By Anvita Tangella
In recent years, house prices have doubled if not tripled to unimaginable prices. What was an affordable home living cost has now become a burden for people. Homeseekers and renters alike are both facing the repercussions of this issue.
The affordability of houses in the US has significantly decreased. More specifically, the cost of living in Northern Virginia (NOVA) has substantially increased over the last couple of years. Sreedhar Maram, a local realtor stated that “ house prices have almost doubled since 2016 compared to 2024” along with this, many families’ incomes are staying stagnant making it even harder to find homes.
With NOVA being in close proximity to DC, house prices are ever growing and soon more people will struggle to make ends meet.
These increased house prices are due to Northern Virginia being a prime spot to find a home – it has so much accessibility to amenities like metro stations and the Dulles (IAD) airport.
Since there is a lot of competition in the area, recent home buyers like Krishna Upadhyayula, had been facing trouble finding a good home. Upadhyayula mentioned that “ you always have to pay or quote higher than what they are asking and you never know how much higher you have to go in order to get the house,“ emphasizing the true reality homeseekers face.
Upadhyayula also mentioned “you have to be ready to either compromise on the quality or the space of the house or you have to start pooling up more money”. Recently, people are always having to give up key qualities of the home they would like to buy to ensure that they are not over their spending limit. The world of real estate has become much more cutthroat over the years.
Sri Yeluri, who lived in DC from 2021 to 2023 mentioned “If you don’t have a roommate and you want to live alone in the city of DC, I think it’s pretty hard on a normal salary.”
This also shows that people with certain jobs barely make enough to feed themselves let alone pay for a comfortable living situation.
Even those who pay for better housing also face problems. Yeluri also stated that her apartment building “ had a lot of people moving out generally, because even though we were paying a lot the elevators weren’t working and the building was falling apart a little”.
Yeluri’s monthly rent living with a roommate was about $1100 adding or subtracting about $50 for utility bills , whereas if she were living in a smaller studio apartment without a roommate her monthly rent would be about $2000. She expressed that her costs “ would be so bad” if she was living alone. Other than her rent she needed about $300-$500 dollars per month for groceries and food expenses.
Many people struggle to pay these bills to keep them and their families afloat. In certain cases apartment buildings also raise rent every month which forces tenants to move out and find other less desirable living situations. Yeluri also stated that one of her friends in DC had to move apartments as their rent increased by $100.
Apart from living within DC the living costs in the towns of Northern Virginia are seemingly surprising. Many sources that were interviewed mentioned that it is difficult to afford houses in the area with the continual rise of prices. In large towns and cities even getting an apartment is a great feat, especially considering renters are also having to pay such large prices nowadays.
When asked if house prices are affordable these days Maram, a realtor, told us that these prices are too inflated and that many people are moving outside and leaving this area to find homes with better prices.
House affordability in Northern Virginia is much lower compared to about 7-10 years. According to rentdata.org rent for a studio in 2014 used to be about “$1, 176 per month” whereas in 2024 rent for the same studio has increased to about “$1,772 per month”.
Though there are countless acts and departments that are currently working to help residents, the federal government is speculated to be working towards decreasing house prices. Interest rates are still rapidly increasing and people with average salaries are having to explore other locations to buy homes.
In Fairfax county (a county in NOVA) a livable salary for a family according to “workinnorthernvirginia.com should be about $117, 561” annually to live a comfortable life.