I moved from Texas to Missouri to be close to my dad and brother. We live 4 miles apart and I don't see them anymore now than I did before. My wife and I have been talking about moving again for a couple years now but the oldest is starting high school this year making it much harder. Now we're stuck for the forseeable future.
Everyone is dead except for my father...today is my Birthday and it's also his girlfriend's...he called me early this morning to subtly indicate he wouldn't be available to get together.
So, to answer your question, not too mucking futch.
yupididit said:In reply to Beer Baron :
Have you tried Fredericksburg (right between DC and Richmond) or Winchester VA? Decently cheaper than proper northern VA. I've seen some breweries in Fredericksburg and Stafford.
Yeah. I'm casting a pretty wide net within about a 4 hour radius of them in Alexandria. Fredericksburg is definitely in the running.
Although there are a lot of breweries and brewing jobs out there, it's not as frequent that positions at my level open up - at least at breweries that are well managed and treat their employees right.
The pay trouble is my wife would have her same job and not earn any more, and she earns significantly more than I do.
I'm in a good position. I'm not in a hurry. My nieces aren't even in school yet. I can wait years and still be a major part of their life.
I can always keep my eyes open and be in a good position to move for the best possible fit, rather than the first one that's good-enough.
In reply to Beer Baron :
I'm pretty ignorant of your brewing experience/knowledge but I do know you display a wealth of knowledge on other subjects on the forum. What about starting your own brewery?
I'm not sure where you're getting a 3 bedroom single family for $2k a month in that area. "An hour outside of DC" is realistically under 15 miles on a good day. If you see an area you like, come down and drive it at different times, it changes a lot. I'd vote for stay in Ohio, this area sucks.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
As a central MD native who is still here, I recommend Beer Baron stays in OH and visits family more frequently , as others have suggested. Overall, DC metro is crowded, expensive, and unfriendly. I will retire in a different state.
If BB decides to do it anyway, I recommend living closer to, but not in, Baltimore. Somewhat cheaper, and more down to earth (in a good way). If you can stand a 60 minute commute, there are some decent areas. Another option is to live across the Bay Bridge, which is nicer in every way (except for being flat - I hate flat), but getting there and back every day would suck.
I moved to Florida to be as far as humanly possible so.....
Can you rent out your current place and afford rent in the Northern Virginian hell-troplex? If so, maybe you could give that a shot for a year. If it's worth it, sell your house a year from now and hope prices continue to climb but interest rates will go down.
I've heard Columbus is set for rapid growth in the next 10 years by many sources of mine.
In reply to Uncle David (Forum Supporter) :
I'm in MD too, and think Ohio sounds much better than here. I leave Maryland as much as I can, most people here suck. For everyone on this forum that thinks I suck, imagine being around the people I think are shiny happy people :)
In reply to Steve_Jones :
I came just to see what Steve was gonna say...
You have been full of good insight lately (100% sincere here) so I wanted to see what you had to say, I snorted when I read this.
Also I have lived in big cities; Charlotte, Raleigh, and Houston. I was in Montreal recently and it reminded me why I like it in a small town in NY. No traffic, my work commute was 13 miles and it took 15 minutes, in Charlotte my wife drove 8 miles and it took an hour. Small city or small town life is nice. Another vote for visit a lot!
Having lived in PA, and knowing DC and surrounding area reasonable good: I can't imagine what's any worse about someplace along I81 or I64 than anywhere in Ohio. Then again, to me, nearly everyplace on the east coast looks pretty much the same aside from Maine, the Adirondacks, Florida and few spots in between. It's all varying degrees of humidity.
I'd not be happy living in DC, but I could probably handle living "near" DC to make weekend trips easy.
5-6hrs is nothing. You can see your nieces on the regular most holidays. Or find a cool place in the middle to meet frequently. If your brother wants you in their lives, that'll be an easy decision for him.
Discussing with the wife, I think we're pretty much in agreement that this isn't the right move. We want to be closer, but we don't want to live in DC Metro. There are a LOT of options that fit those parameters. There is no time pressure.
We make enough money that the area wouldn't be a hardship. But we'd lack flexibility. Right now, we have discretionary funds that whenever a problem becomes a real stress - we can just throw money at it. That is really nice and makes our relationship a lot happier and less stressful.
Our relationship with each other is our #1 priority. It would be nice to have a better relationship with other family, but not if it risks strain between us.
Beer Baron said:Our relationship with each other is our #1 priority. It would be nice to have a better relationship with other family, but not if it risks strain between us.
quoted for wisdom
I've never lived closer to my family than 4 hours by car. Thats a good level of seperation, but as our kids get older we'd like to have family closer than the current 3 hours by air.. Would be nice to have my dad watch my kids mountain bike races or soccer games.. Also would be nice to pawn the kids off on them for a weekend so my wife and I can just be normal again, if only for a few hours..
No such thing as a free lunch though.. If they lived closer, I'd be taking care of them more as they age.
Steve_Jones said:I'm not sure where you're getting a 3 bedroom single family for $2k a month in that area. "An hour outside of DC" is realistically under 15 miles on a good day. If you see an area you like, come down and drive it at different times, it changes a lot. I'd vote for stay in Ohio, this area sucks.
I was about to reply to this. My eyebrows rose a bit when I read he expects to pay $2K a month for a 3br house 1 hour outside of DC.
In 2016, living in Fairfax, VA (20 miles outside of DC) the 2500 sq/ft house built in 1973 we were in was selling for $625K. Houses in the neighborhood now routinely go in the $800-$900K range. Not sure what the monthly mortgage will be but at ~7% interest, its going to be a bit more than $2K unless you came in with a MASSIVE downpayment.
Also just for contemplating. In 2009, I paid $1600 a month for my 1Br 700 sq/ft apt. in Arlington, VA.
Beer Baron said:Discussing with the wife, I think we're pretty much in agreement that this isn't the right move. We want to be closer, but we don't want to live in DC Metro. There are a LOT of options that fit those parameters. There is no time pressure.
We make enough money that the area wouldn't be a hardship. But we'd lack flexibility. Right now, we have discretionary funds that whenever a problem becomes a real stress - we can just throw money at it. That is really nice and makes our relationship a lot happier and less stressful.
Our relationship with each other is our #1 priority. It would be nice to have a better relationship with other family, but not if it risks strain between us.
quoted for wisdom
JY_Rat said:Steve_Jones said:I'm not sure where you're getting a 3 bedroom single family for $2k a month in that area.
I was about to reply to this. My eyebrows rose a bit when I read he expects to pay $2K a month for a 3br house 1 hour outside of DC.
This was based on $150k down on a $400k house. Whatever you may think of those prospects in that area between DC and Baltimore... it's a moot point now.
I'm not a proponent of the DMV area. I would stay in Ohio and visit often.
When I lived there, I was in Fairfax and my brother in Bethesda. I've seen him more living in California, Texas, and Florida than I did when I was a 20 mile drive away simply because I never wanted to deal with the traffic.
Plus you have to consider things like state income tax, personal property tax, excise taxes, etc for any of the areas in DMV that may take even more of your income away.
You would have to triple my income for me to even consider ever moving back to that area. I'd go back to California in a heartbeat and deal with those headaches vs. the DMV. At least the humidity is low and mountains are high.
The pros are the schools in some of the area are top notch for your kids (if you have any and really dependent on the county you're in).
Based on the information you provided the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Beer Baron said:JY_Rat said:Steve_Jones said:I'm not sure where you're getting a 3 bedroom single family for $2k a month in that area.
I was about to reply to this. My eyebrows rose a bit when I read he expects to pay $2K a month for a 3br house 1 hour outside of DC.
This was based on $150k down on a $400k house. Whatever you may think of those prospects in that area between DC and Baltimore... it's a moot point now.
Based on what I've seen so far of the greater DMV, unless you're willing to move as far away from DC as we live, a $400k house might not be in, shall we say, the most desirable area.
I know you've decided to stay, but for those who think people are exaggerating about houses, here is what $750k buys in Fairfax. 60 year old split level on a small lot, with a $6k a year tax bill, then the pleasure of paying "personal property tax" on your cars 2 times a year. It's nuts. That house is 18 miles from Dulles Airport and according to google, it's currently a 55 min drive, at 7PM.
So I'm a bit reversed from you. I'm from Ohio, highschool just north of Columbus and have landed in the DC area. I couldn't see myself going back to Columbus, I just have a social network here and careers for wife and I are far easier here. (Both work for government presently).
The biggest challenge of the DC area if commuting. The second biggest, which doesn't apply for you, is schools. Then theres crush of humanity and locality and cost...
I get what you are saying, I lived in the Gaithersburg area before moving south of DC and driving was stressful and just not fun. I just felt stressed out from the crush of humanity and idiot drivers. Living south of DC, well, we accepted a commute for a bigger house with a big enough yard to be removed a bit from neighbors. We also are presently accepting paying for private school for our kids, but that's another conversation.
In short, we got a house with a good sized shop outbuilding for what a townhouse would have cost in Gaithersburg.
The access to culture here is fun, I haven't felt too much urge to go back to Ohio personally. Will see how I feel after I'm back there for a work trip in a few weeks.
Steve_Jones said:I know you've decided to stay, but for those who think people are exaggerating about houses, here is what $750k buys in Fairfax. 60 year old split level on a small lot, with a $6k a year tax bill, then the pleasure of paying "personal property tax" on your cars 2 times a year. It's nuts. That house is 18 miles from Dulles Airport and according to google, it's currently a 55 min drive, at 7PM.
Well Fairfax is overpriced with old homes. 750k still gets you a lot of house in the DMV depending on where you live. And almost all the schools are good if you have kids. You could do more rural areas and really enjoy best of both worlds, not around a bunch of people while having good access to DC and airports.
$750k got us way more house than that and instant equity. In reality you have to know where to look and take your time. If you want to live where the party is, you'll pay out your ass though.
In reply to yupididit :
Agreed, but the OP was hoping to pay $400k, and hour commute. Now we are debating how much double that buys :)
In reply to Steve_Jones :
Ah! There's some $400k homes. They're like 2 or 3 bedroom and 1 bath type weird floorplan stuff lol. No kids, they'd be alright lol.
And 1hr could mean you live 15 miles away or 35 miles away depending on your route and time. We're about 26 miles from work and its in the direction to DC so I'm going with traffic each way. It takes us about 35min each way some days. Or over an hour. If there's an accident though, just turn around and go home lol.
I'm speaking from living in the northern VA portion of the DMV though. YMMV if you're in Maryland etc.
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