[bakenator]

The majority of jobs in DC metro are government contracting as you would imagine. That is not to say there are not interesting opportunities available. A few startups and many small contracting shops filling niche spots for the Gov.

IMO the cost of living in not good in DC metro. Very high home prices, only below SF, Boston, NYC. Lower salaries than SF/NYC across the board. Upper middle class in DC requires 200k income, many families here with two 100k earning parents.

[randcraw]

I left the DC area in 1998 after programming there for 13 years. Wages were suppressed by government white collar salary caps, which also constrained contractor incomes. A decade later, housing costs had more than doubled, yet wages hadn't budged. AFAIK, the CostOfLiving vs salary ratio remains just as unattractive today, making DC the most uncompetitive tech hotspot I know.

[Bahamut]

It should be noted that most people don’t live in DC proper - most commute in from the suburbs. My friends in the area all bought houses in places like Fairfax, Springfield, and between Baltimore and DC. House prices are not cheap, but I’ve heard $600k for a nice house quoted to me.

DC proper is just ridiculous. Thankfully you can find more reasonable places just across the river with a short commute time.

[sndean]

And the price difference is similar for apartments. I'm paying $1000 for a ~1000 sqft apartment on the cheap side of the bridge. I have a coworker paying $2500 for a smaller place in DC. The difference in commute time is 5 minutes.