Four-Person Family in Northern Virginia Needs More Than $88,000 to Get By, Study Says

by Mary Ann Barton

Everyone knows that the DC area's cost of living is high, but how high?

Apparently if you're a family of four living in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., a new study says you need at least $88,615 to "attain a secure yet modest living standard by estimating community-specific costs of housing, food, child care, transportation, health care, other necessities, and taxes," according to a new study out by the Economic Policy Institute.

The cost of living in the D.C.-area is around $25,000 -- or 40 percent -- higher than the national median of $63,000, according to WAMU's report on EPI's findings.

The budget calculator looked at costs for housing, food, transportation and more.

The average home price for the Northern Virginia area, in March, was $531,950 up 10.57 percent since the same period last year, according to Virginia Business.

The average rental price in 2012 of all types of residential property rose 2.4 percent to $2,103 per month in the first quarter of the year, according to from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR).

Want to see how living in the DC area stacks up against other cities across the United States? Use CNN's Cost of Living Calculator to see how far your budget would go elsewhere compared to Northern Virginia.

What do you think? Does $88,615 sound too low, too high or just about right for a family of four in this area?