The DMV area...

[unit321]

How many of you live there?

I want to move but every cost of living chart I see has it as one of the highest in the country. Is it really that expensive to live there?

Used to live there. Cost of living is, on average, higher than other metro areas.
If you want to lower your cost of living, you have to live farther out, which means a longer commute, or you can live in Prince George County or ratty parts of DC. Other options are looking to rent a room from a house, sublet from an apartment with strange roommates, or have a friend share an apartment. So you can "eek" by on $40 K. Not easy or fun.

Cost of living chart you can ignore. There are affordable places and mega-unaffordable places. Bethesda, Potomac, Reston, Arlington, Northwest DC, forget about it.
There are a lot of good steady government jobs though. Go to www.usajobs.gov to see if you can get a federal job before even moving there.

 

[A.V.]

What they said. ...

If u broke on the come up, or just on some transition shyt, hit the middle/southern portion of VA. & Grind or work ya way up. If you an uppity affluent type or looking to advance quickly and got a skillset / education to show for, or if you enjoy the city , hit northern VA or DC. If you enjoy all of what I said and fine sistas and make a decent amount of money but not where u wanna be at yet, hit MD.

 

[The Bilingual Gringo]

I wouldn't move here unless I was pulling in at least $75k take home...and whoever said NoVa is pasty as fukk depends on where you stay....I lived in Annandale and that shyt was full of hispanics, asians and dusty ass africans...moved out to Fairfax by Chantilly and its nothing but soccer moms and shyt out here...i'm moving to Uptown or Bowie after my lease is up...need to be around some melanin

and at the same time.

But they've got some of the best restaurants in the area.