting to the Watergate from Warrenton. And add to that I’m sure arlington was more expensive than Warrenton in the 60s.

In the 60s and 70s all of that housing in Arlington was post WWII housing and it was filled with blue collar workers. It slowly turned white collar over the years. Housing in Arlington was undesirable and therefore low priced.

Yea but a lot of those same undesirable homes are currently selling for $800k+ as tear downs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend's grandparents immigrated to the U.S. during the depression and purchased a (then and now) valuable lot of land, in a desirable suburban community, walkable, all the bells and whistles - on a janitor's salary. No family money.

Another friend's grandparent's literally lost their Nebraska farm in foreclosure during that same era. Also no family money.

I know nannies that have homes here, and homes in their home country, as well, OP. Nannies in McLean, Arlington, Chevy Chase, Bethesda, etc. do quite well.

Anything is possible, OP.

Nannies in McLean and Arlington don’t live in those communities I interviewed a bunch and really vast majority lived in Woodbridge and places in that area. A few used to live in South Arlington but had gotten priced out.

Sure anything is possible. But that possibility is basically about the same as winning the lotto.

DP. Maybe not but in my friend group those of us with nannies who are legal immigrants, who drive and who may have a college degree are paying salaries of over $60-65k.

PP. Yup that’s what we paid our nanny. But you cannot buy a house in those areas with that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did your aunt demand an HGTV-ready kitchen? A bedroom for each child, plus a guest room, plus an office? A two-car garage? A master bathroom with dual sinks? Ten-foot ceilings, built-ins, and a screened-in porch with television hookup and wet bar?

Or did she buy a 2-3BR/1-2BA with street parking and no air conditioning, in a new tract development that used to be someone’s farm?

You can still get a bare-bones place built on newly developed farmland. But it will be a TH in Warrenton. Because that’s the way population and urban expansion work.

A 2-3BR in Arlington is still 800k minimum. I promise you there are no maids doing that. And of course you can do that in Warrenton but good luck commuting to the Watergate from Warrenton. And add to that I’m sure arlington was more expensive than Warrenton in the 60s.

In the 60s and 70s all of that housing in Arlington was post WWII housing and it was filled with blue collar workers. It slowly turned white collar over the years. Housing in Arlington was undesirable and therefore low priced.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Up in the Baltimore suburbs there's a lot of decent if unremarkable housing in working class suburbs that sell for 250-350. Doable for most people with some discipline, which was always the case for lower income homeowners.

Arlington in the 60s-80s was basic middle class with some working class areas and some upper middle class areas. It was no Chevy Chase.

Even Bethesda in those days was dominated by the fed family household, not dual law firm partners.

Heck. Even Chevy Chase had a lot of modest houses. The real money was in parts of NW. The wealthy monies crowd was much smaller.

DC is a different world altogether these days.

Here are some of the NW DC and Montgomery County delinquents I grew up around and attended school with.

That could have been my graduating class at Laurel High.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend's grandparents immigrated to the U.S. during the depression and purchased a (then and now) valuable lot of land, in a desirable suburban community, walkable, all the bells and whistles - on a janitor's salary. No family money.

Another friend's grandparent's literally lost their Nebraska farm in foreclosure during that same era. Also no family money.

I know nannies that have homes here, and homes in their home country, as well, OP. Nannies in McLean, Arlington, Chevy Chase, Bethesda, etc. do quite well.

Anything is possible, OP.

Nannies in McLean and Arlington don’t live in those communities I interviewed a bunch and really vast majority lived in Woodbridge and places in that area. A few used to live in South Arlington but had gotten priced out.

Sure anything is possible. But that possibility is basically about the same as winning the lotto.

DP. Maybe not but in my friend group those of us with nannies who are legal immigrants, who drive and who may have a college degree are paying salaries of over $60-65k.

There must have been some pretty well paid maids back in the 70s. Federal minimum wage in 1973 was $1.60/hour and a basic house in Arlington cost at least $40,000. Maybe if you go back to the Roosevelt years it was different but in my lifetime and my parents' lifetimes real estate in the DC area was never really cheap. The people who like to brag about their amazing real estate deals usually bought houses in former no-go zones like Logan Circle.