D.C. Area Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
cost of living
Ladies that have moved here from a lower COL area... can you name me some of the things that surprised you that were more expensive here? My sister is interviewing for a job and a potential move her from Michigan, and so far she's not convinced that it's THAT much of a jump for COL. 
So I figured throwing a few examples of things she might not realize are higher cost would help. Although, I have a feeling it's going to be one of those "she won't believe it til she sees it" things. *sigh*
Re: cost of living
I think the main things are housing, childcare (if she has kids), insurance (specifically car), commuting costs (parking, gas, metro,etc...) and taxes (especially property if she plans on buying a house).
From reading posts on national boards, it seems daycare is much more expensive here.
Transportation, especially if she works downtown. Parking is expensive and Metro can cost almost $10/day if you live at the end of the line and park at the station.
Entertainment, restaurants, social things like that cost more here.
having lived in NYC (which has an even higher COL than than here) i've noticed the following:
it is harder to find great cheap eats here (NYC rocks on that front)
even mid-range restaurants are closer in cost to more upscale restaurants in NYC (but still mid-range quality, IMO)
because we'd lived in queens, even we had some sticker shock when apartment hunting in the district. i imagine the sticker shock from michigan will be a lot more painful.
we don't have cars/car insurance and we've primarily had commutes that only involve walking so i can't say what we would have spent but i do know that it has saved a lot of money!
i'm sure groceries will also be more expensive for her too.
HTH!
Restaurants definitely cost more. My parents are always asking about gas prices, so I'm guessing it's a little more expensive here than OH (and more in MD and DC than in VA, thanks to taxes).
Housing is so much more expensive, and since it's such a large part of anyone's monthly expenses it can't be downplayed. One of my mom's friends was horrified by the rent her son is paying for a studio apartment in Alexandria, since it would probably be more than a mortgage payment on a house there.
I'm from the NJ suburbs of Manhattan and here is what I've noticed:
Housing prices are cheaper in NJ and you have so many more options in terms of good school districts, however, the property taxes in NJ are very expensive b/c each city has it's own school system, police, firefighters, etc. I was surprised by the housing prices.
Gas is more expensive here than NJ
Grocery stores are more expensive here than NJ
and the biggest one that stands out to me is childcare. The daycare centers as a whole are so much more here than they aer in NJ. Kindercares in NJ for example are about 1200/mth for FT infant care. Here they were about 1600. The goddards we called in NJ were about 1400 or so for FT infant care. The 2 we looked at were 1800 and 1915/mth. Just so much more $$ for childcare. On the NJ nest board I see many posts where people are paying the same or less than 1915/mth for two kids, which is what I pay for my one daugther. It's the worst price difference, IMO.
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I moved here is 2001, but my list would be housing/rent. Really it doesn't matter whether your talking housing prices OR rental prices, they have higher then I've seen anywhere I've lived. Food. Gas. Childcare. Clothing (came from PA, no sales tax on clothes there, I have to admit this one STILL gets me 10 years later). Restaurants. I agree with that personal property tax on cars in VA, and of course property taxes if you buy a home and parking, etc.
Yeah, I have to say I spent some time in Michigan, not sure where she's coming from but she has no idea what she's getting into if she feels it won't be much of a change. Lucky she has you to try to warn her! I'm afraid that if she feels that way it may be that she's been looking at rent in goodness only knows what area and maybe found something affordable/comparable to what she's paying now?? You might want to find out what area that would be...
We used to live in Columbus, Ohio, so definitely here is what I have noticed from there to here (we live in Arlington):
-Housing: we paid $820/month for an 1100 square foot apartment with a basement in Columbus. In Alexandria for a year, we paid $1820 for a 2 bed/2 bath apartment (almost the same size as our Columbus apt) and now pay $2,500 for a 3 bed, 3 bed house. In both places we have lived since moving here in Feb 2010, we have lived within walking distance to a Metro. Living near a Metro comes at a premium price, but is a must for us.
-Gas: more expensive here than when we lived in Ohio, and much more expensive than when we lived in Tempe, Arizona.
-Car Insurance: cheaper than when we lived in Columbus, and WAY cheaper than Arizona. Granted Arizona has a really bad car theft problem which doesn't help...
-Booze/Food: More expensive to drink and eat here than Ohio and the Midwest. Also happy hour/drink specials are not as good as they are in the Midwest. When I go back to Ohio to visit, I feel like a freaking millionaire because my money goes so much farther in the alcohol department. I buy drinks for everyone!
Literally, everything.
Food costs, housing costs, going out to eat, communicating costs, cable/internet, pet related stuff is outrageous, imo. We used to pay around $75 per dog for their annual visit and here we pay around $150 per dog.
I don't have kids - so I can't really touch on that - but my mom used to run an in home daycare in upstate NY and it was about $48/day for 1 kid.
Also - there so much more to do here that DH and find ourselves out doing stuff more often, and while a lot of stuff is free, lunch/dinner isn't, parking isn't, etc - so we spend more money doing things than we used to previously.
We make the rockin' world go 'round.
does she have an idea of where she wants to live or where her job would be? i would send her a few rental listings from those areas. do you know what she pays in rent now? maybe break it down in terms of montly expenses (rent, gas/parking/metro etc).
i really don't know how to explain that it costs a lot to live here except with examples. we have friends from NJ that are moving here and as they look at houses and areas in terms of commutes, housing types etc it is slowly starting to sink in.
I moved here from KY, for me the biggies were:
*Housing - Renting or buying.
*Parking/Transportation - Parking downtown is easily $230/month. Metro with or without parking can be about the same unless your employer covers a portion. Many apartments charge extra for parking if they offer it. And gas is higher.
*Childcare - Wasn't an issue for me before, but definitely is now.
I don't know if this helps, but it's a calculator that comparies salaries in different major areas:
http://swz.salary.com/CostOfLivingWizard/LayoutScripts/Coll_Start.aspx
For example, if you had a salary of $100k in Grand Rapids MI, you would need a salary of $160,248 to have the same standard of living in DC.
Housing. When I moved back here from NC after school, that was really the only thing that stood out as being drastically more, but it really is drastically more.
ETA: I remember you saying your sister could only afford $1000/month for rent. Has she revised that at all? Has she found anything for that price? I don't think that's possible without a roommate and/or living very far from the city.
I moved from St. Louis about 2 years ago, here's the breakdown:
-Rent and utilities $1200 for a 3 bed, 2 bath (1650 sq ft) turn of the century apartment in a nice area right downtown to over $2200 for a 1 bed 1 bath (650 sq ft) apartment and a parking spot.
-Groceries are more expensive and not comparable quality. It costs $150+ a week for clean eating and cooking 6 nights a week here, versus $50-75 a week there.
-My car insurance on the same car is $200 more expensive a year and it is older and gas is $.60-.75 a gallon more expensive here. x that by gallons in the tank, x that by number of fill ups per month when budgeting.
-As cheeky says, the restaurants here are killer. Chipotle is $1 more a burrito (low end), mid range and higher range are also exponentially more.
Stand up for something you believe in.
why don't you send her your weekly grocery bill and have her compare it to hers? then do the same w/ some other bills
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I also came from Michigan when I moved here. It was quite an adjustment. Most notably in three areas: (1) Rent (two times what you'd pay for a two bedroom in Michigan for a small, older one bedroom); (2) Haircuts (easily three times the price; and (3) cost of eating out (double the price of an entree back in MI).
It's an adjustment. My rent per month is more than my mom's four bedroom house mortgage payment and car payment in MI.
But, I don't pay $4.17/gallon of gas and have to fill my tank every week! Then again, I suppose close to that amount goes to Metro... ;-)
Well, she's single without kids, and doesn't want any (ever), so I don't think the childcare thing will scare her. Yep, she's still on a budget of $1,000/month for rent. She forwarded me a few places she found, and one was the co-op where I used to live near Eastern Market (for low to mid income levels, but only allows one animal) and another was in SW DC, and I forwarded her the reviews of the place (terrible reviews). She's still looking in DC, and really is considering anywhere. She forwards me the places she finds so at least I can steer her away from the scary places, or at least check them out for her if I'm not sure.
She's a vet tech, so she's going to ask the hospital if they have any recommendations for pet friendly rentals. She's getting the idea that her $1,000/month isn't going to get her very far out here, but I don't think it's sunk in yet. Now, I will say, the salary she'd get here is about what she'd make after adjusting for COL in Michigan (if you go by the COL adjustment websites), so at least I hope she'd be able to maintain her current level. And I think she's starting to come around. I'll let her know how her food will be more expensive... I'm not sure what her food budget is right now, but I'm sure that will increase since I've not known her to cook very often. I couldn't think of anything other than housing to make her realize that doubling her salary isn't REALLY doubling her salary by moving out here, but she keeps blowing me off when I try to break it down for her. I think coming from her big sister also isn't helping
Thanks ladies!
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Let me know if she might want to talk to my sister - who's single, 28, no kids, and moved here from MI (lansing area) about 4 years ago... I can give you her contact info.
* blog * first baby blog * baby 2.0 blog * twitter *
I think everyone touched based on all the major expenses living in Virginia and DC. My advice is to use groupon and living social deals. These sites save you a lot of money in all departments like: oil changes, personal grooming (nails, hair cuts), restaurants etc.. I just moved from my hometown Cincinnati, OH about a year ago (still trying to find new friends) and comparing Cincy to DC, everything is double in the price: food/drinks, housing/renting, gas, and don't forget tolls!
I must say that this area has a lot to offer. I live in Reston and love having DC, wine vineyards, the beach and culture diversity all in one area. I hope this helps and good luck to your sister! --Elizabeth