A few years ago I had a few steady clients in DC and so I kept an apartment there. The wife and kids would fly up for a few weeks at a time and enjoy the city.

A few years ago I had a few steady clients in DC and so I kept an apartment there. The wife and kids would fly up for a few weeks at a time and enjoy the city. The wife fell in love with DC and wanted to move so we started looking at houses. We met many of the families renting or selling the houses (normally you don't meet the owners when buying but whatever). We could not figure out how the owners were able to buy these homes based upon our estimation of their combined household income based upon their descriptions of their jobs and where they worked. After some time grappling with why we couldn't afford the homes and they could, a real estate agent told us "everyone here has help from their parents, everyone". To be honest it really pisses me off because I feel like I'm crushing it in my business (blood, sweat & tears) but I can't buy a house in DC because I don't have wealthy parents.