Wealth Concentrates in Neighborhood Full of Government Contractors

Government contracts are filling the pockets of contractors in the Washington D.C. area and helping to create some of the nation's wealthiest neighborhoods.

1 minute read

August 17, 2011, 10:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg

This concentration of wealth through government contracts is especially clear in an area called Great Falls, where more than half of its households have an income above $250,000.

"Washingtonians now enjoy the highest median household income of any metropolitan area in the country, and five of the top 10 jurisdictions in America - Loudoun, Howard and Fairfax counties, and Falls Church and Fairfax City - are here, census data shows.

The signs of that wealth are on display all over, from the string of luxury boutiques such as Gucci and Tory Burch opening at Tysons Galleria to the $15 cocktails served over artisanal ice at the W Hotel in the District to the ever-larger houses rising off River Road in Potomac.

But nowhere is the region's wealth more concentrated than the place where Talwar purchased her 15,000-square-foot white-brick estate home: Great Falls, a once-rural enclave of about 15,000 residents 17 miles west of the White House."

FULL STORY: Government dollars fuel wealth: D.C. enclaves reap rewards of contracting boom

Monday, August 15, 2011 in The Washington Post

Community / Economic Development Government / Politics Social / Demographics District of Columbia Washington D.C. Neighborhoods Wealth Government Contractors View More

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