Right you are, WashingtonSource. We bought our house in Arlington VA (22207) ten years ago for just over 400K. Today I could sell it easily for 750K.
We are indeed prosperous here in the Washington DC inner suburbs. The schools are well funded and high-quality; municipal services are excellent; we have world-class amenities such as the Smithsonian museums, the Kennedy Center. etc.; the restaurants are full; etc., etc. Whenever I visit relatives in NC, it’s like we’re living in different universes. They’re dealing with high unemployment, crashing property values, and service cutbacks.
All that being said, the insulation of Washington DC is inevitable. Any capital city depends heavily on government, and so its economy will always be a function of guaranteed government spending. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to conclude that somehow Washington has morphed into something it wasn’t twenty or fifty or even one hundred years ago. It has always been thus!
*All that being said, the insulation of Washington DC is inevitable. Any capital city depends heavily on government, and so its economy will always be a function of guaranteed government spending. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to conclude that somehow Washington has morphed into something it wasn’t twenty or fifty or even one hundred years ago. It has always been thus!*
No kidding. It’s the power center of the freakin’ universe but to listen to people around here it should be as hoppin’ as opulent as Ulan Bator. Ridiculous.