Go East, Young Man! Real Median Household Income Is Falling, But Not In Washington DC!

“Washington is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.” – Horace Greeley

I see much hasn’t changed since 1865, but Greeley’s advice was wrong if we look at real median household income. The blue line is for the nation as a whole, the red line is for Washington DC.

California has taken a real beating in terms of real median household income since 2000.

That is an inspiring graph. You can be grateful that we in Washington provide such an inspiring example to the peasantry in the hinterlands. BUT ...

Not to quibble, but I wonder how much gentrification affects these numbers. Yes, the DC metro area is the Land of Oz, etc., but still: the graphs say the numbers are for the District of Columbia, and DC is changing fast. I live on Capitol Hill, which was the wild, wild east when I moved here 34 years ago. It has now become a destination neighborhood. Right nearby, neighborhoods like Trinidad, Old City, Ivy City, the Anacostia waterfront, and big parts of Anacostia are flipping. The same is true across much of the city. The downtown is unrecognizable if you've not been here for 20 years. We even have a few public schools, but a growing number, which have become highly sought after and quite competitive for middle and upper middle class families.

As with all DC stats, it is better to look at statistics for the entire metro area as opposed to DC proper, since the small size of the district does funny things to comparisons with other cities or states.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.