READING: Searching for a Montgomery County, MD, Condo
The implications of High NIMBYism
Michael DeLong: My Condo Search Illustrates the Struggle of Home Buying in Montgomery County: ‘Homeownership is closely linked to the American Dream—most individuals and families aspire to own a place that they can call their own and pass on to their children. However, homeownership is becoming increasingly difficult in Montgomery County for a variety of reasons. My experience becoming a condominium owner earlier this year illustrates several of those problems.
I first moved to Montgomery County in late 2015, and quickly liked the county for its neighborhoods, active civic and political life, parks, forests, and streams, and excellent shops and restaurants. I became involved in local politics and joined the Montgomery County Young Democrats, eventually becoming President. And over the last several years, the county felt more and more like home and I eventually decided to purchase a house here.
But this was much easier said than done. I quickly realized that while having a respectable income of $74,000 per year, I could not afford a single family home or even most townhouses. Since I work in D.C., like walkable neighborhoods with some green space, as well as access to stores, restaurants, and entertainment, I was searching for a place in or around downtown Silver Spring. Since it was just myself, I thought it would be easy enough to find a small condominium in a location that checked these boxes.
To my surprise, I found there were very few condos in downtown Silver Spring and that the ones available were either extremely small or extremely expensive — sometimes both.
Over a couple of months I looked at a number of places; one was a bedroom and den apartment about 640 square feet that was tempting but way too expensive at $379,000. A couple of other condominiums were old and poorly maintained. The most egregious place I viewed had a perfect location just up the hill from the Silver Spring Metro but it was only 460 square feet and practically a studio apartment. The asking price? $260,000. A couple of larger condominiums came on the market, but they were over $500,000—significantly above my approved loan amount.
After searching fruitlessly, I realized I had to broaden my search. Eventually I found a condominium in a multifamily building about a mile to the west downtown that had substantial space and was in a delightful area. I had to pay almost $20,000 above the list price to beat out other offers. I love my new neighborhood, but there aren’t many buildings like mine with prices that are attainable to middle-income residents like me.
I am a young professional with a good income who wants to live in a diverse, walkable, urban area, but was priced out of downtown Silver Spring due to expensive housing and a lack of options. Ultimately, my situation worked out, but I can only imagine how people with lower incomes are faring.
Fortunately, Thrive 2050, an update to the county’s general plan, outlines strategies to support homeownership. It recognizes that in order to accommodate people like me, we need to build more housing in central areas and along public transit corridors—including single family homes, townhouses, apartments, and condominiums.
I urge people to embrace Thrive’s vision for more people like me to live in this great county that has provided me with so many opportunities. While there can always be improvements, I urge the County Council to approve this plan that will make housing more affordable and benefit so many people.
My experience purchasing an affordable home in Montgomery County was a difficult one. Implementing Thrive Montgomery would make it easier for future residents..
Toronto is an egregious offender when it comes to rational development - 1/6 the density of Paris with a fraction of its population. But the Planning and Housing committee is trying:
Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods: Multiplex Study - Proposals Report
Summary
Toronto is expected to grow by a minimum of 700,000 people by 2051 - how these new Torontonians are housed will shape the City for decades to come. In recent years, the City's growth has been focused on transit rich areas such as the Downtown, Centres, and along Avenues, where the supply of apartments has increased significantly. Conversely, the supply of low-rise housing has not kept up with demand and in some cases, the City's low-rise Neighbourhoods have lost population. The City can choose to adopt a more equitable approach to growth across Toronto that sees Neighbourhoods adapting to change, remaining vibrant, and providing more Torontonians the option to live within one of our low-rise communities.
Fromhttp://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2022.PH35.3&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
I hesitate to respond to this post as the Bethesda Magazine column that is linked was written by a person with the same surname as our columnist. Perhaps a son or other relation? Anyway, I share the concerns of Michael DeLong but he is unrealistic to think he will find housing in the area he was looking. Prices in this area (I've lived in Montgomery County for 43 years as a renter, homeowner and now condo owner). are high and last year we decided to move out of our house and into a condo. We wanted to live in the same proximity and needed a 3 BR unit which are quite difficult to find. We had a specific price limit and did not want to do a lot of renovations. We got lucky and within three months found the perfect unit. When we sold our house this January we had three offers for well over the asking price. I thought this was astounding given it is a 1955 split level home.
It's instructive to read the comments to Mr. DeLong's Bethesda Magazine article. His $74K income is below the median for this area and yes he was priced out of close in properties. As some noted in their response to Mr. DeLong, the Thrive2050 proposal is highly flawed and was the work of a few staff on the Planning Board. there has been a lot of push back against it. Montgomery County already has an affordable housing law on the books. Any new construction has to have affordable units. On our street there are a lot of 50 year old low rise brick apartment buildings that are slated for redevelopment over the next 13 years. All the new construction will have affordable units (I think 20%). In our old neighborhood, there was a large plot that was developed in to single family homes and two duplexes of affordable housing were built in the development.
Developers want to maximize profits and are building mostly high end units. This goes for both apartments and SF homes.