A little while ago I started a thread on salaries in the DC area. I had a look at all the sites some helpful Dopers referred me to. The problem is, all of the cost of living calculators are based on the comparison to an existing figure in another US city, and I am not living in the US. I also found one that compared to world cities, but I still don’t feel that enlightened, especially with US exchange rates moving around so much. I would rather know some absolute figures.
So, based on Doper experience, how much does it cost to live ‘comfortably’ in the DC/Bmore area? Some details:
We are a married couple, no kids. We would like to live in a comfortable area (e.g. upper NW DC, Mt Vernon in Bmore), in a 2-bedroom rental flat. But nearby suburbia would be possible too. We would probably own a single car. We don’t have particularly expensive tastes.
I know the figure is hard to pinpoint, but even educated guesses would be good. A joint income of $80K/year? 100K? 120K? I also know that urban Baltimore is on average 20% cheaper than urban DC, and that suburbia is cheaper yet. If anyone knows of websites that give absolute costs of living, I would be happy to check them out.
Well, I can tell you this: hubby makes $78K. I make another 10K (could make more if I wanted to try harder). And he still has to travel to go to work every week, because we cannot afford to move me and the kids to anyplace decent that’s a communtable distance to Baltimore. Now, of course, having two kids to support does make a big difference. But a decent 2 bedroom apt. in a decent area will probably run you $1,000 a month or better. Groceries? Well, we spend about $500.00 a month for a family of four. You could cut that, because there’s only two of you, but probably you couldn’t cut it in half, because we’re a large enough family to buy economy sizes. So, I can’t give you really hard and fast figures, but I’m guessing housing and groceries together, you’re easily looking at $1,300.00 a month. Then, of course, you have car insurance, which is much higher if you live in the city. Plus your other costs of living.
Good luck, though. We MADs are always looking for new recruits!
For absolute numbers on rent, check out www.rent.com. That should give you real numbers for this area.
Food/groceries are on par with most metro cities. I have never noticed a difference.
Fuel for a car seems to be 20 to 30 cents above national average but I’d like to know who pays 20 to 30 cents below national average. Somebody must… right? I have to buy premium gasoline for my car and paid about $3.00 for a gallon last fillup.
Clothes and such… depends on your taste but there seems to be a full spectrum available to satisfy most budgets.
What’s left? Utilities? You need them so you gotta pay for them… hard to say if they are much more.
Shit, when I was a grad student, I was living in Baltimore on $1200 a month.
I was splitting a $1000 house 3-ways, and spending the rest on beer, but still.
If you made $80K combined, well, that’s pretty comfortable around here and definitely do-able in Baltimore City and the burbs, if you’re not super spendy. I don’t know much about renting in the burbs. In the city, there are lots of house rentals, and renting hasn’t kept pace with house values.
You can (probably) get a whole house in a decent neighborhood for $1200, but don’t quote me on that.
Cost of living is what you make it. You’re not savaged by incidentals as New Yorkers seem to be. Food/gas/movies/restaurants are pretty reasonable. You can eat at some pretty decent sit-down places in the city with $12-$15 entrees. Hamburgers are $6. Movies are $8.
You’re right that Baltimore is less expensive. This is particularly true if you ever want to buy a house, the problem is that the job market isn’t as robust as DC.
Rents in DC really vary. We own, but I would guess that a two bedroom would start around $1,100 up to much more than that. A lot of it depends on where in the city you want to live. A good place to look is the Washington City Paper to get a sense of the housing market.
To give you an idea of rents, we are thinking of going overseas together and are talking about renting out our 3 bedroom rowhouse for around $1,500 a month. We live in NW, but not one of the chic neighborhoods.
I think a combined income of $80 for a couple is doable in the city, but DC is expensive, more money is always better (like everywhere else in the world).
One option instead of having a car that my wife and I are looking in to is Flex Car or Zip Car
Can’t speak to DC, but my wife and I live in a very nice (15 mins North) suburb of Baltimore, Timonium, MD. A few years ago we were able to live quite comfortably on about $90K a year. We had a very nice two bedroom, two bath rental, two nice cars, nice vacation once a year, nice dinners out when we wanted, able to save, etc…
Now with a kid and a mortgage, the money doesn’t go quite as far.
madmonk28, I just tried to send an e-mail to the address in your profile, but it bounced (“mailbox unavailable”). If you don’t mind being contacted, would you please drop me a line?
Agreed: when I moved into my 3BR townhouse in Reston 3+ years ago, my rent was $200/mo higher than that of the townhouse two doors down from me. It was a little frustrating to find that out, but I learned my lesson that rents can vary significantly even within the same street.
If you end up in DC, or in any of the burbs near a subway station, try living without a car at least for a few months. It’s tough to get rid of a comfort item like that, and I know I went through withdrawl when I gave mine up three years ago. But doing without a car payment and insurance and repairs and parking tickets can put an extra $5,000 a year in your pocket.
Yes, that is probably what we would do. In fact, the car that we bought this July is the first car I have owned in 10 years. I am an eco-type, but the fact is most of the time I didn’t need one and it saved a lot of money!
> The problem is, all of the cost of living calculators are based on the comparison
> to an existing figure in another US city, and I am not living in the US.
Where precisely do you live now? My rule of thumb is that, while the cost of living in the D.C./Baltimore area is greater than that of most of the U.S., it’s less than that of much of western Europe. What’s living comfortably? Most of my friends are college-educated couples both working (except for periods when children are young, when the women take some time off) who start out making (counting both incomes) something above $60,000 a year when they first get out of college or grad school and eventually making something above $150,000 a year (again, counting both incomes) at the end of their career, and they are able to raise a couple of kids on this income. They are able to afford a small house without much of a yard if they live close in the inner suburbs or at the edge of the cities or a larger house with a larger yard if they live in the outer suburbs. In the middle of the city, they can only afford an apartment.
In 2000 the median income of a Household in Montgomery County was $71,551 (it is a bioit more now but I am going with the Census figure).
To live near a Metro Station north on most of the Red Line (Rockville, Medical Center (Bethesda), Grovesner, Twinbrook, White Flint) and the life you say you want I would say that the median income line is about the min. mark you need to hit. (The final stop -Shady Grove could be lived on for less - but it is further out and it is harder to see a happy life carless, possible but hard).
I would expect NW DC to approach something of this ballpark as well - easier to go carless but maybe a slight bit higher cost of living.
