Charlotte.

Richmond.

How different was your life in KC though? You saved a lot of money and got a great house. How about walkability? Activities? Entertainment (museums, plays, cultural parties)? I just did a google search and KC itself doesn't seem to have many condos or even 'non-suburban' homes. They all look like planned lots that you need to drive in and out along major highways. Is there a downtown historic section of homes that I could look at (generally close to everything)?

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The cost of living here is killing us. Happy to hear your thoughts. We are both feds but don't see home ownership in the horizon with the way things are moving. Tell us about your cities/towns. Wife has lived in chicago, omaha, long island, and orange county...so she is pretty flexible. I have only lived in the east coast. Surprisingly, we've enjoyed our vacations in GA, SC, NC--so thinking about relocating there. If you could go anywhere, where and why?

For a Federal couple, I'd take a good look at Kansas City. We're both Feds and had the opportunity to spend 12 months on TDY out there during all of 2014. It exceeded all of our expectations and we loved it, so much so that we're considering going out there "for good" next year when our oldest starts Kindergarten

Being TDY for a year, we essentially locked the door on our DC apartment and actually experienced life in KC as a dual-income GS-14 family and saw how far our salary went. Returning to DC after a year was bittersweet. Going from a 2,600 square foot historic home on the National Register with 2 fireplaces back to our 1,100 sq. foot 2 bedroom in NW DC was more of an adjustment than we thought - especially for my spouse.

There are a lot of Federal opportunities in KC so the probability of at least one of you being able to stay with the USG is high.

We're both native NYers. If you asked us 2.5 year ago, we could never imagine ourselves in a place like Kansas City long term. Seeing and experiencing were believing for us. A nice sized city with many amenities and a great place to raise a family.

A former colleague of mine at my previous agency (CT native) relocated to KC as a fed a few years ago. Their family has thrived and enjoy a quality (and pace) of life that would be impossible on their salary in Washington.

We moved to Potomac.

Not the answer you were looking for, but the truth. Neither of us is especially marketable outside of DC (2 Feds) and we owned in the city, which made moving to the Burbs easier.

Kensington! We sprung for the BCC side but the Oakland Terrace cluster has some great houses at $500k and it's a very nice area. You can take the MARC or get on the metro at Forest Glen. Flora Singer is s great school as well and you can still get homes walkable to the metro at under $500k.

Mortgage rates are low right now do you may be able to get more than you think. Yes, it's a lot of money but as long as DC is the capital of the USA thirty years from now you should get it back, and more, when you sell.

Tried to move to Charlotte, but couldn't find a job.

South Beach. Love it!

Anonymous wrote:Moved to Los Angeles, love it!

Just as expensive.

OP, I hear you. We are from southwest Ohio originally and the cost of living here is unbelievable. Oh, what you could get for $500,000 in Butler county Ohio...but, do I really want to live there? No, not anymore. We sucked it up and bought a place in Reston. Love, love, love Reston. There are financing options out there and you can still find good value if you look.

Moved to Los Angeles, love it!

We were in a similar situation and seriously considered the research triangle area. We ended up staying because we quickly found we were going to make compromises anywhere and we found a great place here we are very happy with. Perhaps the PP's friend moved to the research triangle area a while ago, but I don't think it's going to solve all your problems if you're leaving DC for COL. If you prefer it, sure, enjoy it, but the compromises didn't make sense for us. When we started comparing similar scenarios in both places, there wasn't a huge difference.

We have a lot of family in Minneapolis and often daydream of moving there. Don't know if I could take the winters though.

I had a friend move to the NC Research Triangle area.

The cost of living here is killing us. Happy to hear your thoughts. We are both feds but don't see home ownership in the horizon with the way things are moving. Tell us about your cities/towns. Wife has lived in chicago, omaha, long island, and orange county...so she is pretty flexible. I have only lived in the east coast. Surprisingly, we've enjoyed our vacations in GA, SC, NC--so thinking about relocating there. If you could go anywhere, where and why?