You would be surprised to know how broke the average family is living in the national capital region really is despite their incomes. Living good paycheck to paycheck. Same goes for the surrounding jurisdictions. They have ridden the property boom spending every tax dollar they can raise.
I suspect the area will not be immune to the next down leg of the great recession.
Having been born in Detroit long enough ago to remember a vibrant and flourishing city, and having seen what rat government and labor unions did to her, I hope I live to see the day when metro Washington, DC and Detroit share an equal level of prosperity.