1996 was the worst year for homicides in DC. This was when it was murder capital. I had a efficiency on 13th and Mass (back when the prostitutes ruled the streets) for $450 a month. The salaries have hardly gone up and the rent now is $2000. We are now just as expensive as San Fran, but we do not pay near as much as San Fran. The hotel union rate in San Fran in 2008 was $18/hr. Here is finally went to $16. The owners of these hotels are raking in profits because hotels hardly sell in the area and the rates went from an average of $120 to $230 in two years time. 2004/2005/2006. This place is messed up. I am from here, I have worked here. I am 36. It is BONKERS what they charge for rent and then the size of the units...Case in point the Navy Yard area. I want out. So I am living in the hood, saving up my money and moving to florida in 5 years unless somehow I make $250K or more. I am just upset because the private schools here are expensive, but good. I want to raise my kid here, but I also want her to have a neighborhood where someone doesn't get shot in her back alley and a yard where the upstairs guy isn't selling crack and letting all the pipe heads smoke it in our slum lord's version of a back yard. The burbs may give me a yard, but then I have to go through hours of commuting or ride a germ infested, not properly cleaned subway system. I am going to the beach. I will just have to teach the kid culture.

I lived here all my life and never really liked this area. I live in Montgomery County. I feel like if I'm going to pay all this money to live somewhere not just move to New York...

Anonymous wrote:OP's premise is faulty. I want to move back to the DC area because it is so much cheaper than Paris, where DH now found work. But we go where work is.

Let me point out that DC is one of the cheaper capital cities of the developed world you could ever live in! No US city makes the top 10 most expensive cities to live in, worldwide. Now I think they're all in Asia.

Your premise is faulty, because you're comparing apples to oranges. France offers universal healthcare and lengthy parental leave benefits. Housing may be more expensive, but Paris's public transportation network is better. Just because some other foreign cities are more stressful hellholes to live in doesn't make DC awesome for everyone, even if you love it.