The Best and Worst Things in the DC Area
Are you moving to DC and you realized that you have a choice to live in DC, Maryland or Virginia? There is a lot to understand about living here and figuring out which one is right for you. I’m going to cover the major differences between the two states and the District so you can decide which might be right for you. And after we cover everything, I will tell you the best and worst things about living here, and the one major reason I never left – and it has nothing to do with my real estate business being entrenched here.
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It’s been a while since I covered living in DC, Maryland or Virginia into one video. Trends changed over the past several years but things are again changing so it’s important to cover the latest. Because if you’re going to move here, you may not have any idea of where you want to live.
Where in the DC Metro Area is Your Job?
This is the first thing you need to know. Now that all Federal Workers have been called back into the office, traffic is back and it’s worse than it ever was. Despite major additions over the past few years to public transportation with the Silver Line metro going to Ashburn and the Purple line through Silver Spring, the roads are still clogged.
There are several employment areas here. Most obvious is downtown DC. Much of the federal government agencies are going to be in DC. Most everything is downtown but not all of it. Then you have the Pentagon in Arlington, the multiple military bases and the Dulles Tech corridor.
We need to start with where you will be commuting and how often you will be commuting there for us to determine the best option. But of course, it’s not all about commute.
What Kind of Lifestyle Can You Find in DC, Maryland or Virginia?
The metro DC area offers every different type of lifestyle you could want. If you think of it as operating on a continuum where “1” is rural farmland and “10” is the concrete jungle, as city as city can be, we have every option from 1 to 10 and between here. What kind of lifestyle you want goes together with your commuting needs. If you’re a single or coupled professional without kids, the city life may be for you. I did it and I loved it. I lived in Dupont Circle for 10 amazing years before the husband and kids entered the scene.
The night I packed the last box and left my condo to go to our house in Glover Park, I felt like I was leaving part of me behind. But Glover Park proved to be a great middle ground for us. We had resigned ourselves to the suburbs while we were house hunting. But we are city people and the idea of living in the suburbs wasn’t appealing to us, so we found
Dupont is an 8 on that Rural to City Continuum. Glover Park is a 6.
If you want super rural, then moving deeper into Maryland or Northern Virginia is what you want. Then we have a variety of suburbs here. If you want to be able to high five your neighbor from your front porch, we have dense suburbs like that or if you want a house and some breathing room between you and the house next door, you can have that too. Then there are planned urban developments or PUD’s, with residential, retail and restaurants. You can live in the same community and walk to the retail areas. If you want the 9 or 10 city life, then you want to look in the neighborhoods in and around downtown DC or in Silver Spring, Maryland.
When clients describe to me the kind of lifestyle they are seeking, I can pinpoint 2-3 areas for them to focus on. Then, the best advice I can share is that it’s important to spend at least a couple hours here driving around. Once you see it with your own eyes, you will know what’s right for you.
Cost of Living in DC, Virginia & Maryland
It’s not cheap here. You won’t see much of a difference in the close-in areas of Maryland or Virginia when it comes to prices of various consumer goods. But there are wild outliers in the grocery stores so you have to know your prices and be careful if you’re price-sensitive.
The real differences boil down to taxes. Property taxes in DC are lowest. Why? Simple answer. DC is just one jurisdiction. In Maryland and Virginia, you will be taxed by the multiple jurisdictions in which the property sits. City/town/county. What this means in real numbers is in DC, you would pay 85 cents per mil, or, $850 for each $100,000 of assessed value. If it’s your primary residence, you will also get a homestead deduction, which takes $90,000 off your assessed value so that first $100,000 of assessed value is almost wiped out.
That number jumps to over $1.00 in Maryland and Virginia jurisdictions. Fairfax County is $1.12 per mil or $1120 for each $100,000 of assessed value. Montgomery County isn’t as straightforward as there are a bunch of cities and towns that levy additional taxes, but expect similar numbers as Virginia give or take – anywhere from $1.15 per mil in the cities of Gaithersburg or Takoma Park to $1.33 if you’re in Chevy Chase Village.
Income taxes are pretty much flat in Virginia. The counties have no taxing authority over income so you just pay state taxes. Maryland has income taxes levied at both the state level and the county, so that adds another 3% in taxes. But Maryland has brackets so depending on your salary, that could be beneficial. DC is the highest though, you will pay several percentage points higher for just one level of government. Make that make sense. Also, Taxation without Representation – so we don’t have Senators or a voting member of the House or Representatives.
One last thing because I think I sold this like Virginia was the winner. Virginia has a personal property tax on cars, boats, RV’s, planes, and that can add up. They use the NADA book to get an assessed value, and then it’s $4-$5 per $100 of assessed value of the vehicle.
Best Things About Living in DC
- We get four seasons. If you like 100 degrees, it happens. If you like snow, it happens.
- You have several airports to choose from when you want to get out of town
- We are 2-3 hours from several amazing beaches
- We are 2-3 hours from amazing views of fall leaves and hiking in the Shenandoah
- We are 2-3 hours from skiing
- We are 4 hours to New York City by train or bus
- We have every single ethnic food you could ever want here
- There are tons of wineries in Virginia within 1-2 hours of the city
- Your tax dollars at work – there are so many free museums here, you can be a tourist in your own city any day of the week
Worst Things About Living in DC
- The mosquitos are everywhere in summer and they are evil
- This is a political town and if that’s not your thing, you may find yourself yawning at social events
- (Psst, born and raised Maryland drivers are TERRIBLE.)
That’s all I have for the worst things list. That’s not too bad considering I have clients who move to get away from several foot snowstorms all winter, earthquakes, sluggish job markets or alligators crossing their street to snatch the family dog for their next snack. Every time I have those conversations of “where would you live if you could live anywhere” and I never have a good answer. There are places I love spending time but nowhere that checks so many boxes.
Above all, the main reason I have never left DC, the reason that ranks above all other reasons is this. I have LOVED raising my girls here. We are surrounded by so much history, so many interesting people, so many different points of view and educational opportunities for them that I’m hard pressed to think of a place that would offer an improvement over what we have here in DC.
