The Privilege of Living in Virginia

Goodness gracious - this area is expensive!

We looked into buying a house nearby - the only thing we could afford was a 3-bedroom condo with a small yard, and 950 square feet on the interior. For those of you who don't know their weights and measures - 950 square feet is crazy small. We considered it, because it would be lovely to own. But decided that 4 girls plus a Mom and a Dad living in such a small space with no extra storage would just be no good.

So we rent. We looked at a few comfortable townhomes in Vienna - that's at the very end of the DC metro system. And then we found a house in Arlington - that's the nearest suburb with a distinctly urban feel to it - I'd compare it to the far north neighborhoods in Chiago. Originally, it was part of the District of Columbia until ceded back to Virginia. It completes the District's square footprint. Its pricey - eating up over half of our monthly income. But so were all the rest of the places we looked. People pay a lot of money for the privilege of living in Virginia.

We signed the lease this weekend. Dave and I are landlords in St. Louis, and so we feel that we're familiar with good and bad leases. When we saw that we are responsible for all utilities, including water and trash, we were surprised. When we saw that all appliances are in "as is" condition, we got nervous. But when we realized that we are responsible for every bit of maintenance on the house as well, we became suspicious. So, we don't call the landlord if the toilet explodes in the middle of the night? Nope - that's on us, in a standard Virginia Lease.

We got the keys yesterday and took the girls over to enjoy the house and the yard last night. We ended up meeting our next door neighbors on both sides, which quickly made us feel like we're moving into a neighborhood. In chatting, we learned that the land alone where our house sits is worth at least $500,000. The landlords have owned it for at least 20 years, at best guess. Judging off of the neighbor's original house value, I'd say they paid $200,000 for it. And now that they've probably got it paid off, they're still collecting over half of our salary for the privilege of living there - with no additional monthly costs to them at all.

I tell you where the privilege is - it is a privilege to own rental property in Virginia. Especially if you bought it two decades ago!