The 10 Cheapest Washington, DC Neighborhoods To Live In For 2024


The cheapest Washington neighborhoods are Takoma Park and Catholic University-Brookland for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

Worst Neighborhoods In Washington
Source: Public domain

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Washington might be more expensive than living in rural Washington Dc, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Washington neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Washington are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Washington For 2024

  1. Takoma Park
  2. Catholic University-Brookland
  3. Fort Totten-Upper Northeast
  4. South West
  5. Downtown
  6. Logan Circle
  7. Glover Park
  8. Adams Morgan
  9. Deanwood
  10. Anacostia

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Washington for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Takoma Park looks to be the cheapest Washington neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Washington. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Washington that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Washington.

For more Washington Dc reading, check out:


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Washington For 2024

Overall SnackAbility

9.5
/10

Population: 5,302
Cost Of Living Index: 169 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.9 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.006 (cheapest)
More on Takoma Park: Data | Real Estate

Catholic University-Brookland Washington, DC

Source: Wikipedia User Farragutful | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 57,481
Cost Of Living Index: 140 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.6 (14th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (9th cheapest)
More on Catholic University-Brookland: Data | Real Estate

Fort Totten-Upper Northeast Washington, DC

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 24,123
Cost Of Living Index: 137 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.9 (18th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (13th cheapest)
More on Fort Totten-Upper Northeast: Data | Real Estate

South West Washington, DC

Source: Wikipedia User The original uploader was Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia | CC BY 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 11,100
Cost Of Living Index: 136 (5th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.1 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (28th cheapest)
More on South West: Data | Real Estate

Downtown Washington, DC

Source: Wikipedia User Wknight94 talk | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 8,132
Cost Of Living Index: 141 (9th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.9 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (27th cheapest)
More on Downtown: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 13,768
Cost Of Living Index: 157 (12th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.4 (9th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (17th cheapest)
More on Logan Circle: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 12,937
Cost Of Living Index: 164 (18th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.9 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (16th cheapest)
More on Glover Park: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 17,154
Cost Of Living Index: 157 (12th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.2 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (22nd cheapest)
More on Adams Morgan: Data | Real Estate

Deanwood Washington, DC

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 29,798
Cost Of Living Index: 113 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.3 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (3cheapest)
More on Deanwood: Data | Real Estate

Anacostia Washington, DC

Source: Wikipedia User Photo by User:Aude, taken in October 2005. | CC BY-SA 2.5
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 117,488
Cost Of Living Index: 112 (cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.4 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.025 (33rd cheapest)
More on Anacostia: Data | Real Estate

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Washington Hoods In 2024

To rank the cheapest places to live in Washington, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 34 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Washington.” We’re lookin’ at you, Takoma Park.

We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Washington. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Washington

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Washington where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Washington are Takoma Park, Catholic University-Brookland, Fort Totten-Upper Northeast, South West, Downtown, Logan Circle, Glover Park, Adams Morgan, Deanwood, and Anacostia.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Washington aren’t all cheap. Foxhall Village takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Washington.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Washington are Foxhall Village, Berkley, Kalorama, Shaw, and Georgetown.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more Washington Dc reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Washington For 2024

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Takoma Park 169
2 Catholic University-Brookland 140
3 Fort Totten-Upper Northeast 137
4 South West 136
5 Downtown 141
6 Logan Circle 157
7 Glover Park 164
8 Adams Morgan 157
9 Deanwood 113
10 Anacostia 112
11 Au-Tenleytown 205
12 Stadium-Armory 135
13 Cleveland Park 184
14 Dupont Circle 158
15 Capitol Hill 162
16 Barnaby Woods 206
17 Friendship Heights 189
18 Chevy Chase 195
19 Foggy Bottom 138
20 Mount Pleasant 158
21 Brentwood 134
22 Woodley Park 204
23 Petworth 175
24 Ledroit Park 164
25 U Street Corridor 174
26 Columbia Heights 156
27 Brightwood 161
28 The Palisades 228
29 Mount Vernon Square 159
30 Georgetown 220
31 Shaw 169
32 Kalorama 250
33 Berkley 225
34 Foxhall Village 207
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.