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One in Five D.C. Residents Would Prefer to Live in Old Town Alexandria

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Over half of survey respondents believe the D.C. Metro area is one of the worst in the country for cost of living.

If money were no object, where would you live? According to a recent Charles Schwab survey, Washington, D.C. residents' first choice would be Old Town Alexandria. If the District isn't their first choice, why not simply move? Well, 65 percent of survey respondents said Old Town Alexandria was just too expensive for their tastes. Bethesda was the second city of choice for survey respondents.

The survey compiled results from 1,000 residents in the Washington, D.C. Metro area. Overall, D.C. area residents feel positively about the economy with 58 percent believing that the area's economy is in better shape than the U.S. economy. Despite this, 62 percent believe the D.C. Metro area is one of the worst in the U.S. in terms of cost of living.

For cost of housing, 66 percent believe that the D.C. area is one of the worst in the nation. In 2015, when Charles Schwab conducted the survey, only 29 percent believed the cost of housing was one of the worst.

Further survey results on housing found that 62 percent of respondents owned a home, while 28 percent rented a home. The majority of renters (45 percent) said that they simply did not make enough money to purchase a home.

In 2015, 47 percent of respondents said they couldn't afford a home in the neighborhood they wanted to live in. That number has since dropped to 38 percent.

When it comes to what D.C. area residents are positive about, over half believed that the D.C. Metro area is one of the best in the nation for arts and culture (79 percent) and food and dining (75 percent).

Washington, D.C. Economic Survey, June 2016 [Charles Schwab]