Data: D.C. Most Expensive Metro Area In US To Raise Kids

[tacosforlife]

There were things I loved about living in DC, but with Operation: Taquito getting closer and closer, this confirms that we made the right decision when we left.

[josieposy]

That seems low to me for DC. In Mpls I'm paying over $25k for two in daycare and that's not even one of the most expensive places here.

[thebulldog]

I have lived in the area for 15 years and this is a huge factor into why we went cfbc.

Sent from my SM-G900P using proboards

[dottyblue]

This is why we left before DS2 was born. I was already paying over $24k for childcare for one kid. We would have had to have moved an hour or more outside the beltway in order to afford two kids which would also mean insane commutes. No thank you. It was fun when we were DINKs, but not an area to raise a family unless if you make $$$$.

[karinothing]

Yup. About to pay 36k a year for childcare

[earlgreyhot]

Yup.

I wish I'd known this before we made the move here 5 years ago. I mean, DH's salary is now more than our two salaries combined in our previous city so I SAH, for better or worse. But, we've not been able to really save and thus can't afford a house in an area with good schools. We'll lottery again this year to see if we land a spot at a charter that would allow us to move to a more affordable area. We could not even begin to afford private school here. Or we could move way, way outside the city but then DH's commute would be 60m+ and the kids wouldn't see him during the week and that's not OK. Had we moved here 10 years ago and been able to buy we'd be in a much better situation.

Hopefully DH will move into a position in the next 5 years that will allow him to work from anywhere, and we'll probably move to a lower COL city.

[nsl]

I am so glad we lived in an LCOL area when our boys were really young. Even one year of FT childcare (Pre-K) in the DC area is killing us since I don't work FT yet.

[fortnightlily]

Yeah....


Though, granted I don't know much about Ithaca, but it seemed weird to me that it was on the list, and higher than San Francisco.

[ttt]

Ithaca NY - huh??

[eclaires]

It honestly blows my mind how much my BIL and SIL pay their nanny.

And IMO, she's far from great. They pay her so much, but she's regularly late and doesn't even make the kids' food while there. My SIL "packs" a lunch.

[simpsongal]

But at least our museums and zoo are free! Right??

Ugh - housing, childcare and SLs....

[fortnightlily]

Jan 11, 2016 13:57:42 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

But at least our museums and zoo are free! Right??

Ugh - housing, childcare and SLs....

Yeah, but many of us have to take crappy, expensive mass transit to get to them

[fortnightlily]

Jan 11, 2016 14:37:54 GMT -5 pennypenny said:

And this is probably reason #2 we are having one kid. #1 being I don't want to be pregnant again.

I always wonder what jobs people have to allow them to have 2 or more kids in private school. Like I read on DCUM (i know) about a family with 4 kids in private. They are paying over 120K a year for their kids to be in school. What kind of damn job do you have to be able to afford that? And the cost to live in an area with good public schools is so crazy. So you pay so much for your home to still send your kid to private school. This is what I am facing right now.

And then I see people with similar incomes to me doing it, so I guess I will be able to too.

When I lived in LA, and now that I'm back in DC, I still look at the huge inventory of million-dollar-plus homes and have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that there are enough people who earn the kind of income required to sustain that market.  And I'm an upper-middle-class professional.  

[bellejar]

Not surprising to me as a DMV person. And of course child care workers aren't making any more money here than other places (as far as I know).

[msmerymac]

Jan 11, 2016 13:41:00 GMT -5 fortnightlily said:

Yeah....


Though, granted I don't know much about Ithaca, but it seemed weird to me that it was on the list, and higher than San Francisco.

Having lived there for 3 years, I agree with your puzzlement. 

I will also say that the city of Ithaca is verrrrrry different from the surrounding towns/county area. It's a liberal college town. Small city. 30k full time residents and 30k college students, IIRC. The surrounding area is much more rural and conservative. And also cheaper, IMO. So at leas tit's not like NYC or DC where you have to go waaaaay out to find something reasonably priced and commute 1.5 hours each way, which affects you bottom line, too. Except in the case of NYC, apparently even living in Poughkeepsie isn't going to help!

Also, when I was in college, you could rent a room in a 5 bedroom house for like $250/month. Probably a bit more now, but my rent in LA was ALWAYS much more than that. I promise. 

[BirdGirl]

Jan 11, 2016 14:58:07 GMT -5 bellejar said:

Not surprising to me as a DMV person. And of course child care workers aren't making any more money here than other places (as far as I know).

I don't think that's necessarily true. I know our nanny--for one--makes a very good salary.

[karinothing]

Jan 11, 2016 14:39:03 GMT -5 pennypenny said:

Jan 11, 2016 13:22:13 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Yup. About to pay 36k a year for childcare

But eventually they will be in public school. :trying to make you feel better:

Ha ha true. 1.5 more years till we are back to paying for only one. 

[bellejar]

Jan 11, 2016 15:19:28 GMT -5 BirdGirl said:

Jan 11, 2016 14:58:07 GMT -5 bellejar said:

Not surprising to me as a DMV person. And of course child care workers aren't making any more money here than other places (as far as I know).

I don't think that's necessarily true. I know our nanny--for one--makes a very good salary.

Nannies, maybe? I don't think they're as common in a lot of other areas of the country. I don't think child care center workers make more. 

[tacosforlife]

Jan 11, 2016 14:37:54 GMT -5 pennypenny said:

And this is probably reason #2 we are having one kid. #1 being I don't want to be pregnant again.

I always wonder what jobs people have to allow them to have 2 or more kids in private school. Like I read on DCUM (i know) about a family with 4 kids in private. They are paying over 120K a year for their kids to be in school. What kind of damn job do you have to be able to afford that? And the cost to live in an area with good public schools is so crazy. So you pay so much for your home to still send your kid to private school. This is what I am facing right now.

And then I see people with similar incomes to me doing it, so I guess I will be able to too.

Lobbyist.

In an article about poverty in rural southwest Virginia, a comparison was made to Fairfax and Arlington counties, noting that the rise in the cost of living in those counties has been directly proportional to the amount of money spent on lobbying in the last 20 years.

[skwcm80]

I have friends and family in the area, and I wonder how they do it. I'm at the point where I don't even talk about how relatively less it costs to have one in DC, and one in before & after care.

[BirdGirl]

pennypenny - Law firm partners too. Even associates could do it, but being a permanent associate isn't terribly secure.

[karinothing]

I think private schools give discount for multiple students too, although not much I am sure. I don't know. I have friends that send their kid to private school. I guess we could send both our kids to private school if we wanted. We already pay almost that much for daycare.

[tacosforlife]

Jan 11, 2016 15:51:42 GMT -5 pennypenny said:

Jan 11, 2016 15:49:28 GMT -5 BirdGirl said:

pennypenny - Law firm partners too. Even associates could do it, but being a permanent associate isn't terribly secure.

An associate can afford 120K a year in school? Wow. I went into the wrong profession. I know I make a decent salary. We are considered upper class I think, but 30K a year for elementary school makes my head hurt.

No, you didn't. The number of lawyers who actually get these super lucrative positions are few and far between. I've never come close to that. We had no idea how we were ever going to afford a child in DC, and buying a house was out of the question. Now that we are back to a reasonable COL, we have a timeframe for TTC and looser timeframe for buying.

[shell403b]

Our childcare is almost $20000/year. Good grief.

[saz]

Not a surprise. This is why we moved when pregnant with #1.

[BirdGirl]

Jan 11, 2016 15:51:42 GMT -5 pennypenny said:

Jan 11, 2016 15:49:28 GMT -5 BirdGirl said:

pennypenny - Law firm partners too. Even associates could do it, but being a permanent associate isn't terribly secure.

An associate can afford 120K a year in school? Wow. I went into the wrong profession. I know I make a decent salary. We are considered upper class I think, but 30K a year for elementary school makes my head hurt.

A senior associate makes 300K before bonuses. 4 in private school, maybe not, but 2 yes. And if you're a 2-lawyer family you could double that. That said, I COULD NOT WAIT to get out. I hated law firm life.

[tacosforlife]

Jan 11, 2016 16:55:56 GMT -5 BirdGirl said:

Jan 11, 2016 15:51:42 GMT -5 pennypenny said:

An associate can afford 120K a year in school? Wow. I went into the wrong profession. I know I make a decent salary. We are considered upper class I think, but 30K a year for elementary school makes my head hurt.

A senior associate makes 300K before bonuses. 4 in private school, maybe not, but 2 yes. And if you're a 2-lawyer family you could double that. That said, I COULD NOT WAIT to get out. I hated law firm life.

JESUS.

I kind of hate knowing this. I wrecked my health and damn near killed myself for $64,000/year working as an associate for the goddamned devil.

[threejs]

Jan 11, 2016 16:55:56 GMT -5 BirdGirl said:

Jan 11, 2016 15:51:42 GMT -5 pennypenny said:

An associate can afford 120K a year in school? Wow. I went into the wrong profession. I know I make a decent salary. We are considered upper class I think, but 30K a year for elementary school makes my head hurt.

A senior associate makes 300K before bonuses. 4 in private school, maybe not, but 2 yes. And if you're a 2-lawyer family you could double that. That said, I COULD NOT WAIT to get out. I hated law firm life.

This isn't necessarily true (the $300K for a senior associate part).  

I work in DC and have one child in an independent private school, in the suburbs because tuition is much more reasonably priced than in the city.  I have over an hour commute to work.  If I had more than one kid, school tuition would be tough, but doable.  There is financial aid available at most of these schools, and it is generally not income dependent. At my school there's a large endowment and a relatively small student body, so almost every one who asks gets some sort of tuition assistance, no matter how much they make.  

Yes, I spend a lot of time in traffic. I use the time to listen to books and podcasts.  Honestly, it's my "me" time and has become one of my favorite times of the day.  I prefer living in the suburbs.  I spend plenty of time with my kid. It isn't the end of the world. 

[StrawberryBlondie]

Jan 11, 2016 13:03:40 GMT -5 josieposy said:

That seems low to me for DC. In Mpls I'm paying over $25k for two in daycare and that's not even one of the most expensive places here.

Yeah, I feel like they must be averaging in-home and centers. One of my friends takes her kid to an in-home (in a somewhat rural suburb) and pays like $700/month for infant. Every center we looked at was double or more that.

[centralsquare]

It's definitely averaging across the whole area. We live in DC proper and have our daughter in a nanny share for a delightful $2200/month. The share is barely more than a daycare center. It saves us a lot of time because we host.

But yeah. It's fucked up. We are house hunting and trying to stay in a district where we can send her and any figure kids to public school. Private school prices make me want to vomit.