Anonymous wrote:All the old people chiming in

yes, this is a parents forum and many of us bought when our kids were infants and we wanted more space. now it is 10 years later and we literally answer the question posed. not all of us moved, most of us moved up the career ladder, nearly all of us have 2-3% mortgages. Housing in DC has appreciated on average 50% nominally since 2014, but single families have appreciated even more. So those 2000-3000 PITIs represent a house today that is over a million, but was bought 600k maybe with 5%-20% down - potentially on slightly lower incomes.

when we bought we were at 25% of incomes, now we're like 10-12%. We've refinanced and our incomes have simultaneously gone up. This is a pretty standard lifecycle trend. Now some people did move and upgrade homes, but median homeowner tenure is 10 years, so many are still in their first homes.

HHI 275K, PITI 2300$/mo, 4 years left on a 15 year mortgage. Have lived in this house 20 years. If I moved I would have to work more, so nope.

All the old people chiming in

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is everyone here so cheap? $2,500 PITI on a $250,000 income, really?

The guidelines say you shouldn’t spend over like 35% of your income on housing, but you guys are at damn near 10%.

PP with the 15 year COVID refinance-

2023-
First class trip to Europe for a family of 5. Disney Cruise for a family of 5.

2022-
Purchased a brand new vehicle.

9 year old has $87,000 in 529.

Lots of reasons to have your fixed costs low.

Yeah, no. I would prefer, by a huge margin, buying a nicer house over nicer accommodations for a flight that lasts 10 hours out of my life or a new car that loses 20% of its value once the minute you drive it off the lot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is everyone here so cheap? $2,500 PITI on a $250,000 income, really?

The guidelines say you shouldn’t spend over like 35% of your income on housing, but you guys are at damn near 10%.

\

I'm wondering if folks had family money or other help to put down a big down payment? We bought 7 years ago and couldn't find anything at that monthly payment that had decent schools and wasn't a really far commute to work.

Nope. Kensington $hitshack pp here. Our house was $500k.

Anonymous wrote:These numbers seem quite low from the DC area unless you bought more than 5-10 years ago.

Of course many of us bought that long ago. I bought when our combined salaries were half what they are now. So we decided we'd rather stay here and do private schools then move to a "fancier" neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:Why is everyone here so cheap? $2,500 PITI on a $250,000 income, really?

The guidelines say you shouldn’t spend over like 35% of your income on housing, but you guys are at damn near 10%.

PP with the 15 year COVID refinance-

2023-
First class trip to Europe for a family of 5. Disney Cruise for a family of 5.

2022-
Purchased a brand new vehicle.

9 year old has $87,000 in 529.

Lots of reasons to have your fixed costs low.

Anonymous wrote:Where do you all live with your affordable housing that costs less than a 2BR in DC?

I'm one of the $2800 posters. We bought our house, an Arlington sh*tshack, 15 years ago with a decent downpayment from selling our first home. When we bought the house, we had 2 kids in elementary school and a HHI of about $185k. Now we have 1 kid in college, 1 kid out of college, and HHI of about $280k. Same house.

HHI $330,000

$2,600 on a 15 year COVID refinance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is everyone here so cheap? $2,500 PITI on a $250,000 income, really?

The guidelines say you shouldn’t spend over like 35% of your income on housing, but you guys are at damn near 10%.

\

I'm wondering if folks had family money or other help to put down a big down payment? We bought 7 years ago and couldn't find anything at that monthly payment that had decent schools and wasn't a really far commute to work.

Nope. Put 20% down from our own savings. We bought a small house. It fits us, though.

Anonymous wrote:Why is everyone here so cheap? $2,500 PITI on a $250,000 income, really?

The guidelines say you shouldn’t spend over like 35% of your income on housing, but you guys are at damn near 10%.

\

I'm wondering if folks had family money or other help to put down a big down payment? We bought 7 years ago and couldn't find anything at that monthly payment that had decent schools and wasn't a really far commute to work.

Anonymous wrote:Some of these PITI numbers…this is the cost of my property tax alone. I don’t get it.

Property taxes in the DC area are pretty low. The typical 1M home has a tax of 8000/year in DC or like $650/mo and maybe $750/year in insurance (the value is in the property, not the structure)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is everyone here so cheap? $2,500 PITI on a $250,000 income, really?

The guidelines say you shouldn’t spend over like 35% of your income on housing, but you guys are at damn near 10%.

Because we bought our homes 10 years ago, genius.

who needs a big house and until recently housing wasn't that expensive around here. we just spend the extra money on vacation rentals in nice places in the summer or sleepaway camps for the kids

HHI 300; PITI 3500. never paid an extra cent more than needed since rate is in the low 2s.

Anonymous wrote:Why is everyone here so cheap? $2,500 PITI on a $250,000 income, really?

The guidelines say you shouldn’t spend over like 35% of your income on housing, but you guys are at damn near 10%.

Because we bought our homes 10 years ago, genius.