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Conversation Starter
Sigh. Same feelings here. Unless you go in the boonies.
Dmv feels overpriced compared to what you get...i mean dc is cool, but definitely needs to step it up a notch to feel like good value.
To answer your original question - a big part of the reason is there are a lot of dual income families. 2 people each earning $125k can easily afford a $1M place. Not to mention a lot of folks buying in that price range have equity they can use from selling previous properties. Even a 30 something mid career teacher married to a mid career cop (i.e. typical middle class jobs) are probably pulling down combined $150k+ which means they can afford that median priced $640k place. Yes, it’s expensive here but prices make sense based on the above and overall it’s much less then NY, Boston, or much of the west coast.
Such a weird city where ur rich but feel poor due to high salary vs hcol, shitty surroundings with everything old, and pretty good entertainment but nothing out of the ordinary or anything that justifies the cost.
I’m a local. I’ll put it this way... growing up here both parents making 6 digits is really common whether they live together or are divorced. You just need to find the right area in the DMV for you or maybe choose a different city. Prioritize what you are looking for and where you are looking.
Yes. Been saving for almost a decade in hopes that some day I can afford a 2-bed condo to retire in 😒 or so it feels
OP, I used to feel that way, until my soon to be husband swooped in and made it all happen 😂 without him I wouldn’t be able to afford it. But I do agree with you on how crazy the market is here.
Pro
My wife and I make a combined ~$240k in salary (we've got other income, too, but just considering salary for this) with zero non-mortgage debt. As far as dual incomes go, I know we're relatively low on the totem pole for this area, since tons of DI families here are both white collars with salaries comfortably in the six digits, while my wife isn't close to six digits.
We currently live in a townhouse we bought for ~$420k several years ago.
Based on similar townhouses that have sold in our neighborhood in the past few months, ours would probably go for about $490k now, so we're likely looking at about $150k in equity if we were to sell today.
Tossing that equity into a new house, home affordability calculators show us being able to afford >$1.2M based just on our salaries. Throwing our other income in there, we're looking at an affordability of >$1.7M. Of course, we're not going to be looking for anything remotely near those amounts when we upgrade in a year or two, but it illustrates the ranges a lot of other people here likely face.
30 year (or longer!) mortgages really do go a long way towards making the absurdly priced for what you get houses here seem affordable.
Pro
www.google.com has quite a few. Note of caution: what some calculator says you can afford is likely not what you ought to be buying.
Not really. Zillow gives the avg home price as $640k
https://www.zillow.com/washington-dc/home-values/
In the city, I see great 2-bdrm condos for ~$500k and plenty of houses in the $5-800k range. (I bought my 3bdrm house for $650k on a gov’t salary pre-consulting). Even more supply in the suburbs, of course.
I focused on houses, so condo fees are not all that applicable
Don’t buy just rent