High Schools in NoVa (Alexandria, Burke: sales, real estate, mortgage)

[HokieFan]

Originally Posted by snowdenscold

He said $2147.29, which is the exact amount for a P+I payment on a $400,000 loan at 5%. That can't be a coincidence, so I assume he was NOT including property taxes and insurance.

I see what you're saying now. I made the assumption he would put 20% down and included taxes & insurance in his calculations.

[jillybean720]

OP said it would be a VA loan, too, which means no PMI and likely 0 down payment. Which means, come time to sell in 5-6 years, there will likely not be much equity in the home since the first few years are paying majority interest.

I also think $2-3k per year for maintenance is low unless you're doing a lot yourself OR your HOA covers a lot of things (windows, roof, siding...).

When we owned a townhouse in Lake Ridge (Woodbridge), we had to replace the old, drafty sliding doors. There were two sets of said doors since we had a walk-out basement and a 2-level deck. Doesn't really sound like a huge deal or expense until *surprise* they're not "standard" sized doors! Just about $5k on just those stupid doors...we only lived there for 5 years and, in that time, installed a new microwave/exhaust over the stove, replaced 3 ceiling fans, replaced the aforementioned doors, had the decks washed/sealed, replaced the a/c unit, replaced a toilet, had all the plumbing in the house replaced (learned all about polybutelene the hard way!), had to repair an upstairs bathtub leak (which means also had to repair the ceiling in the living room), replaced the washer and dryer, had to replace some exterior wood trim that had some rotting...the joys of homeownership!

[GravelAdgitator]

Again thanks to all of you, great stuff here and enough homework for my weekend,...thanks

My reasoning here, was/is no money down on a VA loan, yes it'll kick up the mortgage payment but I'm ok with that and use the down payment monies for anything that needs fixing/replacing/adding and keeping some in the kitty for the (OMG), Oh My God the boiler blew. I'm okay with dumping 10Gs if something goes south and with paying the funding fee up front.

We looked at the single family home prices and that had us running for the door and truly thinking about pulling our interest out of the job transfer/contract. Went back and looked at townhomes and condos, which is doable for us. Living overseas we've had large homes and tiny apartments so again we can adapt plus I don't want to mow the grass we've become spoiled with city living and not having to drive across town to buy essentials, if we can walk to pickup a certain item or 2, alls the better.

HOAs yes I saw some cra cra fees, like a $1000 a month!! That got dropped of the favorite list real quick. It seems depending on the area HOA could be 250 to 500 a month, while older properties had something like 600 a year. we've calculated the HOA fee, rounded it to fit into the monthly bill.

With a VA loan no mortgage insurance is required but homeowner ins is, I'll add that to homework as well as closing costs and the misc additions. Snowdenscold you are correct i did not add in the prop tax nor insurance.

I guess maybe I'm looking thru fog covered glasses but my gut says buy for the 5/6 years we're in DC. It could be longer, the contract is for 4 with yearly options. Its a cyber security job which these are not going away anytime soon and we could stay longer depending on monies/salary or if the housing market does tank a wee bit. The 15/20 year plan is to do this for a max of 10, I'd prefer 5/6, then head back to the southwest for another 10 until we can retire. After my first 5/10 year plan went south a number of years ago, we've learned to be flexible, adapt and move on.

We can afford the 400G house, that gives us the cash flexibility to cover the OMGs, I don't want to be house poor by any means but from what I'm reading here all of you are leaning towards the renting vs ownership, correct?

[BrassTacksGal]

This might help, SAT scores for high schools in NOVA, Northern Virginia SAT Scores by School for 2016 – The Bull Elephant

Of course the best schools are in the most wealthy parts of the county which makes things difficult for you.

[FCNova]

Originally Posted by GravelAdgitator

I guess maybe I'm looking thru fog covered glasses but my gut says buy for the 5/6 years we're in DC. It could be longer, the contract is for 4 with yearly options. Its a cyber security job which these are not going away anytime soon and we could stay longer depending on monies/salary or if the housing market does tank a wee bit. The 15/20 year plan is to do this for a max of 10, I'd prefer 5/6, then head back to the southwest for another 10 until we can retire. After my first 5/10 year plan went south a number of years ago, we've learned to be flexible, adapt and move on.

We can afford the 400G house, that gives us the cash flexibility to cover the OMGs, I don't want to be house poor by any means but from what I'm reading here all of you are leaning towards the renting vs ownership, correct?

I think you should rent. 5-6 years just isn't that much time to make owning worth it, when you factor in all the costs(closing costs, maintenance, market uncertainty, etc). Maybe you come out a little ahead, but maybe you don't. Could easily go either way. Why don't you just rent for the first year and then make the decision? You will have a better understanding of how much you like the area and job and maybe will have a better idea of whether it could be a longer term stay.

And don't kid yourself and think there isn't market uncertainty here. It's a very strong real estate market but everything you touch here doesn't turn to gold. A friend of mine bought a townhouse in Reston in 2004 for 300k. He recently went to sell and it sat on the market awhile, had a contract fall through, and finally sold for around 330k. 10% appreciation over 13 years. He did buy near a peak in the market but the market has also been on fire for the past 4-5 years, so who says we aren't near another peak?

[snowdenscold]

Originally Posted by GravelAdgitator

We can afford the 400G house, that gives us the cash flexibility to cover the OMGs, I don't want to be house poor by any means but from what I'm reading here all of you are leaning towards the renting vs ownership, correct?

I was just saying that it really could go either way in the 5-6 year range. If it were 10 years, I would definitely say buy, if it were 3 years, I'd definitely say rent.

In your situation, the optimal financial decision depends on a tons of variables and inputs, which I've tried to highlight some above. You see the range (which I've probably underestimated) is quite wide, and while you might come out ahead, you could also come out quite behind as well.

The renting option obviously gives you more flexibility (you can always change locations), at the expense of missing out on potential gains if the market shoots up.

[jillybean720]

Originally Posted by FCNova

Why don't you just rent for the first year and then make the decision? You will have a better understanding of how much you like the area and job and maybe will have a better idea of whether it could be a longer term stay.

This.

The townhouse I mentioned before? It was in Lake Ridge (Woodbridge). So, slightly beyond the "core" of the DC area, but certainly not outside of the region. We bought it with 0 down for $278k in summer 2007. It hurts me to even admit to this, but we ended up completing a short sale of it last year for $229k. It was originally our "5-year plan" that we ended up owning for more than 8 years and still lost a lot. We had moved on and rented it out for 2 of those years because we knew we were so upside down, but the rent we could charge was not enough to cover our monthly PITI, so we were losing money for years before we finally had to face facts.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by jillybean720

This.

The townhouse I mentioned before? It was in Lake Ridge (Woodbridge). So, slightly beyond the "core" of the DC area, but certainly not outside of the region. We bought it with 0 down for $278k in summer 2007. It hurts me to even admit to this, but we ended up completing a short sale of it last year for $229k. It was originally our "5-year plan" that we ended up owning for more than 8 years and still lost a lot. We had moved on and rented it out for 2 of those years because we knew we were so upside down, but the rent we could charge was not enough to cover our monthly PITI, so we were losing money for years before we finally had to face facts.

Yeah, you unfortunately bought at the height of the height! My neighbor bought at roughly the same time at a REALLY high price for our houses in our neighborhood and he's STILL underwater almost 10 years later. But he has stayed because I think he just likes the house.

[ecnorton]

Here is a link with Fairfax Hight School 2016 SAT scores:

Fairfax County: Room to Improve for Fairfax County Public Schools on SAT

[GravelAdgitator]

Thanks ecnorton and to all,

Great info, lost of intel gathered here with personal items/issues that will help us decide on what we'll eventually do. I do believe we'll rent at least for the 1st 6 months and re-eval then on whether to buy or continue to rent. That also gives me an idea on the job and is it worthwhile to stay.