New Data Says Washington DC Is The Most Expensive Place To Live In the United States

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Wall Street Journal – Elevated housing costs helped to make the District of Columbia more expensive to live in than any state in 2012 , according to data released Thursday by the Commerce Department. Regional prices for goods and services in D.C. were 18% higher than the national average in 2012, Commerce said in a new report that compares income levels and costs of living across 50 states and the district. It also gives a breakdown for big cities. The metropolitan area with the highest cost of living in 2012 was Honolulu, followed by New York-Newark-Jersey City. The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria area was No. 7 in the ranking. “For the first time, Americans looking to move or take a job anywhere in the country can compare inflation-adjusted incomes across states and metropolitan areas,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said. Apart from D.C., Hawaii was the state with the highest cost of living in 2012, followed by New York and then by New Jersey. Mississippi was at the bottom of the scale, with regional prices 14% below the national average. The data showed D.C.’s expensive living conditions are primarily the result of housing costs which are 57% over the national average. Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow Inc., said the nation’s capital was one of the nation’s few areas to emerge relatively unscathed from the recent housing recession. “Areas that did well had four things in common: universities, medical and military industries and government,” Mr. Humphries said. According to Zillow data, current home values in Washington, D.C. are over $345,000, far above the national average of $169,800.
 

DC coming up big where it matters. You don’t want to live in some poor person place, no way. You want to live in the most expensive swamp known to mankind. Where it snows from November to March and then is 95 degrees with 100% humidity until September. Rent is 57% higher in DC than the USA’s average. Bananers. Why would anyone want to live in places like Charleston SC and have a huge house 5 minutes from the beach and pay less rent than I do? Sounds lame. Can they even sit in traffic at all times of the day on 495 because there is literally endless construction while at the beach? No chance. That’s the kind of perks you get for living in DC. More time to sit in your car and listen to the radio where you get the same 5 songs over and over again. Ohhh Mumford and Sons again? Or is it that other Mumford and Sons song that sounds exactly the same as that last Mumford and Sons song?

It’s really not all that bad though. Because most people who live in DC work for the government, and goodness gracious, they have the cushiest jobs in the world. I love talking to people about their government jobs. It’s just like people joke about, but real life. Never working, they get 100 vacation days a year, humungous salaries, and absurd pensions.

For realsies though, living in DC/right outside of it is really cool. Casually driving by the monuments, playing drunk kickball on the Mall, puking on the Metro, they are all just delights. Boo hoo, we pay a bit more. That’s the cost of living in the most powerful city in the world.