| Topic Name: |
Reston office analyst offer |
| Message Name: |
DC costs |
| Date Posted: |
02/21/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
dc is very expensive if you decide to live alone (think about 1100+ for rent alone).
If you get roommates and up paying about 650 or so (rent+utilities) then you should do fine. |
| Message: |
Salaries aren't adjusted for the market unit you work in. Government consulting salaries will be the same as Resources consulting salaries, etc.
Costs in DC (except for living space) is about the same as most of your largish cities, but not near as high as NYC, Chicago, LA, etc. Gas in DC itself is a bit more expensive than alot of places, but gas in Northern Virginia is around the national average. Food can get expensive, but primarily only because there are so many nice places to try :-) A meal at an eatery in DC would cost about the same as a meal at an eatery in most other largish cities (though there are a pretty high number of higher-end places to go compared to the number of people we have in metro DC).
Where the cost of living in DC really hits home is the apartment/housing market. Renting is expensive, buying is astronomical, much out of whack for the size of the city. It's not NYC bad, but it's the next tier down I'd say.
Someone earlier qouted $1100 for an apartment. I'd say that's about what you'd pay for your most basic apartment. It'll be a decent place, but with nothing special about it. You probably won't find anywhere cheaper unless you look at some of the worse parts of DC. I don't know much about rent in DC itself since I live in Northern VA (Alexandria) and have never really wanted to live in DC itself. If you don't have a car, you can get by in Northern Virginia (or most of DC) by using Metro and ZipCar, but you'll end up paying more for your apartment to be near a Metro station.
I guess to directly answer your question... $46k living alone could probably be done. You'd have to make some sacrifices though and it'd probably be cutting it thin.
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