Some personal news (NOT @)

[picksthemusic]

As someone from the OTHER Washington, I'm kind of offended that you didn't decide to move up here instead.

Just kidding - good luck! I hope it's a positive thing for you!

[ESF]

Apr 10, 2019 23:00:06 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Congrats, chica! Hard to believe DC is THAT much more affordable than CA though - lol.

It actually is. We’ve been watching Zillow for months. Home prices in DC are not cheap, but compared to here, they are a bargain!

[ESF]

Apr 11, 2019 8:54:58 GMT -5 Beeps (WOT?*) said:

Apr 11, 2019 6:52:28 GMT -5 wawa said:

But as for the major topic at hand, Yay!! As a DC adjacent marylander this is great news! Not that I'm great at GTGs, but now that I work metro adjacent DC is so much easier.

Oooh, a DC-adjacent Marylander? Maybe you can give ESF some places that are commutable but still votable.

Lol. I know MD. Takoma Park is on our potential list.

[candreco]

Ooooh, yes, come to purple Virginia! Depending on where you're working in DC, Alexandria and that side of Ffx Cty are pretty convenient (or will be again when they finish messing with 295) and definitely affordable compared to the Bay Area.

[taratru]

Congrats! It sounds like the right time and a great opportunity.

[wawa]

Apr 11, 2019 9:02:32 GMT -5 ESF said:

Apr 11, 2019 8:54:58 GMT -5 Beeps (WOT?*) said:

Oooh, a DC-adjacent Marylander? Maybe you can give ESF some places that are commutable but still votable.

Lol. I know MD. Takoma Park is on our potential list.

If I were to move south Takoma Park would be high on my list.  I want to be super nosy about things. Like...where are you gonna work?  Do you have a job lined up already?  And when I say where, I mean, geographically because I want to know whether you'll be close enough for work day lunches.  (this is about me)

[jamaicam]

Congratulations on being able to make the move on your terms!

And I love DC - its the only US city that I felt like I could live in when I've visited it.

[ESF]

Apr 11, 2019 10:08:19 GMT -5 wawa said:

Apr 11, 2019 9:02:32 GMT -5 ESF said:

Lol. I know MD. Takoma Park is on our potential list.

If I were to move south Takoma Park would be high on my list.  I want to be super nosy about things. Like...where are you gonna work?  Do you have a job lined up already?  And when I say where, I mean, geographically because I want to know whether you'll be close enough for work day lunches.  (this is about me)

I’m super flexible for lunches! I have talked to my job and will just continue to work from home, wherever that is. The firm has been saying for years that it would be helpful to have a person based on the east coast for various reasons, so it’s win/win. That said, I might eventually find something new locally, but I don’t need something right this second. if I did find a new job, 95% of the places I’d be interested in working at are located at some major downtown metro hub.

in the short term, we need a sublease to live in while get settled and look for a house to buy. Since we need short term dog friendly housing that’s ideally furnished, I’m not too picky about where that is. If anyone has any leads, let me know!

[Deleted]

Apr 11, 2019 9:01:20 GMT -5 ESF said:

Apr 10, 2019 23:00:06 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Congrats, chica! Hard to believe DC is THAT much more affordable than CA though - lol.

It actually is. We’ve been watching Zillow for months. Home prices in DC are not cheap, but compared to here, they are a bargain!

It really is. We paid $2450 to rent our 2 bedroom/2.5 bathroom house with a small backyard and in-unit laundry, easy street parking, an 8-minute walk to the Metro, a 10-minute walk to Harris Teeter, etc. I know the rent has gone up since we left, but I think our landlords wouldn’t have raised our rent if we’d stayed. Around the time we were leaving, my friend in SF moved out of her roommate situation and got her own apartment. She was competing with COUPLES for a $2200/month studio apartment with no laundry in the building. Street parking was a total PITA, and while it was block from a bus stop, it was nowhere near BART. Because you had to take the bus instead of a train, you could travel half the distance from her apartment in a given time as we could in DC.

Both are insanely expensive, but the DC area clearly has more pockets of less hugely massively expensive.

[goldengirlz]

I don’t want to co-opt this thread but, if called upon, I would be happy to throw down to defend our title as Most Brutal Real Estate Market in the Country.

[ESF]

Apr 11, 2019 12:35:32 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

I don’t want to co-opt this thread but, if called upon, I would be happy to throw down to defend our title as Most Brutal Real Estate Market in the Country.

LOL.  H and I decided last year to look at houses around here, just to get a read on the situation. For anything that doesn't look like a hoarder died in there last week, the starting listing price for Berkeley and Oakland area was typically in the $700-800k range. These were two and three bedroom homes in the 1000-1400 sq feet range, that would all involve an hour commute into SF. And these were not the posh neighborhoods - on average, they typically had decent enough walkability but not insignificant crime levels. And these were not luxury homes but usually a cheap flip of a house in which the previous occupants had resided in for decades, and the flipping can't undo the fact that they are super old homes subjected to 100 years of earthquake wear and tear. Or have weird floor plans that are hard to truly fix -- my refrigerator is actually in a small sunroom, and my house is not the only house in town that I've seen like this.

These homes were not selling for 700k though, but were going for hundreds of thousands over asking.  It was a regular thing where homes would list for $800k and sell for 1.2 or 1.3 million. 

DC is not quite the same.  There are small million dollar condos, sure, but they have closets and in-kitchen refrigerators and the walls and floors form 90 degree angles, and  are not an hour from the city. 

[cville]

If you see 45, give him the finger for all of us.

[wawa]

The DC metro area should use that in their marketing materials.

"Do you value plumb walls and in-kitchen fridges? Come to DC!!"

[ESF]

Apr 11, 2019 13:25:31 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Lol at “in-kitchen refrigerators”

That reminds me that we looked at a home in San Mateo which was advertised as having two bathrooms ... except to use the second bathroom, you had to leave the house and go pee in the garage. It was about 1100 sq ft and sold over asking for $1.3 million. (And it’s probably worth even more now since we bought a few years ago and the market has only gotten worse!)

OMG.

One trend I see is the bonus bathroom. Like there's this weird rectangle attached to the house that looks to be stapled on and unattached to the foundation. When you go inside, you realize that they basically just glued a closet on to the house and put a toilet in there so they could call it a two bathroom. One of them has a sink that is basically a basin about the size of a small paperback novel with a tiny little spout over it. I don't think two hands could be washed at the same time.  That one was only 900 square feet, and just sold a couple weeks ago. I frequently check zillow to see how much the baby millionaire buying it actually paid.

[ESF]

Apr 11, 2019 13:40:40 GMT -5 cville said:

If you see 45, give him the finger for all of us.

I'm hoping I get the opportunity to disrupt Steven Miller's dinner one day.

[seeyalater52]

Congratulations! This is exciting!

[mrshandy]

Yes come to VA! Help turn us solid blue.

We need a lot of help especially with the state races.

[Jalapeñomel]

Congratulations!

[notsopicky]

This is good news! As a local (hi other locals!) I welcome you back and would like to participate in GTGs if we can get one/them going. I am in purple VA now, but have lived in both MD and DC (6 yrs each) too. Each place has its charms and room for improvement--can't wait to hear where you end up!

[raangoli]

Congratulations!

[y4m]

Welcome back!!

[thebulldog]

gleefully checks off one more day until ESF and I will be sitting in wineries with our dogs - who will become best friends.

[jeaniebueller]

Good luck on the move! Sounds like a good decision.

[msmerymac]

This thread reminds me of when one of my close friends moved from Manhattan to Denver. She was like, "It's so cheap! We can get an entire house!" I said, "I don't think most people say that about Denver." She lives pretty far outside the city, but still.

[centralsquare]

Yay, can’t wait to have you back here. Looking forward to picking out lipsticks to wear to protests 😉

[litebright]

A preemptive welcome-back to the DMV! Good luck with the move.

I'm way out in NoVA, but secretlyevil, I would love to be in on a GTG!

[centralsquare]

Apr 12, 2019 9:35:27 GMT -5 litebright said:

A preemptive welcome-back to the DMV! Good luck with the move.

I'm way out in NoVA, but secretlyevil, I would love to be in on a GTG!

+1 to GTG inclusion!

[rajahmd]

Welcome back to the good ol' DMV!

I'll echo PP and say come to VA and help us turn the state blue.

I kinda wish I lived closer to DC now.

[1confused1]

Congrats and good luck with your move!!

[litasail]

ESF, I live in TKPK. Short term rentals are posted fairly frequently on our local listservs - I'd be happy to forward them as you get closer. And happy to help with any questions you have about the area. Welcome in advance back to the area.