What it costs to live in District of Columbia
Price levels against the national average
Prices overall
10.8%
above average
Housing
68.54%
ranks 1 for shelter
A hundred dollars of shopping
$111
costs this here
Price rank
2
1 is the most expensive
What that actually means in District of Columbia
- Everyday things cost more in District of Columbia. Not a little more — about 10.8% more than the national average, across ordinary shopping. Put it another way. A hundred dollars of typical American spending runs to $111 here. Ranked against every other state for price, District of Columbia comes in at 2. That gap is why a salary that sounded generous somewhere else can feel ordinary once you arrive.
- Housing is the whole story in District of Columbia. The state's prices overall are about 10.8% from average, and its housing is about 68.54% from it. Strip rent out and District of Columbia looks like an ordinary American state. Leave it in and it does not.
- Here is the same idea pointed at a wage. Take a salary of seventy-five thousand dollars. In District of Columbia, at local prices, it buys what $67,687 would buy at national-average prices. Nothing has been taxed yet in that figure — it is only what the prices around you do to the money before the government touches it.
- District of Columbia carries an all-items regional price parity of about 10.8% above the national level, ranking 2 nationally for overall price level. Restated as money, a basket costing one hundred dollars at national average prices costs $111 here. Price parities are published by BEA as index values against a national base of one hundred and describe the price of a fixed basket, not the size of anyone's budget — a high-parity state is expensive to buy in, which is a distinct question from whether its residents are worse off.
- Decomposing District of Columbia's price level separates a housing component about 68.54% above national from an all-items figure of about 10.8%, a divergence of about 57.73% and a shelter rank of 1. Because shelter is non-tradable, it absorbs local supply constraints that goods prices never register. A household's exposure therefore depends almost entirely on its housing tenure rather than on the state it lives in.
- Deflating a seventy-five thousand dollar nominal salary by District of Columbia's all-items parity gives $67,687 in national-average purchasing power. ⚠️ This is a price adjustment only and contains no tax of any kind; state income tax, sales tax and local levies apply on top and are modeled elsewhere on this site. The comparison is also silent on wages themselves — high-parity states frequently pay more in nominal terms, and whether that offsets the price level is an empirical question this index cannot answer.
What the money buys here
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home, actual dollars | $58,164 |
|---|---|
| Price level, all itemsUS average = 100 | 110.804 |
| HousingUS average = 100 | 168.539 |
| Cheapest place to live | 50th of 51 |
Housing is where places differ most. Everything else moves far less than people expect.
Price parities are an index where the US average is 100 — a comparison between places, not a price.
The same pay, somewhere else
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home in District of Columbia | $58,164 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,593 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,890 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What is expensive here
A $75,000 salary
- Housing168.539
- Goods105.87
- Services102.521
| Housing | 168.539 |
|---|---|
| Goods | 105.87 |
| Services | 102.521 |
| All items | 110.804 |
An index where 100 is the national average. Housing moves far more than anything else.
Housing, against the country
A $75,000 salary
| Cheapest housing | MS · 55 |
|---|---|
| Dearest housing | DC · 169 |
| This state, cheapest first | 51st of 51 |
A BEA index where 100 is the national average, not a house price.
Where the ranking flips
A $75,000 salary
| District of Columbia on take-home | 41st |
|---|---|
| Once prices are leveled | 50th |
| Places moved | 9 |
Left is rank on take-home. Right is rank once local prices are leveled by BEA parities.
District of Columbia against Texas
A $75,000 salary
| Measure | District of Columbia | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $58,164 | $61,593 |
| Worth after local prices | $52,493 | $63,383 |
| Share of pay taxed | 22.45% | 17.88% |
| State sales tax | 6% | 6.25% |
| Groceries exempt here | Yes | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | No | No |
| Property tax rate | 0.59% | 1.49% |
| Price level | 110.8 | 97.2 |
| Housing prices | 168.5 | 97.4 |
| Fuel tax | 23.5¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $5.08 | $1.41 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: District of Columbia, Statewide average; Texas, Harris County (Houston). Clothing: one $100 item; higher prices can change tax.
What you would need there
A $75,000 salary
| To match take-home only | $70,127 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,229 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Where the difference actually sits
Each line compares District of Columbia with the national average for that kind of spending. The overall figure is the three above it, weighted the way a typical household spends — which is why housing can pull it a long way on its own.
| What you spend on | Against national average | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | 68.54% | Rent and owners’ equivalent rent |
| Goods | 5.87% | Groceries, fuel, clothing |
| Other services | 2.52% | Haircuts, repairs, childcare |
| All items | 10.8% | The three above, weighted |
What a salary is worth here
A salary of seventy-five thousand dollars, spent at District of Columbia prices, buys what $67,687 would buy at national average prices. That is a price adjustment only. No tax of any kind has been taken off it, and tax is a separate bill on the same money.
What this page cannot tell you
- This is one number for the whole of District of Columbia, and no state is one place. A big city and a rural county can sit far apart on every figure here.
- These prices were measured in 2023. Rents in particular can move a long way in a couple of years.
- And this is prices only. It says nothing about what District of Columbia charges you in tax, which is a separate bill and is covered elsewhere on this site.
- These parities are state-level aggregates. BEA also publishes metropolitan-area parities, and within-state dispersion between a large metro and a rural area routinely exceeds the difference between two states — so a state figure should not be read as descriptive of any particular address in District of Columbia.
- The underlying survey vintage is 2023, which is the most recent BEA publication rather than a current reading. Shelter parities are the component most exposed to drift between vintages, so recent local rent movements in District of Columbia will not be reflected here.
- Price parity and tax burden are independent quantities and this page models only the first. A low-parity state with high income tax and a high-parity state with none can leave a household in the same real position; comparing District of Columbia to another jurisdiction requires both figures, not either alone.
Questions people ask
Does a higher salary here actually leave me better off?
The two move together and have to be compared together. Every hundred dollars spent in District of Columbia does the work of $111 nationally, so a raise that matches the gap leaves you where you started.
Is this number a percentage?
No — it is an index, with the national average fixed at one hundred. A state at one hundred and eight is eight index points above the average, not eight percent more expensive than any particular thing. Reading it as a percentage is the mistake that makes these figures sound more precise than they are.
Which part of living here is actually different?
Almost entirely housing. The goods component sits close to the national average here, so the gap you feel is rent and property rather than the supermarket.
Is this one of the extremes?
It sits at 2 of 51, close to an extreme. The tails of this distribution are stretched, so differences involving them overstate what an ordinary relocation looks like.
How should I compare a job offer here with one somewhere else?
Adjust the pay before you compare it, not after. A reference salary is worth $67,687 here once prices are taken into account — and the tax side moves separately, so a full comparison needs both adjustments rather than either one alone.
How does an above-average price level affect real income?
District of Columbia's all-items regional price parity exceeds the national average, so nominal income overstates purchasing power. One hundred dollars of expenditure purchases $111 of national-average consumption. Real income comparisons across states require deflating by parity; nominal comparisons systematically favor high-price states.
How should a regional price parity be interpreted?
Regional price parities are index numbers with the national average normalized to one hundred. Differences are expressed in index points and are comparative rather than proportional to any specific price. They are estimated from a fixed national consumption basket, so they do not reflect state-specific spending patterns.
Which component drives this state's parity?
The housing parity dominates District of Columbia's all-items figure, diverging from the national average by more than twice the goods component. Tradeable goods arbitrage across state lines and therefore cluster near parity; housing is non-tradeable, so its parity spans a far wider range and drives most interstate variation in the headline index.
Where does this state sit in the national ordering?
This state ranks 2 of 51, within the tails of the distribution. Parity dispersion is greater at the extremes than around the median, so comparisons anchored on a tail state overstate typical interstate differences.
How should nominal offers be adjusted across states?
Nominal offers should be deflated by the destination parity before comparison; the reference salary is equivalent to $67,687 in national-average terms here. ⚠️ Price adjustment and tax adjustment are independent and must both be applied — a state may be simultaneously cheap and heavily taxed, or the reverse.