5 ms·

Why is Loudoun County, Virginia so prosperous? It has a median household income of $122,000, but I don't see any meaningful employers in the area, and it's a la

by cellis 12y ago

Why is Loudoun County, Virginia so prosperous? It has a median household income of $122,000, but I don't see any meaningful employers in the area, and it's a large population of around 350,000 people.

rjbwork 12y ago
It's right outside of DC/Baltimore. Lots of money to be had. I'd expect there's lots of lawyers, lobbyists, policy makers, etc with homes there.
colinbartlett 12y ago
That's Northern VA where tons of tech companies are and was the veritable center of the internet before Silicon Valley. (AOL is or was headquartered in Dulles which is in Loudoun County). It still houses a massive amount of technology companies, data centers, etc.
mjklin 12y ago
It was noted in this interview that most of the highest income ZIP codes in the country surround areas with large federal infrastructure: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/06/140056904/the-top-secret-america-created-after-9-11 http://www.npr.org/2011/09/06/140056904/the-top-secret-ameri...
rayiner 12y ago
It's a DC suburb. The usual DC set plus the Dulles tech corridor set. Also, northern VA suburbs are really aggressive about keeping out lower-income people (poor social services, poor transportation), which keeps the average high. The suburbs here don't have really rich people the way you see around other major cities, just very homogenous upper middle class ones.
loudoun_native 12y ago
I grew up in the county. The reason it's so well off is the proximity to dc and large tech/defense corridor. The county attracts the rich because you can buy a McMansion with land, and still get to work. It's built up heavily in the last thirty years (I passed cow pastures and corn fields on the way to school), but they're mostly gone now.
DanielBMarkham 12y ago
Loudon County, Virginia is a very similar county to the Virginia County I live in. The geography is the same, the politics is (was) the same, the laws and societal structures are almost identical. But the last time I visited Loudon, it was freaking amazing. Instead of seeing rural farms, my road trip consisted of driving past mansion after mansion. Talking to some folks at the local supermarket, the county is having a heckuva time trying to coordinate all the new growth. It's federal contracts. You can't borrow and spend the amount the government has over the last ten years or so without the management and prime vendor layer skimming off a tremendous amount of cash. These aren't necessarily folks putting in the commute to do the 9-5 every day. More likely they'll have a hired car, or come into the city and stay at a nice hotel (or an apartment rented for just this purpose) Loudon is a really interesting experiment in growth and unintended consequences. I'd love to come back in 20-30 years and read a study of the inside game of everything that's going on there. Must be weird to have a PTA meeting with out-of-town, newly minted multimillionaires sitting next to minimum wage folks who grew up there.
sehugg 12y ago
I've known people who commuted from as far as Winchester WV and Richmond VA for their DC job.
bane 12y ago
The 267 toll-road is the main artery for an absolutely massive defense-tech industry. It's a huge ecosystem with companies from 1 person to 100,000. Even though the mechanisms are largely the same, these small-companies-destined-to-be-bought-out-by-big-companies aren't really called "startups" and aren't thought of in quite the same way. The education level in the county is also obscenely high compared to elsewhere in the U.S. The Federal government is also an absolutely absurdly large employer and the pay is reasonable.

by cellis 12y ago

rjbwork 12y ago

It's right outside of DC/Baltimore. Lots of money to be had. I'd expect there's lots of lawyers, lobbyists, policy makers, etc with homes there.

colinbartlett 12y ago

That's Northern VA where tons of tech companies are and was the veritable center of the internet before Silicon Valley. (AOL is or was headquartered in Dulles which is in Loudoun County). It still houses a massive amount of technology companies, data centers, etc.

mjklin 12y ago

It was noted in this interview that most of the highest income ZIP codes in the country surround areas with large federal infrastructure: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/06/140056904/the-top-secret-america-created-after-9-11 http://www.npr.org/2011/09/06/140056904/the-top-secret-ameri...

rayiner 12y ago

It's a DC suburb. The usual DC set plus the Dulles tech corridor set. Also, northern VA suburbs are really aggressive about keeping out lower-income people (poor social services, poor transportation), which keeps the average high. The suburbs here don't have really rich people the way you see around other major cities, just very homogenous upper middle class ones.

loudoun_native 12y ago

I grew up in the county. The reason it's so well off is the proximity to dc and large tech/defense corridor. The county attracts the rich because you can buy a McMansion with land, and still get to work. It's built up heavily in the last thirty years (I passed cow pastures and corn fields on the way to school), but they're mostly gone now.

DanielBMarkham 12y ago

Loudon County, Virginia is a very similar county to the Virginia County I live in. The geography is the same, the politics is (was) the same, the laws and societal structures are almost identical. But the last time I visited Loudon, it was freaking amazing. Instead of seeing rural farms, my road trip consisted of driving past mansion after mansion. Talking to some folks at the local supermarket, the county is having a heckuva time trying to coordinate all the new growth. It's federal contracts. You can't borrow and spend the amount the government has over the last ten years or so without the management and prime vendor layer skimming off a tremendous amount of cash. These aren't necessarily folks putting in the commute to do the 9-5 every day. More likely they'll have a hired car, or come into the city and stay at a nice hotel (or an apartment rented for just this purpose) Loudon is a really interesting experiment in growth and unintended consequences. I'd love to come back in 20-30 years and read a study of the inside game of everything that's going on there. Must be weird to have a PTA meeting with out-of-town, newly minted multimillionaires sitting next to minimum wage folks who grew up there.

sehugg 12y ago

I've known people who commuted from as far as Winchester WV and Richmond VA for their DC job.

bane 12y ago

The 267 toll-road is the main artery for an absolutely massive defense-tech industry. It's a huge ecosystem with companies from 1 person to 100,000. Even though the mechanisms are largely the same, these small-companies-destined-to-be-bought-out-by-big-companies aren't really called "startups" and aren't thought of in quite the same way. The education level in the county is also obscenely high compared to elsewhere in the U.S. The Federal government is also an absolutely absurdly large employer and the pay is reasonable.