Whatever happened to not spending more than 2 and a half times your annual salary on a house.
I'm at about 2 and a quarter.
I use that rule.
My point was that if I lived in some of these areas, 2.5 times my income wouldn't even buy a starter home, and that's on an above-average income!
We're at about 2.5x our income and it's tight and it's far out (45 minute commute from Sterling to Rosslyn, VA).
But as one person mentioned in another post, it's not just the cost of housing, it's the generally higher cost of living all around in the DC area that sucks it out of us.
I cannot wait to be out of here.