Washington DC Metro Among Nation's Most Expensive For Moving

WASHINGTON, DC — Given the large number of federal workers and contractors, there is a constant ebb and flow of people coming to the DC/northern Virginia region. The Washington, D.C., metro area is among the priciest to move to in the nation, according to an analysis released last week. The folks at the personal finance site 24/7 Wall St. ranked the 25 most expensive metros to move to based on factors such as moving costs, a month’s rent and security deposit.

The researchers used rental figures for three-bedroom housing units and equated a security deposit to a month’s rent.

The Washington, D.C./Arlington/Alexandria area ranked as the fourth most expensive metro to move to, just ahead of San Diego, California, and behind the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, metro in California. Here’s the cost breakdown:

• Average total moving cost: $4,626
• One month’s rent and deposit: $3,258
• Median Household income: $82,372
• Population change from migration from 2010-18: +3.6%

With an average total moving cost of about $5,800 and one month’s rent and deposit of about $4,400, the most expensive metro in the nation is the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area in California. California, a notoriously expensive state for residents, was home to four of the five most expensive metros in the country for moving.

Here are the 10 metros that will set you back the most when it comes to moving, according to the analysis:

1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
2. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
3. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA
4. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
5. San Diego-Carlsbad, CA
6. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
7. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
8. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
9. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
10. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

The researchers said estimated moving costs were within the most populated zip code in the major city of each metro area. Packing costs were not included in that estimate.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.