How many friends or family of yours have left the DC area recently due to the rising cost of living?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:N one. Instead, we're all living in condos, smaller houses, budgeting. The amenities are just too good here. Some talk about leaving though, but no one has.

This is overwhelmingly the case for us. There's some moving around within DC and the surrounding area looking for a fix, but only two friends moved away. Both are cautionary tales. Friend #1 moved to a lower cost Midwestern City and found that you have to pay for culture. No free world class museums and zoos. They can't afford the memberships so their kids are bored when it's too cold to be outside. Lots of tv. Friend #2 bought a huge house in the burbs of a mid-size mid-Southern city. There is no diversity. Few folks who aren't white, Protestant, and straight. Even the few Jewish people and POC all have the same bland culture as everyone else. It's very isolating.

This area is rapidly headed that way with all of the CVS, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera, & Potbelly within all of the new condos being built.

But there are still Judiaca shops, bodegas, Ethiopian cafes, Italian delis, old men selling paletas from a hand cart, halal grocers, and African braiding salons.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in moco and just did this a few months ago.

No regrets so far! Found a place where I can but unlimited spin and yoga for 129 a month and I never sit in traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None. The other option is go back to their home state and make $40k a year lol. Not many people choosing that option.

. More house for lesser money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This area has the most ideal col to salary ratio. Only foolish people leave because of col.

Everyone does not earn the same salary.

X1000

LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. The other option is go back to their home state and make $40k a year lol. Not many people choosing that option.

?

A lot of people in the DC area are from the DC area.

X100000
It seems like most of the people in D.C. are from the D.C. area, or from some armpit area, can't decide which.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in moco and just did this a few months ago.

No regrets so far! Found a place where I can but unlimited spin and yoga for 129 a month and I never sit in traffic.

How very cultured of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. The other option is go back to their home state and make $40k a year lol. Not many people choosing that option.

. More house for lesser money?

Housing is a big chunk of what people spend, but there are also issues with quality of schools, health care, and social life. If all you want after work is to sit in a big house, you can move to suburban Ohio.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two. But they both had family elsewhere and it was a sahm and an attorney so they went to a lower col so they could make it work for their 3 children on one salary and not insane hours. The other set were teachers and family up north with an extra house they could live in rent free. Most of my other friends are from here and have family ties for at least one spouse and have usually one fed in the couple at a pretty high level.

Our family friend was also a fed which may explain why she had to wait 4 long years for a transfer.
With all of the money she wasted on the rent she could have paid for both of her children's college educations.

I don't know what college you are thinking of, but no, $100,000 will not pay for two kids' college educations. It costs money to live everywhere - the notion that a person is "wasting" money on rent is ludicrous.

There are still some affordable state schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:N one. Instead, we're all living in condos, smaller houses, budgeting. The amenities are just too good here. Some talk about leaving though, but no one has.

This is overwhelmingly the case for us. There's some moving around within DC and the surrounding area looking for a fix, but only two friends moved away. Both are cautionary tales. Friend #1 moved to a lower cost Midwestern City and found that you have to pay for culture. No free world class museums and zoos. They can't afford the memberships so their kids are bored when it's too cold to be outside. Lots of tv. Friend #2 bought a huge house in the burbs of a mid-size mid-Southern city. There is no diversity. Few folks who aren't white, Protestant, and straight. Even the few Jewish people and POC all have the same bland culture as everyone else. It's very isolating.

This area is rapidly headed that way with all of the CVS, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera, & Potbelly within all of the new condos being built.

But there are still Judiaca shops, bodegas, Ethiopian cafes, Italian delis, old men selling paletas from a hand cart, halal grocers, and African braiding salons.

Most of that is now in the suburbs instead of in the city

[Anonymous]

Two friends that I can think of. I'd like to leave as well, but it will be hard to find a job elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:N one. Instead, we're all living in condos, smaller houses, budgeting. The amenities are just too good here. Some talk about leaving though, but no one has.

This is overwhelmingly the case for us. There's some moving around within DC and the surrounding area looking for a fix, but only two friends moved away. Both are cautionary tales. Friend #1 moved to a lower cost Midwestern City and found that you have to pay for culture. No free world class museums and zoos. They can't afford the memberships so their kids are bored when it's too cold to be outside. Lots of tv. Friend #2 bought a huge house in the burbs of a mid-size mid-Southern city. There is no diversity. Few folks who aren't white, Protestant, and straight. Even the few Jewish people and POC all have the same bland culture as everyone else. It's very isolating.

This area is rapidly headed that way with all of the CVS, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera, & Potbelly within all of the new condos being built.

But there are still Judiaca shops, bodegas, Ethiopian cafes, Italian delis, old men selling paletas from a hand cart, halal grocers, and African braiding salons.

Most of that is now in the suburbs instead of in the city

It depends on where in the city you live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:N one. Instead, we're all living in condos, smaller houses, budgeting. The amenities are just too good here. Some talk about leaving though, but no one has.

This is overwhelmingly the case for us. There's some moving around within DC and the surrounding area looking for a fix, but only two friends moved away. Both are cautionary tales. Friend #1 moved to a lower cost Midwestern City and found that you have to pay for culture. No free world class museums and zoos. They can't afford the memberships so their kids are bored when it's too cold to be outside. Lots of tv. Friend #2 bought a huge house in the burbs of a mid-size mid-Southern city. There is no diversity. Few folks who aren't white, Protestant, and straight. Even the few Jewish people and POC all have the same bland culture as everyone else. It's very isolating.

This area is rapidly headed that way with all of the CVS, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera, & Potbelly within all of the new condos being built.

But there are still Judiaca shops, bodegas, Ethiopian cafes, Italian delis, old men selling paletas from a hand cart, halal grocers, and African braiding salons.

Most of that is now in the suburbs instead of in the city

It depends on where in the city you live.

They will be gone when $15 an hour arrives in 2020

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:N one. Instead, we're all living in condos, smaller houses, budgeting. The amenities are just too good here. Some talk about leaving though, but no one has.

This is overwhelmingly the case for us. There's some moving around within DC and the surrounding area looking for a fix, but only two friends moved away. Both are cautionary tales. Friend #1 moved to a lower cost Midwestern City and found that you have to pay for culture. No free world class museums and zoos. They can't afford the memberships so their kids are bored when it's too cold to be outside. Lots of tv. Friend #2 bought a huge house in the burbs of a mid-size mid-Southern city. There is no diversity. Few folks who aren't white, Protestant, and straight. Even the few Jewish people and POC all have the same bland culture as everyone else. It's very isolating.

This area is rapidly headed that way with all of the CVS, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera, & Potbelly within all of the new condos being built.

But there are still Judiaca shops, bodegas, Ethiopian cafes, Italian delis, old men selling paletas from a hand cart, halal grocers, and African braiding salons.

Most of that is now in the suburbs instead of in the city

It depends on where in the city you live.

They will be gone when $15 an hour arrives in 2020

Is that because you assume only poor people drink good coffee and get their hair braided?

[Anonymous]

We have not left but would love to...my spouse's job and family ties are making it difficult. We have friends that live in many other places with good schools and activities but do not pay the crazy housing costs that we do.

[Anonymous]

There is one thing I don't understand about moving to a lower COL city. If you move to a "lower" COL city, aren't you still paying same/more for cars, plane tickets, gas, groceries, taxes, refrigerators, movies, clothes? Does the cheap real estate prices offset all that even with a lower salary?