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

[Anonymous]

About 50% or 18 have left. Denver, Raleigh, Atlanta, Florida, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, and coastal NC are all destinations. Two went back to NYC for family reasons; one went to SF for a job.

I'll be going this fall to a southern city with fewer jobs but a paid for house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Maybe, but this was not the case for us. Moved to a large metropolitan area (not east or west coast), and even though our HHI is pretty much the same, our house costs 1/2 as much as ours in Arlington. Food and childcare costs less. Transportation costs more because we use more gas and drive longer distances. We are coming out far ahead in the new city, plus quality of life is better (no metro commute, more space, nice people).

Good for you. I wish you and your family the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Zero. But I do know a half dozen people (including me) who moved to DC for its lower COL.

Someone always has to sneak in this sort of comment. Always. Never fails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A friend of our family just recently left the area after finally receiving an out of state transfer after 4 years of waiting.
She estimates in the 4 years she has been living here she has spent close to 100k just in rent alone.
A few months after relocating here she realized this area was not for her but by then it was already too late.

Yeah, we're out of here next month. Been here 24 years. So over it.

Where are you going? Same question to the other PPs who moved, would you share where you're going? Strongly considering a similar move.

[Anonymous]

I didn't grow up here, most of my friends from college moved back to wherever they are from. Of people who moved to DC after college/grad school, I'd say 90% are still here.

To me, I tolerate the downsides (traffic, HCOL, traffic, traffic, HCOL, traffic, traffic, traffic) because I lived through the Great Recession, got laid off, and was able to get a new job because there are lots and lots of different companies, orgs, and govt entities in this area. To me, it's not necessarily making more money that is appealing in dc (because most of that is gobbled up by cost of living), it is the ability to find new employment. I have white collar friends in some Midwest and Southern cities who took 1-2 years to find new jobs. In this day and age where everyone is disposable, no thanks.

I also think you run the risk of bad schools in many of these places, in many cases because there simply is no tax base for it, or the taxpayers won't fund it, because there is an inherent distrust or dislike for educated people. Grew up in one of these places. And when I say bad schools, I don't mean "ZOMG Marshall is SOOO much worse than Madison" or "can you believe all these poors in my child's kindergarten class", I mean like teaching biblical creation stories as truth and less than half the high school class graduating and legal corporal punishment and stuff like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zero. But I do know a half dozen people (including me) who moved to DC for its lower COL.

Someone always has to sneak in this sort of comment. Always. Never fails.

NP, but this comment strikes me as completely plausible. When I was deciding where to go post law school, I was choosing between D.C. and NY. The lower COL in D.C. was a significant factor in my decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zero. But I do know a half dozen people (including me) who moved to DC for its lower COL.

Someone always has to sneak in this sort of comment. Always. Never fails.

Because it's true. If you're from a number of other cities, including Boston, SF, LA, NY etc you don't find it that expensive here

[Anonymous]

I don't know anyone who has moved away because of COL. A few friends moved down from NYC though.

Most people I know are not from the DC area originally. Just a handful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zero. But I do know a half dozen people (including me) who moved to DC for its lower COL.

Someone always has to sneak in this sort of comment. Always. Never fails.

NP, but this comment strikes me as completely plausible. When I was deciding where to go post law school, I was choosing between D.C. and NY. The lower COL in D.C. was a significant factor in my decision.

Agreed, I moved here from Silicon Valley. It's much cheaper to live in NoVA than in the Bay Area.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I don't get all this Ghana wringing. DC is by far the cheapest of the 3 cities I've lived in.

[Anonymous]

Hand wringing rather.

[Anonymous]

This is funny because I moved here from NYC, and was a part of a group of about 12 friends who did the same over a 3-4 year span. Since then 3 of those people have moved on from DC (though 2 were to San Francisco, so not lower COL), and another announced they'd be decamping to NC last week. I think it's not just the cost of living, it's that DC is a very transient city and if you're not from here originally a much larger percentage of your friends won't be either. When there are fewer ties that bind it's not shocking to me to see people move for any number of reasons - jobs, stress, money, closer to family when kids are small, housing market is up and you want to cash out, etc.

[Anonymous]

None, but I have two new neighbors on my street. One family moved her from the Bay Area for the "lower cost of living and better schools" and the other family moved here from Portland because of the jobs, and they keep raving about how much better the weather is here. Honestly, I get the cost of living, the schools, and the jobs comment, but I gawp at them when they praise the weather.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A friend of our family just recently left the area after finally receiving an out of state transfer after 4 years of waiting.
She estimates in the 4 years she has been living here she has spent close to 100k just in rent alone.
A few months after relocating here she realized this area was not for her but by then it was already too late.

Yeah, we're out of here next month. Been here 24 years. So over it.

Where are you going? Same question to the other PPs who moved, would you share where you're going? Strongly considering a similar move.

Just to Western Loudoun County. Close enough to come in if needed, but far enough away for another, cheaper lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zero. But I do know a half dozen people (including me) who moved to DC for its lower COL.

Someone always has to sneak in this sort of comment. Always. Never fails.

Because it's true. If you're from a number of other cities, including Boston, SF, LA, NY etc you don't find it that expensive here

Yep. We sneak it in bc it is true. I just don't get the big deal re DC COL - have you looked at NYC, Boston, or SF lately!?