Last week, I started looking into the Washington, DC Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which consists of the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia and parts of Maryland. Given the growth in the federal budget over the last few years, I wasn’t surprised to see that the DC MSA was “the most educated and affluent metropolitan area in the United States,” according to Wikipedia.
The District of Columbia itself has made great strides in recent years, including greatly reducing the rate of violent crime. You may recall that it was known as America’s murder capital during the crack-filled 1990s. However, the city’s unemployment rate is actually fairly high, at 11.1%.
Maryland and Virginia, on the other hand, are very prosperous. Both are among the most economically successful states in the country.
Maryland’s Doing Pretty Well…
Maryland, DC’s (mostly) northeastern neighbor, has seen fairly consistent population increases and has a well-below-average unemployment rate of 7.2%. It actually has the highest median household income of any state, although this can be deceiving – the cost of living is also very high there. (The second highest median household income is in New Jersey, which is not currently an economic paradise.)
Note to readers: I’ve been criticized for some blunt statements about real estate markets in the past. You can disagree with me, but I ask that you not doubt my integrity. I have no real estate interests outside New Hampshire and am not representing anyone.
For those of you who have lost track of where all our taxpayer dollars have gone as we bailout banks, brokerage houses, car companies, insurance companies…etc—-this sobering statistic courtesy of the 
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An eye opening account in the 
Joshua Dorkin
Charles Feldman
Ted Karsch.
Social Security And Compound Confusion
by Tom Koziol | August 21, 2009In fact, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau all have their own Social Security Administrations. The only difference between the numbers is the mainland issues 9 digit numbers and the Territories issue 8 or 7 (Palau) digit numbers.
The fun starts when one of these numbers is entered into a computer. It appears mainland computers are trained – programmed – to add a zero or two zeroes to fill in the eighth and ninth spot. But it doesn’t put the zero(s) at the end or what we would call the ninth number. It puts it/them first.