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Old 07-10-2009, 12:42 PM
 
Location: NoVA
230 posts, read 1,212,640 times
Reputation: 132

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Quote:
Originally Posted by tgbwc View Post
We have our perks. The best one is that I get to spend much more time with my son than many other dads.
And that right there is worth about 200K in my books. You'll never regret that choice.
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Old 07-10-2009, 01:48 PM
 
Location: Virginia
18,717 posts, read 30,995,366 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZakAttack View Post
And that right there is worth about 200K in my books. You'll never regret that choice.
Amen!
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Old 07-10-2009, 03:31 PM
 
Location: Ft. Washington/Oxon Hill border, MD (Prince George's County)
321 posts, read 810,233 times
Reputation: 233
Quote:
Originally Posted by Samara11 View Post
LOL. Yeah, that was my laugh of the day too..... thanks
lol...
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Old 07-10-2009, 03:57 PM
 
Location: Ft. Washington/Oxon Hill border, MD (Prince George's County)
321 posts, read 810,233 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by athousandlogins View Post
Yeah, good points. My brother was just under 30 when he bought his first place - on a firefighter's salary! But it was a TH in Laurel, sometime around the year 2000. He upgraded to a SFH a few years later. Through the whole process, right up until he got married, he always had a roommate to help deal with the cost.

You've either got to keep renting, or compromise *somewhere* on the first home you purchase. Unless you were born into great wealth, you're not going to get it all handed to you at once in the first go-round.
Yep...you may have to compromise on location if you want to own your first home alone. I also forgot to mention Baltimore as a place that some of my friends bought homes in...I do not know how popular it is now but a few years ago lots of younger people were buying in Baltimore or near Baltimore and commuting into DC by train for jobs. There are some funky enclaves to live in there...kind of like unique NYC neighborhoods...it is not all The Wire and Homicide Bmore is not that convenient for working in NoVa but if you work downtown it could be done. One of my girlfriend's boyfriend is a barber in Bmore and makes about $40-45k a year and purchased a home with a yard in Bmore for under $50k in his 20s though it needed work and he fixed it up over time. I also had friends who purchased in the U St. area in DC before it was all that hip to do and got in early before the price surge.

I get house envy a lot visiting older colleagues homes in great neighborhoods in the area...but I have to remind myself that they got there after trading up with equity a couple of times. You do have to consider the family assistance factor also. When I was buying my home I had legal colleagues that were all buying on Capitol Hill and DuPont Circle and Bethesda and Arlington in the range of $600k+ and I was just trying to figure out how they were all doing this when I was looking at under $300k. And many looked at me like I was crazy when I told them where I was looking to buy (I think beyond my housewarming, Ikea had been the only reason they had ever come to PG previously) but you have to get over that 'keep up with the Joneses' thing with your first home. I had to remember also that many of those colleagues either had family who paid their tuition or student loans for them (for many lawyers that can save you nearly $1000/month), got graduation/wedding gifts of down payments on a home or paying off six figure student loans, or otherwise got family assistance on making a substantial down payment. Most people don't like to talk about it but it seriously gives you a leg up in life.
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Old 07-10-2009, 04:51 PM
 
Location: Marshall-Shadeland, Pittsburgh, PA
32,606 posts, read 77,374,263 times
Reputation: 19077
Quote:
Originally Posted by Denton56 View Post
So why didn't you get a job in PA? Do you think you would make the same money in Pittsburg? If so, how foolish of you to have moved to Reston when you would have been so much happier, and wealthier, in PA.
I moved to Northern Virginia because I was duped into thinking it was a great place to live---better than Pittsburgh. I obviously made a mistake. Yes, I COULD make nearly the same salary in Pittsburgh for a fraction of the cost-of-living, hence why I'll eventually migrate there someday.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Denton56 View Post
HUH? What single, 25 year old, EVER bought a house in a previous generation? I know I didn't and no one I knew was able to buy a house at that age. Nor were our parents or grandparents. After college, everyone lived in group houses! No one could afford their own houses until they were married, and usually over 30 at that.

You should have majored in engineering. That's about the only field where new college graduates have starting salaries over $50,000. Or you could become a teacher. They begin at $45,000 and have off 11 weeks in the summer where you could get a second job, and end up making well over $50,000.

Are you saying that you aren't living comfortably? You have your own apartment, don't even need a roommate! At what, 24 years old?

You sound like a spoiled whiner, expecting to own a SFH when you are still in your 20's. Do a poll here and asked how many people here bought single family homes as single people in their 20's. I dare ya.
I'm 22, not 24. "Spoiled" how? I worked full-time through high school and college to pay for most of my own expenditures to shift the burden off of my parents' aging backs while many of my friends from my former upper-middle-class community had their parents buy cars, clothes, etc. for them. If you'd learn how to READ it's not that I want to buy a house RIGHT NOW. It's that I'm sitting here doing some intensive calculations of how much I'll be able to save towards a down payment annually as my salary gradually increases, and the end result just isn't a pretty one when it takes high-$300k to get a decent house like the one I linked to. Who wants to buy their first home when they're in their 40s?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Denton56 View Post
Did you not take ANY econ courses in college? What part of supply and demand do you NOT understand? Contrary to what you might think, more people want to live in the DC area than in Pittsburgh. That drives up the demand for housing. Throw in all the zoning/smart growth laws that you adore, and viola, less housing. More demand, less supply, higher prices.
Why would people prefer to live in a place with the nation's second-worst traffic, some of the nation's worst urban sprawl issues, lack of mass transit, lack of sidewalks, and a lack of cultural amenities in the immediate area over a place like Pittsburgh? What's the "edge" to a place like Reston over a place like Shadyside to justify the tremendous cost-of-living disparity?

I'm educated and have an above-average I.Q., but thank you very much for questioning my educational background!
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Old 07-10-2009, 05:04 PM
 
2,688 posts, read 6,664,568 times
Reputation: 1291
Duped by who?
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Old 07-10-2009, 05:11 PM
 
Location: Marshall-Shadeland, Pittsburgh, PA
32,606 posts, read 77,374,263 times
Reputation: 19077
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yankeesfan View Post
Duped by who?
Duped by my research I suppose. So many people hyped up NoVA as such a "great" place to live, and now that I'm here reality has sunk in, and I ask myself "this is it?"
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Old 07-10-2009, 05:39 PM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
9,766 posts, read 15,723,646 times
Reputation: 10865
Honestly, if you want to buy a house within the next 10 years, no matter where you are, you need to save a little bit each month towards it. When I graduated college, I lived with roommates until I was 30 years old. That allowed me to put away several hundred dollars per month. By the time I was 32 I had $70,000 for a down payment on a home. So basically, I scrimped and saved for several years so down the road I could enjoy a home that I own. If you could find a 2-bedroom apartment and share with a roommate for a few years, you could do the same.
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Old 07-10-2009, 05:40 PM
 
Location: NoVA
230 posts, read 1,212,640 times
Reputation: 132
Quote:
Originally Posted by ScranBarre View Post
Duped by my research I suppose. So many people hyped up NoVA as such a "great" place to live, and now that I'm here reality has sunk in, and I ask myself "this is it?"
Dude, you are just never going to be happy. I think I'll just call you "Sidewalks" from now on since you sweat them so much.
Northern Virginia is a great place. Since you love PA so much, please, please go back and stop complaining about everything. Before you know it this life will be over, and you won't have to worry about "urban sprawls".
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Old 07-10-2009, 05:52 PM
 
Location: Dudes in brown flip-flops
660 posts, read 1,700,762 times
Reputation: 346
Quote:
Originally Posted by ScranBarre View Post
Why would people prefer to live in a place with the nation's second-worst traffic, some of the nation's worst urban sprawl issues, lack of mass transit, lack of sidewalks, and a lack of cultural amenities in the immediate area over a place like Pittsburgh? What's the "edge" to a place like Reston over a place like Shadyside to justify the tremendous cost-of-living disparity?
Some of the nation's worst urban sprawl issues? DC is nothing compared to most metropolitan areas in the South and Southwest. And if any of the metropolitan areas in the Northeast had grown as quickly as DC has, they would look the same way. Pretty much any metropolitan area that has increased in population over the last 30 years has done so without mass transit or sidewalks. I would say that that reflects a lack of foresight on the part of Americans everywhere, not just in this one metropolitan area. I'm just not sure if you realize that.

What you dislike about NoVA is 100% legitimate, according to this native. But the thing is, what you dislike about this area is a reflection of national trends, not regional ones. Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, San Diego, they all look more or less like Loudoun County.

Also, why are you comparing Reston with Shadyside? You should be comparing Reston with Greensburg, or Moon, i.e. other suburban areas 15-20 miles from the city center. And I think you will agree that Reston fares pretty well in that comparison. Pittsburgh may provide you with the same job opportunities and pay that this area does, but that is the exception to the norm. If Pittsburgh had enough jobs for people with college degrees, those people would be staying put and not moving here.
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