Rich by US standards, yes. Rich by DCUM standards, its a mix but skews to the higher end.

Two feds living in McLean here. We are most definitely not rich. And its a mixed bag in our neighborhood in terms of income.

We bought in McLean two years ago for the schools. Used to live in FCC and prior to that in Clarendon. Honestly I don't see a huge difference but the three but yes, there are larger lots and therefore large homes in McLean. I suppose we do see more expensive cars, but the people we live near and bump into seem no different. There are pockets of uber rich homes of course, but in general I'd say the average income in McLean skews higher - but certainly doesn't apply to all in the area.

Our older neighbors in McLean are mostly feds, and there are quite a few professors and journalists. The younger buyers are usually partners in professional service firms (law, accounting, consulting) or company executives. We used to live in Arlington and there are more SAHMs in McLean or women who work part-time (as opposed to Arlington, which is full of two-income feds).

Very few people are in McLean on solely their own merit, so to speak.

There are WAY more $900,000 homes in McLean than there are $2 million homes in McLean. The typical couples I know are only able to live here because they waited until they were older to have kids, plus they rolled lots of appreciation on prior properties into whatever they live in in McLean. Family money is also a big one that helps people buy properties in McLean. (The ladies I play tennis with were all talking about how their parents helped them at some point buy their homes - stupidly, at the time, I was shocked.)

There are lots of feds here, and the median HHI is still DCUM "poor". The median HHI is only about $180,000. While there might be some SAHMs living high on the hog, many of them are fairly educated and had careers at some point. (I know SAHMs who are Harvard Law graduates and Rhodes scholars.) A lot of the SAHMs in the area decided to stay at home because two careers became too much to manage.

In my 10 years living here, I've never met a woman who gets her hair blown out every day or every other day. While I don't doubt that some women do this, it is not common.

Anonymous wrote:
I’m a SAHM and have my hair in a messy ponytail daily. I drive a reliable SUV. My kids and I don’t wear designer clothes. We don’t own vacation homes. We fly commercial in economy class.

This is me...and I live in McLean.

I live inMcLeanand go to the haircuttery downtown, 5ere are always people there. I got about every two months,

Anonymous wrote:I feel like everyone is rich, like trust fund rich or law firm parter rich. I see so many mansions (10,000sf+) and expensive cars, not just Mercedes or Teslas but Porsches, Ferraris and Bentley’s. Women have salon hair. Do they have people come to their homes to blow dry their hair?

I’m a SAHM and have my hair in a messy ponytail daily. I drive a reliable SUV. My kids and I don’t wear designer clothes. We don’t own vacation homes. We fly commercial in economy class.

Are there normal people like us in McLean?

Yes, the majority.

Anonymous wrote:I go to a McLean salon, and my hair stylist told me that some of her clients never wash their hair at home. Instead, they come to their salon every day or every other day to have their hair washed and blow dried.

I live in McLean and go to the salon only every few months for color touch-up and a trim. I don't know anyone who goes to the salon regularly like this. Anyone. And I've lived here many years.

There are affordable houses in McLean, depending on what you mean by rich or affordable - I mean compared to Arlington. Yes, McLean has McMansions, but there are older homes that some view as tear downs that you could easily live in and many do. We looked at places there but bought in Arlington due to the commute.

Anonymous wrote:I go to a McLean salon, and my hair stylist told me that some of her clients never wash their hair at home. Instead, they come to their salon every day or every other day to have their hair washed and blow dried.

Ok so this kind of confirms that some of these women indeed have real salon hair. It is too perfect to just do at home alone.

Cost aside, I would feel a bit odd to get my hair done to go grocery shopping and to pick up kids from school.

Anonymous wrote:I guess I’m regularly driving through different parts of McLean than you are familiar with, because I see plenty of pretty ugly, middle class houses there.

+ 1

Honestly, I also see the big houses, and we considered moving to one (at least, in the 2-3M range, not more than that). But they are really nestled in with a lot of mediocre houses.

McLean is not richer than other rich neighborhoods, but it likes to act like it is. That, to me, is not flattering.

I guess I’m regularly driving through different parts of McLean than you are familiar with, because I see plenty of pretty ugly, middle class houses there.

I go to a McLean salon, and my hair stylist told me that some of her clients never wash their hair at home. Instead, they come to their salon every day or every other day to have their hair washed and blow dried.

I feel like everyone is rich, like trust fund rich or law firm parter rich. I see so many mansions (10,000sf+) and expensive cars, not just Mercedes or Teslas but Porsches, Ferraris and Bentley’s. Women have salon hair. Do they have people come to their homes to blow dry their hair?

I’m a SAHM and have my hair in a messy ponytail daily. I drive a reliable SUV. My kids and I don’t wear designer clothes. We don’t own vacation homes. We fly commercial in economy class.

Are there normal people like us in McLean?