As if the rest of the country didn’t have enough reasons to resent Washington: The greater D.C. area now leads the nation proportionally in young and wealthy residents - and can expect many more, thanks to a little help from a binge in anti-recession federal spending.
A recent Nielsen Claritas survey shows that 16 of the 50 counties with the highest concentrations of young, rich people are in the Washington area. Almost all of those counties are a lot higher on the list this year than they were a decade ago.
Nielsen defines the group in question as people ages 25 to 34 with annual household incomes of more than $100,000.
Washington has always been a city of young people. Anyone who ever lived in a Mount Pleasant group house or lined up for 25-cent chicken wings at Capitol Hill’s Hawk ’n’ Dove knows it as a place for interns, grad students and lower-level policy wonks.
But times have changed. The evidence: $14 martinis at the Gibson, $1,000 Stella McCartney handbags at Intermix and $600,000 condos from Capitol Hill to Ashburn, Va.
Ben Cahen, 27, works in finance for a government contractor in the District and chose Washington over other cities such as Chicago and New York. “Washington seemed like a good place because of the job prospects and its attraction to young people,” he said.
Kerry Brophy, a 33-year-old technology recruiter, did not consider moving anywhere else. “We know things cost twice as much here, but salaries can support it, she said. “My parents look at our house and our cars and say it took them a long time to get those things. I feel we are very lucky to live here. We have the best of everything.”
In 1990, Loudoun County was in 24th place in the Nielsen survey. By 2000, it had moved up to fourth place. Now it’s No. 1.
Arlington County, now second, was eighth in 1990 and third in 2000.
Two decades ago, Loudoun - home to such tech luminaries as AOL LLC, Verizon Communications Inc. and Northrop Grumman Corp. - had only 3.22 percent of households in the young and wealthy demographic. Now, 10 percent live there. (The national average is only 2.15 percent.) Loudoun’s median household income is $107,207, or more than twice the national average of just under $50,000.
The Wall Street Journal recently conducted its own survey and Washington topped that list as well. The Journal panel took into account economic diversity and lifestyle and said Washington’s growing economy is a much bigger draw than, say, New York’s art or Austin’s music scene.
Stephen Fuller, director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, said Washington has long been a magnet for smart people - boasting more people with doctoral degrees and other higher-education diplomas than anywhere else in the country.
“We just did a migration study and we found that we’re plucking young people from other markets,” he said. “People under 35 who are moving here do so from the other top 15 cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles.”
The federal government’s stimulative spending splurge in response to the recession has only enhanced the region’s drawing power.
“We are the only major metro area of the country that has been adding jobs during this recession,” Mr. Fuller said. “People know that; the rest of the country is in bad shape, but Washington is going to be the best place to get a good job. There was $66 billion spent on federal contracts locally last year.”
Mark Ein, a native Washingtonian and local entrepreneur and investor, said the city’s evolution from a government town to a technology town has taken place over the past decade. It has created an economy that is highly lucrative, and, in a way, recession-proof.
“You have the big companies here and, of course, the people who work there,” Mr. Ein said. “Then the venture capitalists and the lawyers needed for those companies came here. Then people left the big tech companies and started their own, which created a need for yet more people. It went from something small to something big in a short period of time.”
Although the tech boom started the trend, Mr. Ein said Washington has evolved far beyond that these days.
“We had the technology boom in 1999,” he said. “But the real growth has been broader-based. It is more related to Washington’s increasing role in the economy. All these businesses want to be here because of the close proximity to the government.”
The growth has had an impact on everything from retail opportunities to restaurants to the social circuit.
Pamela Sorensen, who chronicles the young D.C. charity circuit on her blog, PamelasPunch.com, said the change has been palpable all around. Ms. Sorensen of Arlington, which placed second in the Nielsen survey, said she has to do a double take almost every time she looks out the window and sees a new luxury condo being built.
Ms. Sorensen said philanthropic groups understand the power of the young and the rich and are working hard to tap into that resource.
“There is a whole generation who is interested, affluent and has the means to go to events and to give,” she said. “Over the past three or four years, there has been a huge surge of young people going out and giving money.”
They are also going out and spending money.
Sarah Schaffer, editor-in-chief of Capitol File magazine, one of several glossy publications launched over the past few years primarily dedicated to detailing Washington’s new affluence, said that a host of stores have opened here in order to cater to a trendier crowd. Washington, once strictly for Ann Taylor shoppers, now boasts Intermix, Cusp and Urban Chic, among others.
“They have opened because the more fashion-forward, younger crowd has demanded it,” Ms. Schaffer said.
The same goes for restaurants. Washington was for generations the land of the somewhat predictable steakhouse. It still has steak - but now with an updated twist at places such as J&G Steakhouse at the W or Bourbon Steak at the Four Seasons in Georgetown.
Indeed, without the “youthquake” - and a flurry of credit cards - there would be no Blue Duck Tavern, no Zaytinya, no PS 7, no Proof, and surely none of the new, quality restaurants that stretch from Clarendon to Tysons Corner.
“Washington is a much more exciting place now,” Mr. Ein said. “A lot of cities are in an opposite cycle, with people moving away. Things are accelerating in D.C., though. It is a good cycle right now.”
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