I live in an area very close to there (still in the DC metro) which has houses which go for 400K and up, and yet I pay just over $1200 in rent. Renting and buying are often out of sync with each other, for whatever reason (in east Alabama a few years ago, it was the other way around; you could easily buy for less than rent).
Just me, but it's easy to find a three bedroom apt for less than $2000 around here.
However, after looking on Zillow, I find things have either changed considerably in the last year or I misremember, since I can see a bunch of places for well under $400K around here, now. So, never mind.
