If you can't afford 900K, this 3 bedroom, 2 bath condo in McLean looks good at $500K. They've made a few upgrades and everything looks like it's in good condition. The complex is older, but you can't beat the HOA fee of only $300 per month.

https://redf.in/mGCZPZ

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the top of your budget, you can buy this nice home in Falls Church for $900K.

https://redf.in/WzsHhN

Today
Apr 18, 2024
Date
Listed (Active)
BRIGHT MLS #VAFX2173870
$897,500

Price
Sep 1972, Sold for $45,500

Some Boomer about to make a sweet $850k profit lol.

Some millennial is a complete idiot lol!

As a young milenial, agreed, that poster is a damn moron. 45500 in 1972 != 45500 today (hell $1 from then is equivalent to $7.42 today). Plus actual interest expense paid, any work on the house done, transaction cost and etc, frankly the real gain will be fairly small.

Some people are just too salty and blame someone else for their problems, rather than looking in themselves

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought a house with a 500k mortgage in 2016 on a similar income, it was tight but we also had two daycare payments at the time. Very little wiggle room money and that was with a lower interest rate than today. We ended up leaving the area due to a job transfer and now feel much less “house poor”. Not having that huge panic over money if something goes wrong was a huge mental game changer. I would opt to buy either further out, especially with three kids.

This is a little nutty - you made $250k and your housing payment (PITI) was what, $3k? That made you anxious? You can't rent for that amount!

I think at the time it was like 3200, plus 2 daycares which together were just over 4000. Take home pay was about 15k, so half was going to mortgage and daycare and that truly felt tight to us. The other 7k went to retirement savings, 529 savings, food (about 1000 per month), car payment (about 500 month), gas, student loan payment, incidentals, etc. it did feel tight!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the top of your budget, you can buy this nice home in Falls Church for $900K.

https://redf.in/WzsHhN

Today
Apr 18, 2024
Date
Listed (Active)
BRIGHT MLS #VAFX2173870
$897,500

Price
Sep 1972, Sold for $45,500

Some Boomer about to make a sweet $850k profit lol.

Some millennial is a complete idiot lol!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the top of your budget, you can buy this nice home in Falls Church for $900K.

https://redf.in/WzsHhN

Even if it’s a dump inside (it is from the outside), it will go for over a million and probably to a developer

How is it a dump?

I drive by it every day. It's not an attractive house. It's going to be torn down and turned into a white farmhouse with black windows like everything else in 22046 and 22043.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on your debt and expenses, and your down payment.
A general number is 3x gross salary. But if you have a ton of debt, less than that.
Will your income grow in the next 3 years? If so, I’d do 1M now.

3x gross salary is outdated and not remotely realistic anymore for the non-wealthy.

Oh Please. She’s not getting anything under that. You have no idea if OP is at 250 HHI and stuck there, or 250 mid 30s with a potential climb to 400.

What? I mean that most people realistically spend way more than 3x gross salary because it is necessary unless they want to live in a tiny dumpy condo forever.

OP makes $250K, 3 times that is $750K. There are lots of good options for $750K in this area.

Where?

I just took a quick look for SFH in Herndon, Reston, Burke, and Ashburn, basically it's all upwards of $900k.

For $750k you're talking townhouse, and it would be pretty demoralizing to earn $250k and have to live in a townhouse...

Why would that be? Not everyone is dreaming about living in a SFH.
We make 600k and live in a 1.7m TH in McLean. 5000 sqft, elevator and all the niceties you can imagine.
We moved there from a SFH and would never go back.

Anonymous wrote:At the top of your budget, you can buy this nice home in Falls Church for $900K.

https://redf.in/WzsHhN

Today
Apr 18, 2024
Date
Listed (Active)
BRIGHT MLS #VAFX2173870
$897,500

Price
Sep 1972, Sold for $45,500

Some Boomer about to make a sweet $850k profit lol.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/9511-Caroline-Ave_Silver-Spring_MD_20901_M58652-44817?from=srp-list-card

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/8802-2nd-Ave_Silver-Spring_MD_20910_M59008-85579?from=srp-list-card

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1603-Dale-Dr_Silver-Spring_MD_20910_M61397-23005?from=srp-list-card

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/10216-Lorain-Ave_Silver-Spring_MD_20901_M60241-46796?from=srp-list-card

Non-starter schools.

Delusional.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/9511-Caroline-Ave_Silver-Spring_MD_20901_M58652-44817?from=srp-list-card

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/8802-2nd-Ave_Silver-Spring_MD_20910_M59008-85579?from=srp-list-card

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1603-Dale-Dr_Silver-Spring_MD_20910_M61397-23005?from=srp-list-card

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/10216-Lorain-Ave_Silver-Spring_MD_20901_M60241-46796?from=srp-list-card

Non-starter schools.

Yes, no one attends them.

Anonymous wrote:Buy in Fredricksburg VA or Woodbridge for 650K. Take the VRE into DC.

If you have two working parents, Woodbridge and Fredericksburg are too far away once you get into elementary school and need to get to activities after school. Also, the schools in Woodbridge are not good. We live in Lorton and DH takes the VRE one day a week and the past 4 weeks in a row there has been some issue or another delaying his train home by 30-40 minutes. He’s going to start driving in because the delays don’t work with evening activities. I drive in one day a week because public transportation takes too long. I can hop on or off the express lanes as needed.

You cannot live any further south on 95 than Lorton because otherwise you are reliant on Route 1, 95 or 123 to get over the Occoquan and all three backup during rush hour.

Anonymous wrote:https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/9511-Caroline-Ave_Silver-Spring_MD_20901_M58652-44817?from=srp-list-card

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/8802-2nd-Ave_Silver-Spring_MD_20910_M59008-85579?from=srp-list-card

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1603-Dale-Dr_Silver-Spring_MD_20910_M61397-23005?from=srp-list-card

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/10216-Lorain-Ave_Silver-Spring_MD_20901_M60241-46796?from=srp-list-card

Non-starter schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the top of your budget, you can buy this nice home in Falls Church for $900K.

https://redf.in/WzsHhN

Even if it’s a dump inside (it is from the outside), it will go for over a million and probably to a developer

Yes, will want to see what that closes for - because it’s not going to be $900k. It’ll get torn down and replaced with a $2.5-$2.8 million new construction.

Anonymous wrote:We bought a house with a 500k mortgage in 2016 on a similar income, it was tight but we also had two daycare payments at the time. Very little wiggle room money and that was with a lower interest rate than today. We ended up leaving the area due to a job transfer and now feel much less “house poor”. Not having that huge panic over money if something goes wrong was a huge mental game changer. I would opt to buy either further out, especially with three kids.

This is a little nutty - you made $250k and your housing payment (PITI) was what, $3k? That made you anxious? You can't rent for that amount!

We bought a house with a 500k mortgage in 2016 on a similar income, it was tight but we also had two daycare payments at the time. Very little wiggle room money and that was with a lower interest rate than today. We ended up leaving the area due to a job transfer and now feel much less “house poor”. Not having that huge panic over money if something goes wrong was a huge mental game changer. I would opt to buy either further out, especially with three kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Buy in Fredricksburg VA or Woodbridge for 650K. Take the VRE into DC.

Woodbridge has too much crime. Literally like half of the murders in PWC are in that area only (1/7th of county population). Would not recommend.

If you’re going as far as Woodbridge and Fredericksburg you might as well look in eastern Fauquier where there is more SFH stock in the 600-700k range.