Psst! Your Neighbors May Be Paying Less Rent

Don't tell the people living east of Chain Bridge Road and south of Main Street, but folks to the west are paying hundreds less per month in rent. 

This is all according to the American Community Survey, a yearly product of the Census Bureau that helps local governments know key demographic information about residents. A website, www.richblockspoorblocks.com, plugged in the rental price numbers for 2007-2011 and created color-coded maps that show where people are paying the most to live. 

For Fairfax City, the money district is a small, oddly shaped swath running to the east of Chain Bridge, south of Main Street. In this census tract (named 3005), the median rental price is $1,752, give or take about $125. 

That's about $300 more than the area west of Chain Bridge Road, where the median price for rent is $1,460. 

The lowest media rental price area is between Chain Bridge Road and Old Lee Highway above Main Street (named 3002). There the median rental price is $1,288.

Frankly, though, everyone in Fairfax is paying a lot more than the state mid-range, said to be $718 to $934. 

Check out the maps, attached to this article, which show the census tracts colored in shades ranging from yellow to deep red. The darker the color, the more money paid in rent. Head to RichBlocksPoorBlocks.com to fool around with their widget and find out what our neighbors in other parts of the county pay. Not suprisingly, the areas super-close to Metrorail trains in all parts of the county were the most expensive. 

What do you think? Is that about on-par with what you pay?