Living in Washington, DC

What it's really like to live in Washington, DC

Just across the Potomac from Arlington, Washington, D.C. offers Northern Virginia buyers a very different lifestyle: walkable streets, historic architecture and Metro at the doorstep. Georgetown, on the river, pairs Federal-style rowhouses with the shops of M Street and the Georgetown Waterfront. A few minutes upriver, the Palisades feels almost suburban, with detached homes, MacArthur Boulevard bistros and the C&O Canal towpath. Downtown, CityCenter and Penn Quarter deliver modern condos with luxury shopping, theaters and top restaurants right outside the lobby.

East of the Capitol, Capitol Hill is one of the city's most beloved residential neighborhoods, known for tree-lined blocks of Victorian rowhouses, leafy squares like Lincoln Park and the weekend bustle of Eastern Market. Each neighborhood has its own character, so buying in D.C. is really about matching a block to a lifestyle. Keep in mind that D.C. has its own tax rules, a lottery-based public school system with neighborhood boundary schools, and many condo and co-op options. For buyers who want to trade the commute for a short walk, D.C. is hard to beat.