Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

"House poor" is what the 90's buyers want the new house buyers to be - it is simply not so.

I know so many new house purchasers that have paid mostly cash, with plenty of money left over for other homes and great vacations, and great retirements.

Get over it.

Hint OP: The money does NOT come from people who try to count others' money!

You seem a bit angry. People are just curious how others do it so they can learn from them, not some kind of schadenfreude.

Just seeing someone's numbers makes folks take a harder look at their plan and how to afford living here.

I suspect folks who bought in the 90s are too happy sitting on a pot of gold to care about if current buyers are house poor or not.

You seem more than a bit defensive. They are only sitting on a pot of gold if they can afford to move elsewhere. Where would you plan go? When? All is fair in discussing other people's money?

My block in Upper NW
law partner
retired
lawyer/sales dual income
professor
lawyer
doctor
finance
finance
diplomat
high level govt person

For what it's worth, we bought our $1m house in Cleve Park in our 20s and i'm a lawyer and she works in healthcare. We bough when our HHI was around 250-300k. I would say most buyers around here either have rich parents, are foreign money or dual-income families. Private school for kids would be the killer.

Anonymous wrote:

"House poor" is what the 90's buyers want the new house buyers to be - it is simply not so.

I know so many new house purchasers that have paid mostly cash, with plenty of money left over for other homes and great vacations, and great retirements.

Get over it.

Hint OP: The money does NOT come from people who try to count others' money!

You seem a bit angry. People are just curious how others do it so they can learn from them, not some kind of schadenfreude.

Just seeing someone's numbers makes folks take a harder look at their plan and how to afford living here.

I suspect folks who bought in the 90s are too happy sitting on a pot of gold to care about if current buyers are house poor or not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haven't you noticed that many people that live in expensive neighborhoods are house poor. They are spending their entire imcome on housing and feeding their kids WHOLE FOODS boxed mac and cheese.

You have some weird ideas. I consider myself fairly average by the standards of this board at least -- GS-15, 150K. My wife is a 14, 130K. On our measley 280,000 a year, we live (comfortably I might add) in a 1.2 Million house in Arlington. Not the biggest or best house, but not bad either.

We are both in our 30s, saved enough to put 20% down, and even continue to hold our initial property, a small townhouse in Bethesda.

We make it work. And we're not "house poor" either. But our expectations for what we want are decidedly middle class.

A lot of our neighbors are Feds, 250K to 320K households as well as private sector Lawyers and two doctors who may (or in some cases may not) make more. They all seem to still be able to take vacations and not eat mac and cheese.

we make a little less than you, don't have debt, and don't feel comfortablr purchasing over 700k. i would be curious to know how you do it, unless you got an awesome rate. for example, what percentage of your net goes to your mortgage?

I am curious too. Take home prob around 16k, PITI around 6k (40%), child care two kids (3k), food (1k - both work so hard to scrimp. I'd say 1k utilities internet phone, and you are at 11k. Almost 70% fixed expenses. What happens if someone gets sick, child needs extra help , or furloughs? Do you have a lot of cash reserves or family nearby? There seems to be little margin for disruption. I guess as a Fed you assume neither will be laid off? I would not make that assumption with sequester still on books for 8 more years.

Your numbers are pretty accurate, except PITI. (I'm not the PP, but my HH is also around 280k and we have a 1.1-1.2 house.) I don't feel house-poor one bit.

Take home is about 16k.
PITI is 4700 (900k 30-year at 3.5%).
Child care two kids is more like 3600.
Utilities about 500.
Food is probably about 1k.

Note that some Feds are not subject to furloughs or sequester. This applies to many of the higher-paid agencies. Second, my agency puts in 10% (plus FERS) for my retirement. My wife's employer puts in the same. Our work-funded (both by us and by our employers) retirement accounts are well-funded, so our "personal" retirement accounts (basically, our investment portfolio) isn't so important. We have a bunch of money in there, but it's earmarked for putting an addition onto our house.

Surprised by your utilities. I would assume smart phones, internet, and cable equivalent would be $300 by itself.

Do you have a lot or cash saves up; do you work for a fee based agency which is outside federal budget; they tend to pay higher than GD scale too. But what if one of you gets sick or child needs special attention; so you have margin in your budget?

"House poor" is what the 90's buyers want the new house buyers to be - it is simply not so.

I know so many new house purchasers that have paid mostly cash, with plenty of money left over for other homes and great vacations, and great retirements.

Get over it.

Hint OP: The money does NOT come from people who try to count others' money!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haven't you noticed that many people that live in expensive neighborhoods are house poor. They are spending their entire imcome on housing and feeding their kids WHOLE FOODS boxed mac and cheese.

You have some weird ideas. I consider myself fairly average by the standards of this board at least -- GS-15, 150K. My wife is a 14, 130K. On our measley 280,000 a year, we live (comfortably I might add) in a 1.2 Million house in Arlington. Not the biggest or best house, but not bad either.

We are both in our 30s, saved enough to put 20% down, and even continue to hold our initial property, a small townhouse in Bethesda.

We make it work. And we're not "house poor" either. But our expectations for what we want are decidedly middle class.

A lot of our neighbors are Feds, 250K to 320K households as well as private sector Lawyers and two doctors who may (or in some cases may not) make more. They all seem to still be able to take vacations and not eat mac and cheese.

we make a little less than you, don't have debt, and don't feel comfortablr purchasing over 700k. i would be curious to know how you do it, unless you got an awesome rate. for example, what percentage of your net goes to your mortgage?

I am curious too. Take home prob around 16k, PITI around 6k (40%), child care two kids (3k), food (1k - both work so hard to scrimp. I'd say 1k utilities internet phone, and you are at 11k. Almost 70% fixed expenses. What happens if someone gets sick, child needs extra help , or furloughs? Do you have a lot of cash reserves or family nearby? There seems to be little margin for disruption. I guess as a Fed you assume neither will be laid off? I would not make that assumption with sequester still on books for 8 more years.

Your numbers are pretty accurate, except PITI. (I'm not the PP, but my HH is also around 280k and we have a 1.1-1.2 house.) I don't feel house-poor one bit.

Take home is about 16k.
PITI is 4700 (900k 30-year at 3.5%).
Child care two kids is more like 3600.
Utilities about 500.
Food is probably about 1k.

Note that some Feds are not subject to furloughs or sequester. This applies to many of the higher-paid agencies. Second, my agency puts in 10% (plus FERS) for my retirement. My wife's employer puts in the same. Our work-funded (both by us and by our employers) retirement accounts are well-funded, so our "personal" retirement accounts (basically, our investment portfolio) isn't so important. We have a bunch of money in there, but it's earmarked for putting an addition onto our house.

Thanks to OP for starting this thread--we are relatively new to the area from West Coast and were also wondering what the heck people around here do for a living! I assumed mostly government-related industries, but didn't know the specifics.

As for us, we have HHI ~275K, research/academic and medical professions, mid-30s to early 40s, 1 young child. Between both of us, we've spent a combined 19 years post-bachelor's in further schooling/training, during which time we've mostly lived on trainees' salaries. That said, we were able to recently purchase our first home, 7-750K, w/a low down payment, via a doctor's loan. I can't imagine us trying to stretch to purchase a million dollar home--but more power to those who can!

We feel a bit house-poor now, but our child will start PS3 in the fall, which will mean a net of ~1900 more per month that we will save in daycare costs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haven't you noticed that many people that live in expensive neighborhoods are house poor. They are spending their entire imcome on housing and feeding their kids WHOLE FOODS boxed mac and cheese.

You have some weird ideas. I consider myself fairly average by the standards of this board at least -- GS-15, 150K. My wife is a 14, 130K. On our measley 280,000 a year, we live (comfortably I might add) in a 1.2 Million house in Arlington. Not the biggest or best house, but not bad either.

We are both in our 30s, saved enough to put 20% down, and even continue to hold our initial property, a small townhouse in Bethesda.

We make it work. And we're not "house poor" either. But our expectations for what we want are decidedly middle class.

A lot of our neighbors are Feds, 250K to 320K households as well as private sector Lawyers and two doctors who may (or in some cases may not) make more. They all seem to still be able to take vacations and not eat mac and cheese.

we make a little less than you, don't have debt, and don't feel comfortablr purchasing over 700k. i would be curious to know how you do it, unless you got an awesome rate. for example, what percentage of your net goes to your mortgage?

I am curious too. Take home prob around 16k, PITI around 6k (40%), child care two kids (3k), food (1k - both work so hard to scrimp. I'd say 1k utilities internet phone, and you are at 11k. Almost 70% fixed expenses. What happens if someone gets sick, child needs extra help , or furloughs? Do you have a lot of cash reserves or family nearby? There seems to be little margin for disruption. I guess as a Fed you assume neither will be laid off? I would not make that assumption with sequester still on books for 8 more years.

Your numbers are pretty accurate, except PITI. (I'm not the PP, but my HH is also around 280k and we have a 1.1-1.2 house.) I don't feel house-poor one bit.

Take home is about 16k.
PITI is 4700 (900k 30-year at 3.5%).
Child care two kids is more like 3600.
Utilities about 500.
Food is probably about 1k.

Note that some Feds are not subject to furloughs or sequester. This applies to many of the higher-paid agencies. Second, my agency puts in 10% (plus FERS) for my retirement. My wife's employer puts in the same. Our work-funded (both by us and by our employers) retirement accounts are well-funded, so our "personal" retirement accounts (basically, our investment portfolio) isn't so important. We have a bunch of money in there, but it's earmarked for putting an addition onto our house.

I agree. I am a GS 15 and my husband is a GS 13. Together we make about 200k. I have student loans and we have a TH in MD which is of no tax benefit to us.. We have a 535K house. No way we would ever be comfortable spending what some people are spending! How did we buy a house, we had a VA loan and ignored how much the bank said we could afford.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haven't you noticed that many people that live in expensive neighborhoods are house poor. They are spending their entire imcome on housing and feeding their kids WHOLE FOODS boxed mac and cheese.

You have some weird ideas. I consider myself fairly average by the standards of this board at least -- GS-15, 150K. My wife is a 14, 130K. On our measley 280,000 a year, we live (comfortably I might add) in a 1.2 Million house in Arlington. Not the biggest or best house, but not bad either.

We are both in our 30s, saved enough to put 20% down, and even continue to hold our initial property, a small townhouse in Bethesda.

We make it work. And we're not "house poor" either. But our expectations for what we want are decidedly middle class.

A lot of our neighbors are Feds, 250K to 320K households as well as private sector Lawyers and two doctors who may (or in some cases may not) make more. They all seem to still be able to take vacations and not eat mac and cheese.

we make a little less than you, don't have debt, and don't feel comfortablr purchasing over 700k. i would be curious to know how you do it, unless you got an awesome rate. for example, what percentage of your net goes to your mortgage?

I am curious too. Take home prob around 16k, PITI around 6k (40%), child care two kids (3k), food (1k - both work so hard to scrimp. I'd say 1k utilities internet phone, and you are at 11k. Almost 70% fixed expenses. What happens if someone gets sick, child needs extra help , or furloughs? Do you have a lot of cash reserves or family nearby? There seems to be little margin for disruption. I guess as a Fed you assume neither will be laid off? I would not make that assumption with sequester still on books for 8 more years.

Anonymous wrote:i see a lot of boomers in this thread who bought 15 - 20 years ago looking down their noses at the gen x-ers for purchasing expensive houses post RE boom. How dare we enjoy what you enjoyed in your thirties. suck it.

I think you have your generations mixed up. Baby Boomers bought 40+ years ago and GenXers bought 15-20 years ago.

p.s. doubt many Boomers are on this website...

DC has been an amazing dream over the past 10-15 years. Nowhere else in the country can SO many young people afford such expensive houses like they can here. When you step back and think about people in relatively normal professions (not lawyers, not doctors) can afford a million dollar house even in their late 20s, it's really something else.

The other place would be the bay area. A lot of software engineer tech people are living pretty well in their million dollar houses in their late 20s/early 30s. And like DC, a million dollars buys you a pretty normal house. And unlike doctors and lawyers, they typically don't have a lot of educational debt. Some only have bachelors degrees, and many of their masters degrees were funded. Then there are the biotech people, all the patent/transactional Big Law that comes from silicon valley and the biotech sector...

Anonymous wrote:i see a lot of boomers in this thread who bought 15 - 20 years ago looking down their noses at the gen x-ers for purchasing expensive houses post RE boom. How dare we enjoy what you enjoyed in your thirties. suck it.

Get over it.

+1000000

DC has been an amazing dream over the past 10-15 years. Nowhere else in the country can SO many young people afford such expensive houses like they can here. When you step back and think about people in relatively normal professions (not lawyers, not doctors) can afford a million dollar house even in their late 20s, it's really something else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haven't you noticed that many people that live in expensive neighborhoods are house poor. They are spending their entire imcome on housing and feeding their kids WHOLE FOODS boxed mac and cheese.

You have some weird ideas. I consider myself fairly average by the standards of this board at least -- GS-15, 150K. My wife is a 14, 130K. On our measley 280,000 a year, we live (comfortably I might add) in a 1.2 Million house in Arlington. Not the biggest or best house, but not bad either.

We are both in our 30s, saved enough to put 20% down, and even continue to hold our initial property, a small townhouse in Bethesda.

We make it work. And we're not "house poor" either. But our expectations for what we want are decidedly middle class.

A lot of our neighbors are Feds, 250K to 320K households as well as private sector Lawyers and two doctors who may (or in some cases may not) make more. They all seem to still be able to take vacations and not eat mac and cheese.

we make a little less than you, don't have debt, and don't feel comfortablr purchasing over 700k. i would be curious to know how you do it, unless you got an awesome rate. for example, what percentage of your net goes to your mortgage?