Building new home: Dulles corridor vs PW 66 area

[elias9193]

Originally Posted by tryingtogetahead

what kind of job do i need to afford a 600 - 750k home in fairfax? i am really amazed at how expensive things are. i make 120k as an engineer and am looking to 'move up' in the next few years. what do i need to be doing? what am i doing wrong? what am i missing?

can someone fill me in as to how much money i really need to be making to live in a nice home, drive 2 nice cars and raise 2-3 children?

thank you all in advance for your replies.

I would say you need to make at least $200K to live in Fairfax and have a nice $750K house two "nice cars" and raise 2-3 kids.

[Darkseid]

Originally Posted by tryingtogetahead

can someone fill me in as to how much money i really need to be making to live in a nice home, drive 2 nice cars and raise 2-3 children?

thank you all in advance for your replies.

Depends on what you are calling a "nice home". Do you mean a single family home or a townhouse? In some parts of Fairfax County, you can buy a pretty nice townhouse with a two car garage for ~$500K. That should be doable on a $120K salary.

With a home at $600-750K you probably need to make at least ~$275K - perhaps even $300K.

[newnewsmama]

It is not just how much money you make per year. It is also how much asset and debt you have. If you have $500,000 in savings with no debt, $120,000 per year can go much further than having little asset but a $200,000 student loan. On average, if you want to have a nice home (if you mean 600k+, although this definition varies from person to person), two nice cars (assuming you mean cars that the owner needs to pay luxury tax), and raise 2-3 children without feeling too stressed, and I assume you still want to have a decent amount being saved each month and a decent budget for vacation etc, you will need to have a household income of at least $300,000 per year in NOVA. $300,000 does not go very far in this area for the lifestyle described above. Most people I know who make this amount in NOVA have difficulty sending three children to a good private school such as Nysmith at the same time, unless they have a good deal of asset in savings already.

[Leaving4Ca]

Original Poster, I would not live that far out in PWC or in Loudoun County!

You will be driving forever to get to McLean. I see you mentioned "New" - unfortunately most of the areas close in are built up and "New" is no longer available.

Taxes in PWC are significantly lower than Loudoun (if that is a concern for you) I would maybe consider a resale in Potomas Falls area/Sterling. But for $600K you can get a nice home in Fairfax County pretty close to where you will be working (see Fairfax, Oakton, Vienna, Springfield). Of course it will be older and not have all the bells & whistles of a "new" house, but your commute will be shorter. FYI, it can take a long time (30-45 min) to go 10 miles during rush hour here. It is insane.

[snowdenscold]

Originally Posted by tryingtogetahead

what kind of job do i need to afford a 600 - 750k home in fairfax? i am really amazed at how expensive things are. i make 120k as an engineer and am looking to 'move up' in the next few years. what do i need to be doing? what am i doing wrong? what am i missing?

can someone fill me in as to how much money i really need to be making to live in a nice home, drive 2 nice cars and raise 2-3 children?

thank you all in advance for your replies.

Echoing what others have said, there are a lot of "it depends". Like if you are the sole income earner for your family, and intend to stay that way. And what your assets and debts are. And how much you plan to save per month, including retirement plans. And is it 600k or 750k - that's a big range. These all affects the numbers greatly - I can't just throw out something like "160K" and have that be it.

For "what are you doing wrong" - if you are making 120K, and think you'll be able to increase that, then you seem to be doing pretty well. Now it's just my personal opinion, but why do you need two "nice" cars? I'd rather put my money into a non-depreciating (in theory) asset like a house, rather than a depreciating one like a luxury car.

[sonnymarkjiz]

Originally Posted by Leaving4Ca

Original Poster, I would not live that far out in PWC or in Loudoun County!

You will be driving forever to get to McLean. I see you mentioned "New" - unfortunately most of the areas close in are built up and "New" is no longer available.

Taxes in PWC are significantly lower than Loudoun (if that is a concern for you) I would maybe consider a resale in Potomas Falls area/Sterling. But for $600K you can get a nice home in Fairfax County pretty close to where you will be working (see Fairfax, Oakton, Vienna, Springfield). Of course it will be older and not have all the bells & whistles of a "new" house, but your commute will be shorter. FYI, it can take a long time (30-45 min) to go 10 miles during rush hour here. It is insane.

Funny how you say ashburn is far but Springfield is close to McLean. It's the same distance from both places to mclean... In fact, Springfield is worse cause you have to deal with the Beast that is 495. That commute can easily take an hour just to move 18 miles.

Toll road>495 anyday of the week.

[western loudoun]

Originally Posted by newnewsmama

It is not just how much money you make pVer year. It is also how much asset and debt you have. If you have $500,000 in savings with no debt, $120,000 per year can go much further than having little asset but a $200,000 student loan. On average, if you want to have a nice home (if you mean 600k+, although this definition varies from person to person), two nice cars (assuming you mean cars that the owner needs to pay luxury tax), and raise 2-3 children without feeling too stressed, and I assume you still want to have a decent amount being saved each month and a decent budget for vacation etc, you will need to have a household income of at least $300,000 per year in NOVA. $300,000 does not go very far in this area for the lifestyle described above. Most people I know who make this amount in NOVA have difficulty sending three children to a good private school such as Nysmith at the same time, unless they have a good deal of asset in savings already.

One of the reasons people pay so much money to live around here the quality of the school system. You don't need to send your kids to private school.

[novanwbie]

Avoid 66, my husband commutes 50 miles to inside the beltway, leaves at 5:30, and it still regularly takes him 2 hours each way. Go with 7/the Greenway. It's nicer than Gainesville and has more amenities. Better schools, too, if that's an issue. Traffic here is bad all the time. We hate driving 66 even on the weekends. It just stops. And Gainesville around 29 is a mess. Npot worth the hassle, especially if you're investing that kind of money.

[sonnymarkjiz]

The toll road is always a lot better than 66.