I am also a lifelong Beltway Insider. Born here, raised here, pretty much the entirety of my life. It's where I own a home, purchased back in the late 1990s for what felt...at the time...like an exorbitant amount of money. Two hundred and forty nine thousand dollars, for a 1,300 square foot brick rambler in Annandale, and even with family help, it was a bit of stretch.
We bought in because it was where my wife and I both planned on working, and because it was near family. More broadly, it's our cultural expectation that buying in will give you equity in a home, which is better than just dumping money into rent. When home prices go up over four...or eight...or twelve...years, selling off means you profit handily from the purchase.
Our rambler, for instance, is worth 200% more now than it was two decades ago. The house my parents bought, and in which my mom still lives? That's worth about 1,100% more than it was in 1975.
Again, I'm a Beltway Insider born and bred, which means I've seen what happens when administrations change. Folks hoping to work with the new regime come bopping into DC, seeking housing to buy. For most of the fifty five years I've lived here, that's been a good bet.
Out there, I don't doubt there are Trumpy politicos thinking they'll get a piece of DC Real Estate. In that knowledge, I'm reminded of my Lord and Savior's insistence that one love one's enemies, that one go the extra mile, that one offereth up one's cloak also and whatnot.
So to them, a warning about buying a house here: Don't.
Knowing the sensitivities of Trumpy folk, let me note that even if you are the great Cornholio, I am not threatening you by saying this. You'll be fine here. Folks are generally neighborly in these parts, if a little prone to being overly work focused. Some eye rolling and muttering may be encountered, but that's as far as it'll go.
No, the reason not to buy in to the housing market in the DC area is, if you voted for Trump, precisely because he may well do what he promised. If the Department Of Government Efficiency has even a fraction of the impact Elon and Vivek insist it'll have, it'll tear an iceberg sized gash in the Titanic of the DC housing market.
Many thousands of workers, gone. Departments eliminated. Agency budgets cut to the bone. The broader economy here will be significantly impacted. No matter what your opinion on governmental size may be, the impact of that would be gobsmackingly obvious: a sudden explosive decompression of the local economy. I know what that looks like here. Things got noticeably leaner here a bit during Al Gore's reinvention of government. Then back in the subprime crisis of '06 and '07, home prices collapsed, leaving folks with mortgages they couldn't afford and houses that were worth half of what they paid for them.
In my own neighborhood, houses were just abandoned. Meaning, the owners closed and locked the doors and disappeared. The two little ramblers at the top of our street, both identical to our own? They sat empty for years, the grass growing high, the only signs of life being the county violation stickers and foreclosure notices on the front doors.
Ever take a long walk through Flint, Michigan? I have. Following the closing of the Buick factory there in the nineties, entire neighborhoods were abandoned. Home prices went to functionally nothing. That's what it looks like when the primary industry of a region shutters or significantly retracts.
So, in the interests of being honest to even those who are my political enemies: don't buy a house here.
You don't want to tie youself to this market right before your own choices destroy it.
I've also got something you might want to be aware of regarding continuing to live on this planet, but hey. One thing at a time.
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