After the mortgage, budget for tuition before tax: two children in upper school cost $111,910 to $121,070 a year at 2026-27 posted rates, more than four times DC's $26,163 property tax on a $3 million house. If you don't need private school, DC's own costs are modest at this price point: property tax is $0.85 per $100 below $2.558 million (tax year 2026), sales tax is 6% and a parking permit is $55.
You're buying or renting at the top of the DC market and want to know which costs move your yearly budget and which barely register.
At a glance
| DC price level (BEA, 2024) | 109.9 (US = 100) |
|---|---|
| DC house and condo property tax | $0.85 per $100 to $2.558M, $1.00 above (tax year 2026) |
| DC sales tax | 6% through Sep 30, 2027 |
| Residential parking permit | $55 a year, first car |
| Zillow typical home value, Georgetown area | $1,515,129 (August 2026) |
What a $1.5 million home costs to own each year
Property tax and condo or HOA fees, before the mortgage. Change the figures to match a home you are considering.
a year before the mortgage
- Property tax
- $11,968
- Condo or HOA fees
- $0
- Per month
- $997
Property tax: tax year 2026 Class 1B rates with the $91,950 homestead deduction (DC Office of Tax and Revenue). Not included: homeowners insurance (get a quote for the specific home), utilities and upkeep. Nothing you enter is saved or sent.
What does it cost to live in Washington, DC?
For a household buying in Northwest DC, school tuition is the biggest recurring cost after the mortgage, and it's bigger than any tax. Two children in upper school at Maret, Field or Holton-Arms cost $111,910 to $121,070 a year at the schools' posted 2026-27 rates. That's more than four times DC's property tax on a $3 million house, which is $26,163 a year before the homestead deduction.
Most cost-of-living pages budget for an average renter: rent, groceries, a transit pass. Those figures exist and they're below, from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and MIT. This page orders the costs by size for a household spending $1.5 million or more on a home, so you can see which lines move the total and which barely register.
| Yearly cost | Zillow's typical Georgetown home ($1,515,129) | $3,000,000 house |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage, principal and interest (20% down, 7.28%, 30 years) | $99,520 | $197,053 |
| Upper-school tuition, two children (2026-27, posted) | $111,910 to $121,070 | $111,910 to $121,070 |
| DC property tax, before homestead deduction | $12,879 | $26,163 |
| Residential parking permit, two cars | $135 | $135 |
At Zillow's typical Georgetown value, two tuitions cost more than the mortgage. The method for each line, and what it leaves out, is in the sections below.
How much does housing cost in DC?
Housing is the largest line for anyone who buys, but its size depends heavily on which side of the city's split you buy into.
Home prices by neighborhood
Zillow's typical home value for DC was $570,082 in August 2026, down 1.05% in a year. Zillow's Georgetown area was $1,515,129, up 3.57% and at an all-time high, about 2.7 times the DC figure. The house neighborhoods around it rose too: Burleith to $1,582,587, Spring Valley to $1,996,401. The condo neighborhoods fell, with Foggy Bottom down 4.08% to $404,570. So the price you pay and the direction it's moving both depend on house versus condo. Our guide to luxury homes across DC's neighborhoods sets them side by side.
The mortgage at current rates
Freddie Mac's average 30-year fixed rate was 7.28% in the week of October 1, 2026. At that rate, a $2.4 million loan (a $3 million house with 20% down) costs $16,421 a month in principal and interest, or $197,053 a year. On Zillow's typical Georgetown value, the same terms give about $8,293 a month. Freddie Mac's survey tracks conforming loans; a loan this size is a jumbo, so get a quote at your own loan amount before you budget on these figures.
Property tax and the $2.558 million line
For tax year 2026, DC taxes houses and individually owned condo units (Class 1B) at $0.85 per $100 of assessed value up to $2.558 million and $1.00 per $100 above it; co-op units are Class 1A at a flat $0.85. Older guides still say a flat $0.85, which is out of date for any house above that line. On a $3 million assessment the bill is $21,743 on the first tier plus $4,420 on the second, $26,163 a year before the homestead deduction. The 2026 deduction takes $91,950 off the assessment, which brings that bill to $25,243.50. Below $2.558 million, treat property tax as one of the smaller lines in the budget. Assessments, the deduction and appeals are on the DC property tax guide.
Transfer and recordation tax at closing
This one is paid once, not every year, but it's large enough to plan for. At these prices DC's deed transfer tax and deed recordation tax are 1.45% each, 2.9% together, which comes to $87,000 on a $3 million sale. The DC Code puts the transfer tax on the seller and makes both parties liable for recordation, so the contract decides who pays it. There's also a 1.1% tax on the deed of trust when a mortgage is recorded. The breakdown is on our DC transfer and recordation tax guide.
Condo fees and insurance
No official source publishes typical DC condo fees or homeowners insurance premiums, so neither has a figure here. For a condo, ask the association for the current monthly fee, what it covers, the reserve balance and any planned special assessment; our guide to DC luxury condos covers what to ask. For a house, get an insurance quote before you remove the inspection contingency, since an older row house can price differently from a newer one.
How much is private school in DC?
For many buyers in Northwest DC this is the line that decides the budget. The figures below are sticker prices before financial aid.
What schools charge for 2026-27
Three schools have posted 2026-27 tuition on their own sites. Maret charges $48,665 for kindergarten through grade 4, $52,715 for grades 5-8 and $55,955 for grades 9-12, including hot lunch. Holton-Arms charges $60,535, including breakfast, lunch, snacks and academic field trips. The Field School charges $58,265 for grades 6-8 and $59,965 for grades 9-12. Washingtonian's 2025 guide, which doesn't label its figures by school year, lists most other schools in the $50,000s, with Georgetown Visitation at $39,100 and Gonzaga at $33,530. The full list with grades and campuses is on our DC private schools map.
How fast tuition rises
Compared with the figures in Washingtonian's 2025 guide, the 2026-27 rates are 4.5% higher at Maret's upper school, 4.6% higher at Holton-Arms and 6.6% higher at Field's upper school. A tuition bill that rises 5% a year doubles in about 14 years, far faster than DC's property tax rates have moved. Budget a 5% yearly rise unless a school tells you otherwise.
What tuition includes and leaves out
Sticker prices aren't measured the same way. Maret's figure includes hot lunch, with athletics fees of $0 to $800 on top. Holton-Arms folds breakfast, lunch, snacks and academic field trips into its $60,535. Compare what each figure covers before you compare the figures, and ask each school for its list of fees outside tuition, such as transport and trips.
Two children through upper school
Here's the math to redo with your own school list. Two children in Maret's upper school cost $111,910 in 2026-27. With a 5% yearly rise, four years of upper school for both comes to about $482,000. Swap in your own school's rate and the number of years you need, then multiply each year by 1.05. If you're comparing this with public school, DCPS gives every K-12 student a guaranteed right to enroll at the in-boundary school for their address; run the DCPS boundary lookup on the exact address.
What taxes do you pay living in DC?
DC is a city and a state at once, so there's one income tax, one property tax and one sales tax, with no county layer on top.
Income tax
DC's brackets run from 4% to 10.75%, the top rate on income above $1 million. At $1 million of taxable income a single filer owes $91,525. That's close to what Montgomery County, Maryland charges with state and local tax combined, and about $34,000 more than Virginia, a comparison worked through on our moving to Washington DC guide. The full schedule is on the DC income tax rates page.
Sales tax
DC's general sales tax is 6% through September 30, 2027, after a scheduled rise to 7% was postponed. On $100,000 of taxable spending a year, that's $6,000.
Estate tax
DC has its own estate tax, separate from the federal one, and it starts well below the federal level. Its 2026 exclusion is $4,988,400, a third of the $15 million federal exclusion. A paid-off $3 million Georgetown house uses more than half of it on its own. Rates and planning points are on the DC estate tax guide; confirm your situation with a DC estate attorney or CPA.
What does it cost to get around DC?
Parking permits
A DC Residential Parking Permit costs $55 a year for the first car, $80 for the second, $115 for the third and $175 for each one after that; one resident aged 65 or older per household pays $35 for the first car. The permit lets a DC-registered car park past the 2-hour limit on permit blocks in its home zone, but it doesn't reserve a space. So the cheap line in the budget is the permit, and the expensive one is a house with its own parking, which costs more to buy. The daily side of that trade-off is on our guide to living in Georgetown.
Living without a car
Whether you can drop a car depends on the address. Georgetown has no Metrorail station, and the DC Circulator bus that served it stopped after December 31, 2024. WMATA relaunched its bus network with new route names on June 29, 2025. Check the WMATA trip planner from the exact address before you count on selling a car.
How expensive is everyday life in DC?
These are the benchmarks other cost-of-living pages lead with. Here they're the smaller lines.
How DC prices compare nationally
The Bureau of Economic Analysis puts DC's 2024 price level at 109.9, where the national average is 100, so prices run about 10% above average. Only California (110.7) and Hawaii (110.0) are higher among the states. The next release is due December 10, 2026.
What MIT says a household needs
MIT's 2026 living wage for DC is $26.72 an hour for one adult with no children. For two working adults with two children, MIT puts the required income at $159,696 a year before tax, with child care ($50,375) as the largest line, about twice the housing figure. MIT's housing line is a rent benchmark, so it says little about owning in Northwest DC. It's useful as a floor for the household staff, child care and services a larger home tends to need.
Utilities
We haven't found an official average for Pepco electric or Washington Gas bills in DC, and a statewide average wouldn't describe a 4,000-square-foot row house anyway. Ask the seller for the last 12 months of Pepco and Washington Gas bills, and ask whether the house has been upgraded, since an older house with original windows can cost far more to heat than its size suggests.
A DC household budget you can fill in
Fill in your own figures line by line. The order is the order of size for most buyers on this site.
| Line | How to estimate it |
|---|---|
| Mortgage | Loan amount at your quoted jumbo rate, 30 years |
| Tuition | Each child's posted rate, then times 1.05 for each later year |
| DC property tax | Assessment up to $2,558,000 times 0.0085, plus anything above times 0.01, less the homestead deduction |
| DC income tax | Your taxable income through DC's brackets (see the income tax page) |
| Insurance and condo fees | Your quote; the association's current fee and any special assessment |
| Utilities | The seller's last 12 months of bills |
| Parking | $55 for the first permit, $80 for the second |
If you're also selling a home in DC to fund the move, the costs on that side, including DC's transfer tax, are covered in what it costs to sell in Georgetown. I can run this table with you for any house you're weighing.
Which DC costs can you control?
Most of the lines above are set by the house you choose and the school decision, not by DC. Three questions settle the biggest ones before you start touring.
- Private school or the in-boundary public school? At posted 2026-27 rates that's roughly $49,000 to $61,000 a child a year. If public school is in the plan, the DCPS lookup on each address comes before anything else.
- Above or below the $2.558 million line? Every dollar of assessed value above it is taxed at $1.00 per $100 instead of $0.85, so a $3 million house carries $663 more a year than a flat rate would give. That's small next to tuition, but it grows with the price.
- Garage or permit? A permit costs $55 a year; a house with its own parking costs more to buy, but it is the only way to be sure of a space.
Answer those three and you'll know which neighborhoods and price bands fit the budget before you see a single house.
Is DC more expensive than the Maryland and Virginia suburbs?
On the purchase price, the close-in suburbs aren't cheaper than DC as a whole, but they are cheaper than Northwest DC. On tax, it depends on which tax.
| Place | Zillow typical home value, Aug 2026 | 1-year change | Property tax rate per $100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington, DC | $570,082 | -1.05% | $0.85 ($1.00 above $2.558M on houses and condos, tax year 2026) |
| Zillow's Georgetown area | $1,515,129 | +3.57% | Same as DC |
| Montgomery County, MD | $611,206 | -0.64% | Not verified |
| Fairfax County, VA | $760,599 | +0.85% | $1.12 (FY 2027) |
| Arlington County, VA | $806,890 | +0.84% | $1.053 (FY 2027) |
Property tax favors DC: on a $3 million house DC's bill is $26,163, Fairfax's $33,600 and Arlington's $31,590. Income tax favors Virginia by a wide margin at high incomes, while DC and Montgomery County are close. Tuition is the same whichever side of the line you live on, so it doesn't change the comparison, only the total.
Common questions
How much do you need to make to live comfortably in Washington, DC?
No official source defines comfortable. MIT's 2026 living wage, a minimum budget, is $26.72 an hour for one adult in DC, about $55,600 a year full time, and $159,696 before tax for two working adults with two children. A household buying a $3 million house with two children in private upper school faces about $197,000 a year in mortgage payments at 7.28% with 20% down and $111,910 or more in 2026-27 tuition.
What is the #1 most expensive state to live in?
California, by the Bureau of Economic Analysis measure. Its 2024 regional price parity was 110.7, where the national average is 100. Hawaii was next at 110.0. The District of Columbia, which BEA reports alongside the states, was 109.9, so prices in DC run about 10% above the national average. BEA's next release is due December 10, 2026.
What is the average monthly electric bill in Washington, DC?
We haven't found an official average Pepco bill for DC, so we don't quote one. For a specific house, ask the seller for the last 12 months of Pepco and Washington Gas bills. An older row house with original windows and an old heating system can cost far more to run than a newer home of the same size, so the house's own history is more useful than any citywide average.
Can you live in Washington, DC without a car?
It depends on the address. Some neighborhoods sit on Metrorail; Georgetown has no station, and the DC Circulator bus that served it stopped after December 31, 2024. WMATA relaunched its bus network with new route names on June 29, 2025. Check the WMATA trip planner from the exact address. If you keep a car, a DC residential parking permit costs $55 a year for the first vehicle.
How much is private school in DC?
Posted 2026-27 tuition at three schools runs from $48,665 (Maret, kindergarten to grade 4) to $60,535 (Holton-Arms). Maret's upper school is $55,955 and Field's is $59,965. Washingtonian's 2025 guide, which doesn't label figures by year, lists most other schools in the $50,000s, with Georgetown Visitation at $39,100 and Gonzaga at $33,530. These are sticker prices before financial aid; confirm the current rate with each school.
How much is parking in DC?
A DC Residential Parking Permit costs $55 a year for the first vehicle, $80 for the second, $115 for the third and $175 for each additional vehicle. One resident aged 65 or older per household pays $35 for the first vehicle. The car must be registered in DC and your block must be zoned for permits. Cars without a permit are limited to 2 hours on permit blocks, and a permit doesn't guarantee a space.
What is the sales tax in DC?
DC's general sales tax is 6%, and the Office of Tax and Revenue says it stays at 6% through September 30, 2027 after a scheduled increase to 7% was postponed. DC has no separate county or city sales tax on top, because the District is both the city and the state-level government.
Sources
- Maret School: Tuition and Financial Aid
- Holton-Arms School: Tuition and Financial Aid
- The Field School: Tuition and Financial Aid
- Washingtonian (reported): Private School Guide, Coed Schools, Oct 31 2025
- Washingtonian (reported): Private School Guide, All-Boys Schools, Oct 31 2025
- Washingtonian (reported): Private School Guide, All-Girls Schools, Oct 31 2025
- DC Office of Tax and Revenue: Real Property Tax Rates
- DC Office of Tax and Revenue: Individual and Fiduciary Income Tax Rates
- DC Office of Tax and Revenue: Estate Tax / Sales Tax notice
- DC Office of Tax and Revenue: Notice of Oct. 1, 2025 Tax Changes
- DC Office of Tax and Revenue: Real Property Tax Reliefs, Credits and Deductions
- DC Code § 47-813 (classes of property)
- IRS: What's new, estate and gift tax
- Fairfax County: Board of Supervisors Adopts FY 27 Budget, Reduces Real Estate Tax Rate
- Arlington County: FY 2027 Adopted Budget
- Zillow Home Value Index via tools/data/georgetown.json (August 2026)
- Freddie Mac: Primary Mortgage Market Survey (week of October 1, 2026)
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis: Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area
- MIT Living Wage Calculator: District of Columbia
- DC Code § 47-903 (deed transfer tax)
- DC Code § 42-1103 (deed recordation tax)
- DC DMV: Residential Parking Permits
- DDOT: DC Circulator service ends (release)
- WMATA: Better Bus Network
- DCPS: Find your in-boundary school (enrolldcps.dc.gov)
Reviewed by Daryl Judy
Daryl reviewed this page for accuracy on October 13, 2026. Figures come from the sources listed above. Our research process.
Daryl Judy is a luxury real estate agent in Georgetown, Washington, DC, and an Associate Broker with Washington Fine Properties: a Realtor since 2006, ranked #2 in the District by sales volume (RealTrends Verified, 2025), with more than $1.2 billion in career sales by his own count.
- $1.2B+Career sales across more than 900 transactions, as reported by Daryl
- #2DC agent by sales volume, RealTrends Verified, 2025
- $1.93MAverage sale price in 2025, RealTrends Verified
- $6.25MHighest DC sale on record, Berkley (Georgetown ZIP 20007), 2026
- RealTrends Verified: #2 in Washington, DC by sales volume, 2025 sales data ($77.19M, 40 sides)
- Washington Fine Properties: 360 sales of $1M or more on record ($670.2M), 40 of them in Georgetown ZIP 20007
- Washingtonian: Best Real Estate Agents: 100 Best Agents, Elite Producers Platinum
Associate Broker, Washington Fine Properties, 1604 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009. Office (202) 930-6868. District of Columbia license BR 699875. General information, not legal, tax or lending advice.
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