Would like to buy a house in NoVa but don't know if we'll be able to find what we're looking for (Arlington: for sale, loan)

[doglover29]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

I'm sorry - but that term crapshack just REALLY bothers me - I really don't believe that a "dump" would be listed at the prices you are quoting - do you have a realistic idea of what homes look like and a vision of what you can make them? It amazes me what some people think they NEED to live in - do we need vaulted ceilings? NO - you might like them but they aren't a necessity. Necessities are: enough bedrooms to house your family, a workable kitchen and at least 1-1/2-2 bathrooms (the old days they didn't have any or had at the most one).

I wish you well in your move - I don't think you honestly ever wanted to live here.

I have good vision, but the problem is that when you're paying in the range of 700 K, you don't want to spend another $100 K or more doing things like renovating a kitchen, bathrooms, putting in all new flooring, etc. The idea of renovating a house while living there does not appeal to me at all. It sounds like a huge hassle, so I'd want to do all of that before I moved in if needed, and these places we've been seeing would need major renovation. Plus, the rooms are tiny in these houses. And the layouts are odd, because most of what we're seeing is split levels and split foyers (that's pretty much all there is in our price range--we don't want a rambler).

I understand that one needs the basics, like you mentioned, but we want to live in a nice house. A tranquil retreat that is aesthetically pleasing is important to us. I guess nice house means different things to different people, but for us it means: updated kitchen, updated bathrooms, nice hardwood floors and/or nice carpeting throughout, not tiny rooms, a nice layout (preferably open floor plan), and overall a well-kept up house. We haven't seen anything of that nature yet (and aren't sure we will here).

Also, when we moved to DC, we had no idea how long we planned to stay here or whether we would like it (we had never been here before; didn't know anyone here when we moved here). We decided we'd rent for at least a year or two before thinking about buying, to get to know the area and decide if we liked it. We've concluded that DC is a great place if you're a renter--you can live super close to your job, your commute can be great, and you are close enough that it's easy to take advantage of all the city has to offer. If we were to buy here, we'd end up in Springfield or somewhere like that, we would buy a house that was way overpriced for what it was, and we'd probably rarely go into the city because it seemed like a big shlep, since we wouldn't be near a metro most likely. We go into the city weekly now, if we lived way out we'd probably go in much less frequently, so we figure, why not just leave the area and move to a city with a lower cost of living, if we're going to end up paying a huge amount of money for a not so nice house, and probably won't take advantage of all the city has to offer as much?

[NOVAmtneer82]

Doglover I'm sorry that things didn't work out for you here and I wish you the best of luck out in the Midwest. Let's be honest though, the fact is this: You and your husband isolated your search to the most expensive areas of a very expsensive region, with a low budget (for those areas) and very high expectations for a first home. It was a virtual guarantee that you wouldn't find what you were looking for.

The argument that you would never go into DC if you lived in a place like Vienna or Springfield is silly. It would take a whole 5-10 minutes to drive to the Metro station and after about a 20-25 minute train ride you are right downtown. Not exactly difficult.

No matter how hard you try, you can't change the dynamics and demographics of the DC area to fit with Milwaukee, Indianapolis, or other low cost areas. As a general rule, people make a lot more here and as a result they can afford more expensive houses, thats just how things go. Those who can't get out of the cheap housing mindset usually end up leaving, only to have their places taken by thousands of additional newcomers every year. It's just the nature of the beast that is DC...

[guyincognito]

McLean is more expensive than Milwaukee because it offers access to more things people desire that Milwaukee doesn't. High paying jobs, culture, cuisine, moderate climate, to name a few. These may or may not be things that you desire. This is not unique to DC - all expensive places have some combination of desirable attributes (Miami - weather; San Francisco - weather, jobs, culture; NY - jobs, culture; etc.). You just have to decide what is important to you.

It sounds like you've already decided the size of your house is a more important factor than your husband's job satisfaction. As you continue to consider your priorities you may well find that another area of the country best suits your needs. Can't blame you for not wanting to face the commute a lot of people put up with here.

[pcity]

I kinda wish more people had doglover's outlook. Then those "crapshacks" wouldn't be so in-demand and I could afford to buy one.

[doglover29]

Originally Posted by guyincognito

It sounds like you've already decided the size of your house is a more important factor than your husband's job satisfaction. As you continue to consider your priorities you may well find that another area of the country best suits your needs. Can't blame you for not wanting to face the commute a lot of people put up with here.

It's not the size of the house. We only need 3 bedrooms. We just want a nice house, one where we don't have to put in $100 K over the already exorbitant asking price (for what it is) to get it to be nice--to update the kitchen, bathrooms, floor, carpet, etc. And yes, a nice house is very important to us. A person spends a lot of time in their house.

I'm interested to know (if people are willing to share) how large your mortgages are. For instance, if we bought a 700K house, our mortgage would be about $5000 a month, including taxes and insurance. This seems nuts to me for a house that isn't anything great. I'm interested to know who is willing to spend this kind of money for a house that's not that great and needs a lot of work, because that's all we're seeing. And yes, I know we're looking in some of the most expensive areas in the DC area, but I want to live in a nice area. I know we could get more for our money in Silver Spring or something, but I don't like that area.

[guyincognito]

Originally Posted by doglover29

A person spends a lot of time in their house.

Your husband works 70 hour weeks. He does not spend that much time in the house.

Originally Posted by doglover29

And yes, I know we're looking in some of the most expensive areas in the DC area, but I want to live in a nice area. I know we could get more for our money in Silver Spring or something, but I don't like that area.

Well, there's nice, and then there's niiiiiice. What you're looking for is niiiiiice, as in gilded. There's nothing wrong with Silver Spring, just as Falls Church, Vienna, and Springfield all have nice middle-class neighborhoods. McLean is a cut above, which is why it's full of lawyers, lobbyists, diplomats, and all the other uber-rich folk that are part of the DC job market and have no problem paying $1 million + for a house.

I really do not think your expectations can be met in this area. You want a house full of the amenities that everyone wants in a place where everyone wants to live. There are 5 million people in the DC region, many of them very well off, so there's a lot of competition for nice houses in nice locations.

I also think that after spending some time in the rust belt you may readjust your expectations for what constitutes a "nice" place to live!

[HEATHER72]

I think after over 75 posts that we have all determined she's not willing to compromise. You can have the newer updated house with the amenities you want if you are willing to live further out. You're not willing to do that. You can still have a nice home closer to DC. You won't pay the high price to do such. *done beating this dead horse*

[claremarie]

I'm interested to know who is willing to spend this kind of money for a house that's not that great and needs a lot of work, because that's all we're seeing.

Many people buying homes in McLean are not first-time buyers, so their mortgages are well under $5000, even for a $1 million house. What part of that calculation do you not understand?
I would suggest that when you go househunting in the midwest, don't go look at homes that are listed at twice what you can reasonably afford. Even here in flyover country, there will be homes that are out of your price range, and once you've gotten a good look at what, say, $800K can buy, it will be much harder to settle for the perfectly fine $400K house.

[Fern435]

No doubt plenty of people in this area would love to live in the $1.3 million + homes in McLean, but they know they can only afford the $500,000 homes (and even that is a huge financial commitment). Most people want something nicer than they can afford. The real grace comes from being happy with what you can afford and where you are.

Why do some of these younger couples feel they are entitled to buy their "starter" home in McLean for $700,000, with no renovations needed? If your husband has a great job here, why not keep renting until you have the money saved to buy what you want?

Sorry, but the whining and the word "crapshack" (which has been used more than a dozen times in this thread) are tedious. I thought noVA folks don't like whining!

[doglover29]

Originally Posted by walkingnoelle

No doubt plenty of people in this area would love to live in the $1.3 million + homes in McLean, but they know they can only afford the $500,000 homes (and even that is a huge financial commitment). Most people want something nicer than they can afford. The real grace comes from being happy with what you can afford and where you are.

Why do some of these younger couples feel they are entitled to buy their "starter" home in McLean for $700,000, with no renovations needed? If your husband has a great job here, why not keep renting until you have the money saved to buy what you want?

Sorry, but the whining and the word "crapshack" (which has been used more than a dozen times in this thread) are tedious. I thought noVA folks don't like whining!

So what we did Sunday was drive around to open houses, without having seen the ad, so we didn't know how much they were selling for. We were just going off what the house looked like. So we'd see a nice looking house that was open, go inside, and be shocked out of our minds by the price, even for the 1.5 million houses--from the outside, we would not have guessed they were that much. I was shocked just as much by the prices for the more modest (how about that word) houses.

As to why we don't just rent for a few more years--well, this is an option we have been thinking about, but hubby wants to either leave his job now (as in move out of state) or not leave it at all, rather than get more and more senior in his job and then leave in 2-3 years when we have more saved up. He'd rather leave now when he's still rather new in his job, because it would be easier.

We don't particularly like the concept of the starter home. We've moved 4 times in the last 9 years, and don't want to buy a house with the mindset that we'll move again in 5-7 years or something like that. Moving is a lot of work. While we can only afford a starter home here in DC, in the midwest, we can afford a non-starter home. We've discussed this in great detail, and I think we'd rather just move and get the non-starter home in the midwest, rather than buy a house now with the mindset of moving in a few years.