[Photo by Flickr user John M]
Today The Washington Post released yet another piece on its favorite topic, millennials. However, this one was considerably darker, focusing on their inability to afford the city they've helped build rather than their bar-hopping and Instagramming habits. One particularly stark quote from 35-year-old John Van Zandt is:
"We are not victims. Sometimes, I feel like I get what [the homeless] are going through. But then a pregnant mom comes into my office for help because she's been sleeping on a park bench."
Ouch. While the couple under the journalistic microscope has started to consider cheaper cities like Raleigh, Baltimore and Richmond (and cheaper neighborhoods like Trinidad), the piece also notes that they currently live in an increasingly too-small apartment in Columbia Heights. In fact, that neighborhood saw the most gains in residents between the ages of 25-34 between 2000-2010, and not all of the cheap places on the market are terribly cheap. Let's take a not-terribly scientific look (using recent top ten maps) at the cost of living some of the other neighborhoods that have seen a large jump in young adult residents.
Columbia Heights an Mt. Pleasant have seen an increase of 4,400 millennials in a ten year period. At the last iteration of this map, the cheapest property on the market asked $254,900 and nine properties were available for under $400,000.
Shaw and Logan Circle have seen an increase of 2,312 millennials in a ten year period. At the last iteration of this map, even the cheap available properties weren't that cheap. The least expensive asked $299,000 and only three were under $400K.
Eckington and Bloomingdale have seen an increase of 1,485 millennials in a ten year period. At the last iteration of this map, the least expensive property was available for $100,000 and all ten were available for under $300,000. That said, the map also included properties in Trinidad.
Petworth and Brightwood Park have seen an increase of 1,334 millennials in a ten year period. As of the last iteration of this map, the least expensive property asked $187,000 and six properties asked under $400,000.
Atlas District, Union Station and Kingman Park saw an increase of 1,302 millennials in a ten year period. As of the last iteration of this map, the least expensive place asked $369,000 and only two places asked under $400,000.
Dupont Circle saw an increase of 1,146 millennials in a ten year period. As of the last iteration of this map, the least expensive place on the market asked $245,000 and nine places cost under $400,000.
· Millennials consider leaving Washington as the city becomes more costly [WaPo]
· How many millennials live in each D.C. neighborhood? [WaPo]
· All Coverage of Millennials [CDC]
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