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Reston, VA has has best salaries relative to COL? LOL. Fairfax County, VA, is literally the 2nd richest county in the US; the #1 richest county is right next

Reston, VA has has best salaries relative to COL? LOL. Fairfax County, VA, is literally the 2nd richest county in the US; the #1 richest county is right next door. Traffic is heavy, and housing costs keep goin up. Salaries are decent, esp. in the cleared government sector, though civilian gigs are pretty lucrative too. Don't get me wrong, you'll probably have a decent lifestyle there -- I think about moving back occasionally -- but it's nothing like Omaha or Columbus. Source: am from there, ran data centers in Reston, Herndon, and Ashburn.

alexhutcheson 7y ago
If you work in or around Reston itself, I think the situation is not so bad. There are plenty of places in Loudoun County in the 25-40 min commute range that are still relatively affordable, because they are too far away from Tysons/Arlington/DC/etc. to be a reasonable commute. They're expensive, but not nearly as expensive as a comparable commute would be in the NY, Boston, or even Atlanta areas. Overall I think the "live in Loudoun, work in Reston" is a comparatively good value compared to the other metro areas that have high software engineer salaries. On the other hand, living in Reston/Herndon and commuting to Arlington or DC is both extremely expensive and a guaranteed miserable commute. The Silver Line will probably help when it opens, but it will still be a long train ride, and you'll be at the mercy of WMATA.