Hi all,
New here. I know there are several DC folks on the forum so I wanted to get their take on my living situation. My wife and I recently moved to northern Virginia (Fairfax) and have been renting a place for about the past year. The idea was to rent for a while, get a feel for the area and where we actually wanted to live, and then buy a place. Our lease term is coming to an end soon and we've been thinking about where to go next.
We'd like to buy a house because we just don't like the idea of spending money on rent and then having nothing to show for it later (Kind of like leasing a car. Who does that?). My thought was that if we ever move again, which is a real possibility, then we could keep the house, rent it out, and let it continue to build equity. However, I think I've seen on this forum that in some localities it is not worth buying a rental property as you just can't charge enough rent to cover expenses. I was surprised by this and I'm not sure I understand why this would be the case. Is this a real phenomenon and is it true for DC/NOVA?
If we think we'll only be in DC for a few more years, would I be better off renting the whole time? Some details:
Net Income: ~105k (Wife is in residency, income expected to increase significantly in a few years)
Savings Rate: ~44% (Maxed 401k and Roth IRAs)
Stash: A few hundred k
Debt: zero
Looking at the numbers it seems like it would be hard to find any place to buy that is within our budget given how much we make, but my calculations show a mortgage payment vs. rent (what we pay now) are comparable for a house in the $350k price range.
Thanks for the input. Let me know if you want more info.