The Washington Post has a look at the economy of the national capital, which is booming.
Washingtonians now enjoy the highest median household income of any metropolitan area in the country, and five of the top 10 jurisdictions in America — Loudoun, Howard and Fairfax counties, and Falls Church and Fairfax City — are here, census data shows.
The signs of that wealth are on display all over, from the string of luxury boutiques such as Gucci and Tory Burch opening at Tysons Galleria to the $15 cocktails served over artisanal ice at the W Hotel in the District to the ever-larger houses rising off River Road in Potomac....Sixteen percent of Great Falls households earn $500,000 or above a year, and more than half make at least $250,000, according to Nielsen Claritas.
...Forty years ago, few people thought of Washington as a place to get rich. It was a staid town where a third of the residents earned modest but steady paychecks working for the federal government....More than $80 billion in federal contracting dollars will flow to the region this year, up from $4.2 billion in 1980, according to Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University. Adjusted for inflation, that's a seven-fold increase....
When asked if her neighbors had felt the impact of the recession, she smiled quietly and said she didn't think so.
"I think the economy is very different in Washington, D.C., than in the rest of the country because of the federal dollars," she said.
Link via Mike Allen's Politico Playbook. Our earlier coverage of the Washington, imperial city phenomenon is here, here, and here.