Neighborhood Guide 

DC’s downtown reaches from the White House to the Capitol building. Once the heart of the city’s political, social, and commercial life, the downtown area was, for many years, a veritable ghost town after dark, when workers left their office buildings and headed home to the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.  

Recent initiatives by city officials to lure residents and businesses back to the neighborhoods that comprise Downtown DC have given new life, such that parts of the area have quickly become both popular and expensive. 

The Downtown area is made up of different neighborhoods—Penn Quarter/Chinatown, Mount Vernon Square, Judiciary Square, and others popular areas. The entire area has gone through an enormous revitalization.  

Penn Quarter—in the East End of downtown—has expanded to include Gallery Place/Chinatown and is continuing to expand and grow in popularity. In the last few years, Chinatown went under a $200 million renovation, which brought nightlife, shopping, entertainment, high-end restaurants, and a deluxe movie theater to the area. The mixture of old and new have produced interesting quirks, for instance local laws require that new businesses in Chinatown must have signs in English and Chinese. Mount Vernon Square—north of downtown and Chinatown—has seen the building of the new convention center and the growth that accompanied it, but has not gone through as extensive a growth or gentrification as its neighbor. 

Today, the downtown area is a blend of old and new, mixing historic 19th century buildings with a revitalized entertainment scene. A short distance to the Smithsonian museums, the National Mall, Capitol Hill, the MCI Center sports arena, and the International Spy Museum, Downtown also boasts more than 200 restaurants, a variety of shopping options, world-class theater, and many of DC’s best-known memorials.

Housing options include large and small row houses, condominiums, and high-rise apartments. 

Commute:  Downtown DC is served by the Red, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Blue Lines at the Mount Vernon Square, Gallery Place/Chinatown, Metro Center, Judiciary Square, Navy Memorial/Archives, McPherson Square, and Federal Triangle Metrorail stations, in addition to many Metrobus lines. Commute times vary, but usually are between 15-30 minutes.

Rent estimates: Rent in Gallery Place/Chinatown/Penn Quarter is getting more expensive as the area becomes more trendy and popular. Near the metro and the Verizon center, rent ranges from $1300 to $1600 for studios; $1500 and up for a one bedroom, and $2700 to $3200 for a 2 bedroom apartment. Rent in Mount Vernon Square is somewhat less than in Penn Quarter/Chinatown.