Barbara Comstock says $250K is not rich in NoVA (Fairfax: best neighborhood, sales)

[Forehead]

Yeah...um, for 250K, you could afford to live and live comfortable anywhere in NOVA. I don't necessarily mean the biggest house, but there shouldn't be any neighborhood closed off to you as long as you have a reasonable budget and aren't buried in debt.

To be sure I wasn't talking out of my butt, I did a quick real estate search on Great Falls. 250K will get you in there as well. I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with her.

[Oldhag1]

My old home, where the average family income is $35,800, $250,000 is rich - really rich. But in McLean, VA with its average family income of $156,900? Not so much. Sure they are no doubt more comfotable than many but that is not the same as being rich.

[jmking]

250 thousand a year is not rich. One can still go broke in a hurry. $250,000.000 a year is.

[snowdenscold]

Some of it also depends on when you bought your house. If you bought 15 (or 25) years ago compared to today, a much much smaller percentage of your pay is going toward your mortgage. For those of us who bought recently, we have to a big chunk of our income on housing.

Either way, having 250K today still makes you very well off, though the definition of "rich" can get somewhat subjective.


Also, I'd say there is a difference between 250k for a single earner vs. a household. My wife and I both work and make decent money, but we try to base our budget (primarily housing) off of just one income in case of a job loss, her staying home with the kids, etc.

[Fallout Zone]

snowdenscold makes a good point. It really matters at what point of life you are. If you are a couple in your 50s making $250k, then you've been doing well for a long time and probably have racked up a nice nest egg and your housing costs are much lower. If you are in your 30s with kids in daycare and have just bought a reasonable house in the DC area, you are certainly are not living paycheck to paycheck but you would not have the disposable income that would be associated with being "rich". In my mind, rich equates more towards total wealth than income.

[snowdenscold]

Originally Posted by Fallout Zone

In my mind, rich equates more towards total wealth than income.

Yeah, I mostly agree, but I guess it's how you define rich: what you own, or what you spend/flaunt/partake in/etc. Is 'rich' a balance sheet or a display to others?

Or if you go with Stanley and Danko's proposal, it's not really "rich" or "poor", but rather an Under Accumulator of Wealth (UAW) or Prodigious Accumulator of Wealth (PAW), based on your net worth relative to income and age.

[Darkseid]

$250K in this area while a nice salary is not "rich". I suppose it also comes down to what one calls "rich". I agree that the real way to determine who is "rich" is their net worth. IMHO, that number would start at around $10 Million.

There are many high net worth individuals that don't show much actual income.

I always tell those thinking of moving to the DC area (with a family of 4) that $100K in salary is the threshold to a "comfortable" life. Below that and you will struggle to make ends meet. You can make it on less, but it will certainly be a struggle.

[hilsmom]

OK, but all of this is just talk - the US government has to look at the stats across the board. And across the board, $250K is an annual HHI only made by 2% of the country as a whole. Those salaries tend to be concentrated in high cost areas, yes. But unless you want to start asking the IRS to add a cost of living indicator into the tax brackets, this is just a silly argument.

I honestly don't give a crap about the definition of "rich" - if you are making $250K/year and are finding it hard to make ends meet, you need to reevaluate. Seriously.

[michgc]

For the record, she did say $250K for a family with 2 or 3 kids.

I agree that it is hard to define what *rich* is overall. On the other hand, the median income for NoVA is about half of $250K. According to Wiki, 13.6% of people in Northern Virginia earn at least $200K. So it's likely that approx. the top 10% earn at least $250K. I'm willing to say that the top 10% of the area are "rich." They may not be Sultan of Brunei "rich", but clearly very well-off.

In her defense, I think it's easy to not realize how the regular "joe" lives when you are surrounded by others who are very wealthy. I tend to do the same thing. And sometimes it takes going outside "my world" to stay grounded. And our household makes the median NoVA income. But those around me tend to be my nrom even though it's not the norm for the area.

*Please don't use this thread to discuss taxes or politics.* I linked the video as a springboard for discussion of what is "rich" in the Northern Virginia area, not to get into a political debate. Thanks!

[JD984]

Originally Posted by michgc

*Please don't use this thread to discuss taxes or politics.* I linked the video as a springboard for discussion of what is "rich" in the Northern Virginia area, not to get into a political debate. Thanks!

It seems to me to be pointless to link to a video of a local politician that clearly relates to taxes and politics, and then just riff on what's "rich" by local standards. Why does it really matter? Do they get to join a special club? Do we pin a scarlet "R" on their chests?

In other words, I could see asking "what's the minimum amount that a family of four or five needs to make in this area to have the trappings of a good life" or "how much do you generally need to make (or save) in this area and no longer worry about personal finances," but I don't get just talking about what's "rich" in NoVa for the sport.

It's your thread, but now I've lost interest.