Uncle Sam's ongoing hiring spree has helped the D.C. housing market recover more quickly than most other metro areas.
Home prices have gained more than 11% since hitting bottom in early 2009, according to S&P/Case-Shiller. The median home price in the area is now more than twice the national median, while median rents are a steep $2,000-plus a month.
Most of the best housing buys are inside the Beltway in Maryland's suburbs. In the town of Landover, for example, it only takes 1.4 years for a home purchase to start making more financial sense than renting, according to Zillow.
In the expensive suburbs west of the Beltway, it can take much longer for the math to work out for homebuyers. In towns such as Upperville, Va., and Middleburg, Va., it can take seven to nine years to break even.
