No wonder residential real estate is through the roof around here. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments reports that population in the area increased 7.7% in just four years, from 2000 to 2004. The statistical area, which extends from Frederick County in the north, to Loudoun County in the northwest, to Stafford, Charles, and Calvert Counites in the south, added 350,000 souls during the period, bringing the total count of residents to 4.9 million. (Anne Arundel County in Maryland is not part of the survey; it's part of Baltimore for statistical purposes.) Virginia's Loudoun County (what I think of as Patio Man country) showed the highest growth rate in percentage terms, up 35.3%. Fairfax County crossed the million-persons threshhold in 2002.

(Thanks to DCist.)

posted: 10:38:42 AM