The government has always been here. So why was the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80, 90s COL here so affordable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In 1998 I was paying 600 rent monthly for a turret apartment in Dupont Circle. By 2003 my building had been bought and sold and new owners wanted 2500 a month (in spite of "rent control.")

I remember that. It was INSANE how fast that happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


As someone who has lived in several cities throughout the US, I found this quote highly suspect. DC to me has relatively low incomes- Government & non profit jobs don't pay well. After living in NYC, SF, Dallas & Houston, the general population made WAY more money. There is also a big difference between the district and Northern VA. NOVA is separate from DC. I only saw ONE publication that supports this claim- every other one was different.

It's census data that looks at median household incomes by metro area (including NOVA). My guess is that your perception of the "general population" is skewed by the people you know. There may not be the same number of really high earning people in DC as in NYC, etc., but that's a small sliver of the population in every metro area. Government jobs *do* pay well compared to the average job in many metro areas, which are things like retail, warehousing, etc.

Here's some data on median household incomes by metro. DC is almost $100k, which is second to SF: https://www.statista.com/statistics/234251/median-household-income-by-largest-metro-area-us/

you need to pay for that link

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


As someone who has lived in several cities throughout the US, I found this quote highly suspect. DC to me has relatively low incomes- Government & non profit jobs don't pay well. After living in NYC, SF, Dallas & Houston, the general population made WAY more money. There is also a big difference between the district and Northern VA. NOVA is separate from DC. I only saw ONE publication that supports this claim- every other one was different.

It's census data that looks at median household incomes by metro area (including NOVA). My guess is that your perception of the "general population" is skewed by the people you know. There may not be the same number of really high earning people in DC as in NYC, etc., but that's a small sliver of the population in every metro area. Government jobs *do* pay well compared to the average job in many metro areas, which are things like retail, warehousing, etc.

Here's some data on median household incomes by metro. DC is almost $100k, which is second to SF: https://www.statista.com/statistics/234251/median-household-income-by-largest-metro-area-us/

Cost. of. living.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


As someone who has lived in several cities throughout the US, I found this quote highly suspect. DC to me has relatively low incomes- Government & non profit jobs don't pay well. After living in NYC, SF, Dallas & Houston, the general population made WAY more money. There is also a big difference between the district and Northern VA. NOVA is separate from DC. I only saw ONE publication that supports this claim- every other one was different.

It's census data that looks at median household incomes by metro area (including NOVA). My guess is that your perception of the "general population" is skewed by the people you know. There may not be the same number of really high earning people in DC as in NYC, etc., but that's a small sliver of the population in every metro area. Government jobs *do* pay well compared to the average job in many metro areas, which are things like retail, warehousing, etc.

Here's some data on median household incomes by metro. DC is almost $100k, which is second to SF: https://www.statista.com/statistics/234251/median-household-income-by-largest-metro-area-us/

you need to pay for that link

Sorry, looks like it's paywalled on mobile. Here's the data straight from the census. DC has the highest median household income except for SF. Page 4/Table 2: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2018/acs/acsbr17-01.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


As someone who has lived in several cities throughout the US, I found this quote highly suspect. DC to me has relatively low incomes- Government & non profit jobs don't pay well. After living in NYC, SF, Dallas & Houston, the general population made WAY more money. There is also a big difference between the district and Northern VA. NOVA is separate from DC. I only saw ONE publication that supports this claim- every other one was different.

It's census data that looks at median household incomes by metro area (including NOVA). My guess is that your perception of the "general population" is skewed by the people you know. There may not be the same number of really high earning people in DC as in NYC, etc., but that's a small sliver of the population in every metro area. Government jobs *do* pay well compared to the average job in many metro areas, which are things like retail, warehousing, etc.

Here's some data on median household incomes by metro. DC is almost $100k, which is second to SF: https://www.statista.com/statistics/234251/median-household-income-by-largest-metro-area-us/

you need to pay for that link

Sorry, looks like it's paywalled on mobile. Here's the data straight from the census. DC has the highest median household income except for SF. Page 4/Table 2: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2018/acs/acsbr17-01.pdf

Adjusted for COL they're actually 9/25.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Defense spending in the 50 and 60s was for tanks, ships, low-tech airplanes. Very different than where most of the money goes now, and many of the big brains associated with helping the government buy and use it's new tech are here.

Also, all of the financial and law firms around Tyson's Corner didn't exist to the same extent. In the 80's, Tyson's was just a mall. Was it just an outpost of K St. in the 90s? I don't know.

Tysons was high tech and consulting in the ‘90s. This was AOL era (roughly).

[Anonymous]

It was artificially suppressed by post war white flight and suburban expansion and the riots added a couple of decades to that cycle. Now the reverse is happening coupled to the collapse of suburban isolation is creating a flood to limited markets with DC being one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was artificially suppressed by post war white flight and suburban expansion and the riots added a couple of decades to that cycle. Now the reverse is happening coupled to the collapse of suburban isolation is creating a flood to limited markets with DC being one of them.

Eh? What crap are you sprouting? Pre-war DC wasn't known as an expensive place. Completely different economy. Especially when you now have upper class people paying fortunes for pre-war houses that the lower classes lived in. Let that tell you something.

Collapse of suburban isolation? What the hell is this? The suburbs have grown faster than DC.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This does not directly affect me. I am just asking a simple question.

What is so special about the post 2000s DC area that has caused our cost of living to skyrocket beyond belief?

Me personally, I think the pre 90s DC area COL should have been more expensive because this area was a hell of a lot more fun then as opposed to right now. Things should be cheaper now.

Here is your answer: https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/since-2000-the-dc-region-added-twice-as-many-people-as-housing-units/15405?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=keep_reading_link&utm_campaign=Friday+May+17th%2C+2019&omhide=true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was artificially suppressed by post war white flight and suburban expansion and the riots added a couple of decades to that cycle. Now the reverse is happening coupled to the collapse of suburban isolation is creating a flood to limited markets with DC being one of them.

Yes, exactly.

There’s only one other thing to mention: primarily due to terrible NIMBY zoning rules, DC has been rarely ever able to add denser housing to already built land. 20 years ago DC area supplied housing for people moving here by building in Loudon and MoCo. Now there are many fewer places to build.

If we don’t fix our zoning rules and build more densely, we will never fix the COL problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rising income inequality means that some areas have become extremely expensive while others have stagnated.

In the 50s and 60s economic growth was more broad-based. Now many second-tier cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, even St. Louis have done pretty badly, HQs have moved to places like NYC. Wealth is concentrated in the tech sector, in lawyers, lobbyists and financiers. The places where people like that live have become very expensive as a result.

So Trump (even though he is a New Yorker) basically won because of second tier cities?

Second-tier cities have only themselves to blame.

Atlanta has been poised for SO LONG to be a preeminent world-class city along the lines of Miami or New York but they keep shooting themselves in the foot. And by they I mean the racist/sexist white governmental class.

1) Threatening to sanction an airline because they wouldn't support the NRA? https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/02/590149921/georgia-lawmakers-punish-delta-air-lines-over-nra-feud
Delta is their biggest tax-revenue creator bar none and you're THREATENING them?

2) Losing out on Amazon HQ2 precisely at the same time because corporations don't like state government overreach and threats.

3) Now they're outlawing abortion past six weeks to any Georgia residents and guess what? The film industry which makes 30 movies/tv shows a year in Georgia is trying to pull out. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/05/hollywood-response-georgia-heartbeat-bill-abortion

Make idiot policies, have idiot results.

And here it is. One of the 30 films/tv shows that film in Georgia annually has pulled out. More to follow. Stupid cow politicians messing with people's jobs and practically the only thing that keeps Georgia as a whole afloat.

http://time.com/5592768/georgia-abortion-law-film-tv-industry/

This week, the director Reed Morano was supposed to fly to Georgia to scout locations for a new show for Amazon Studios called The Power. The drama series is adapted from a novel by Naomi Alderman, in which young women suddenly develop the power to release electrical jolts from their fingers, shifting gender and power dynamics around the world. At least two scouts hired by the show had been working in the Savannah area for several months, prepping for her arrival.

But when Ga. Gov. Brian Kemp signed the “heartbeat” bill on May 7, which effectively bans abortion after six weeks, Morano decided to cancel the trip, pull the scouts, and shut down any possibility of filming a story arc in Georgia. “We had no problem stopping the entire process instantly,” Morano, who won an Emmy for directing three episodes of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, told TIME. “There is no way we would ever bring our money to that state by shooting there.”

[Anonymous]

Are you seriously asking why the economies in the past, economies that are now history, why were different than the current economy and had a different cost of living are you really in truly asking that ish?

[Anonymous]

I am in my late 50s and have lived in DC since I graduated college in the early 1980s, so I have longer perspective on this. DC has been considered an expensive city all this time,with articles on how COL here was higher than most other US cities even back in the '80s and '90s.

That's why I'm surprised a poster said that in 1998 she had a Dupont Circle apartment for $600. I don't think they were that low then.

What has happened is that the fairly high COL has accelerated in this century. Could be the influx of defense contractors post 9/11 or the rise of tech and its high salaries, adding to the always high salaries of DC's plethora of lobbyists and lawyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was artificially suppressed by post war white flight and suburban expansion and the riots added a couple of decades to that cycle. Now the reverse is happening coupled to the collapse of suburban isolation is creating a flood to limited markets with DC being one of them.

Yes, exactly.

There’s only one other thing to mention: primarily due to terrible NIMBY zoning rules, DC has been rarely ever able to add denser housing to already built land. 20 years ago DC area supplied housing for people moving here by building in Loudon and MoCo. Now there are many fewer places to build.

If we don’t fix our zoning rules and build more densely, we will never fix the COL problem.

Don’t buy into this transparent developer propaganda. I woukd bet that the poster is a paid shill for Greater Greater Washington, a website funded by large developers and zoning law firms.

[Anonymous]

Don’t buy the propaganda by the homeowner sitting on valuable property who wants to keep pricing everyone out!

It is absolutely a zoning problem. More people + not enough housing = too expensive.

But don’t trust me, listen to an expert: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2019/5/17/18628267/jenny-schuetz-weeds-interview

(And I say this as a homeowner who stands to lose if this problem is solved..but yeah, the current situation is not right or sustainable.)