My family's inside the beltway. You're right, it's nuts! My parents bought the house we're in now in about 1984.

Recently, they started looking to move into someplace smaller, like a townhouse, but be in the same area. All the townhouses were more expensive than our freakin house! And that's for less floorspace and 1/5 the land! It's crazy, man. But I love the area.

ps-I know some folks in Ashburn, and my girlfriend lives in Sterling. I would barely call Ashburn the DC area to me, it's like the middle of nowhere (no offense)