Official neighborhood cluster: Congress Heights, Bellevue, Washington Highlands
Published fit 43 uses default walkable weights and a $2,500 ACS rent budget — the same number as the Washington, DC table. Your current weights score this 43.
Data period. ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · MPD Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · OSM Oct 2026. ACS and MPD retrieved 2026-10-01; OSM retrieved 2026-10-01. Editorial copy last revised Sep 2026.
Cluster 39 is Congress Heights, Bellevue, and Washington Highlands. Search Bellevue or Washington Highlands and you land here. ACS rent is the lowest in this set, $1,045. Violent rate is the highest here, 9.1 per 1,000. That is a count for the cluster, not a personality for every block. Anacostia is the smaller historic row north.
Default walkable weights, $2,500 ACS rent budget. Same axes as the city table and the FAQ.
Safety
32
212 violent · 573 property · 33.8 per 1k (Sep 2025 – Aug 2026)-18 vs city set
Schools
50
Limited school data0 vs city set
Walk
32
OSM: 7 groceries · 0 cafes · 163 transit · 22 parks-4 vs city set
Cost
100
$1,045 ACS median vs published $2,500 rent budget+1 vs city set
Vibe
2
OSM: 0 cafes · 2 restaurants · 1 bars · 22 parks-31 vs city set
Commute to work
From Congress Heights, a typical weekday is 28 min to Downtown, 22 min to Capitol, 18 min to Navy Yard. Not live traffic.
Navy Yard is the fastest of these three job centers from here.
Downtown
28 min
Penn Quarter, K Street · +12 min vs the city-set median
Capitol
22 min
Union Station, the Capitol · +5 min vs the city-set median
Navy Yard
18 min
Capitol Riverfront · -6 min vs the city-set median · fastest of these three
Minutes are baked from neighborhood geography to three job centers — not Google, not this hour’s traffic.
Cost of living
The ACS median rent is $1,045 — every occupied rental mixed together, not the 1-bed in the window.
That is 29% of median household income — under the 30% HUD line. A household at this area’s median income ($44K) could “afford” about $1,096 a month at 30% of pay.
78% of households rent. Median home value is $446,449.
ACS median rent
$1,045
30% income budget
$1,096
Rent / income
29%
Median home
$446,449
Rent since 2014
ACS 5-year median gross rent for Washington city. Up 50% since 2014. Congress Heights is 47% below the 2024 city median.
Overlapping 5-year ACS windows (B25064), not asking rent. Census does not publish a rent series for each official neighborhood, so the line is the city place. The dashed mark is this area’s ACS 2024 median.
HUD treats 30% of income as the cost-burden line. We do not split ACS rent into 1-bed vs 2-bed. Method.
Within a walk
Within a short walk of this official neighborhood cluster: 7 groceries, 0 cafes, 22 parks, and 163 transit stops.
A grocery run on foot is possible; some trips will still need a ride. Parks are close — 22 mapped parks in that radius. Transit is dense (163 stops or stations).
0 cafes and 2 restaurants sit in the same radius.
OpenStreetMap, 800 meters. Not a Walk Score license. More groceries than 4 of the other 19 areas in this city.
Population
23,206
Median age
37.7
Median income
$44K
Renters
78%
Bachelor+
18%
Violent / 1k
9.1
Property / 1k
24.7
ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · 8 census tracts · MPD Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · OSM 2026-10-01
Crime is MPD DC Code reports per 1,000 ACS residents — not a judgment of who lives here. Home and rent figures are ACS medians, not live MLS. Read the method.
On the ground
What it is like to live here, beyond the scores.
Cluster 39 is Congress Heights, Bellevue, and Washington Highlands. Search Bellevue or Washington Highlands and you land here. ACS rent is the lowest in this set, $1,045. Violent rate is the highest here, 9.1 per 1,000. That is a count for the cluster, not a personality for every block. Anacostia is the smaller historic row north.
Scores on this page stay inside Washington, DC. Congress Heights, Bellevue, Washington Highlands is the official neighborhood cluster; other names are searches, not extra polygons. School ratings are not in this snapshot. A neighbor on the schematic map is not a shared fence. MPD counts are DC Code categories, not FBI Part I.
Compiled from Zillow neighborhood guides, 5280 Magazine, Chicago and San Francisco resident guides, Mpls With Love, Eastside LA reporting, Seattle Times coverage, Boston planning-neighborhood writing, Philadelphia neighborhood writing, Portland neighborhood writing, Washington neighborhood-cluster writing, and local writing, 2025–2026. Editorial — not part of the fit score.
On Reddit
Public posts from r/washingtondc that mention this neighborhood. Not Nextdoor, not people on this block, and not part of the fit score.
No r/washingtondc posts in this snapshot mentioned Congress Heights.
Congress Heights shows more DC Code than most of this Washington, DC set (safety 32 vs city 50). MPD logged 9.1 violent and 24.7 property incidents per 1,000 residents — 33.8 combined. Visitors count in those numbers. This is not a judgment of who lives here.
What is rent in Congress Heights?+−
ACS median rent is $1,045 — studios through large apartments mixed together. About 78% of households rent. Median home value is $446,449. Survey medians, not a listing you can message tonight.
Is Congress Heights walkable?+−
Walk is 32 here vs 36 for the Washington, DC set — you will likely drive or ride for a weekly shop. Inside 800 meters: 7 groceries, 0 cafes, 163 transit stops, 22 parks. Not a Walk Score license.
Is Congress Heights good for families?+−
Family fit depends on the school rating nearby and how much quiet you want. Nearby school rating is thin in this dataset. Median age is 37.7. That rating is not your assigned campus.
How long is the commute from Congress Heights?+−
28 typical weekday minutes to Downtown. Not the app on your phone this hour. Other job centers are further down this page.
How many people live in Congress Heights?+−
About 23,206 people. Median income $44K. 18% have a bachelor's or higher.
What neighborhoods are next to Congress Heights?+−
Anacostia, Navy Yard, Capitol Hill sit closest on this map. If you are choosing between two official neighborhood clusters, start with Congress Heights vs Anacostia.
Next door
Closest on this schematic map, scored with the same published walkable weights as the Washington, DC table. Distances here are not street geography.
Cluster 26 is Capitol Hill and Lincoln Park. Row houses, the park, and a violent rate of 1.6 per 1,000. Eastern Market is the errand people mean. Navy Yard is the new buildings south, its own cluster. The corridor north of here is Stanton Park.
Cluster 25 is Union Station, Stanton Park, and Kingman Park. Search H Street and you land here, not in Trinidad. The station and the corridor pull visitors; property rate is 38.2 per 1,000. Capitol Hill is the row houses south.
Cluster 9 is Southwest Employment Area, Southwest/Waterfront, Fort McNair, and Buzzard Point. Search the Wharf and you land here. Waterfront apartments and a federal edge. The park count of 110 includes the Mall within 800 meters, not a hundred local parks. Navy Yard is the newer towers east, its own cluster.
Cluster 27 is Near Southeast and Navy Yard. Capitol Riverfront is the search that means this row. ACS rent is $2,760 and 87.6% of households rent — the most renter-heavy cluster in this set. The waterfront west of the channel is Southwest, its own cluster.
Cluster 28 is Historic Anacostia, a small official polygon of 5,219 people — not all of Southeast. ACS rent is $1,424. Violent rate is 8.2 per 1,000. Congress Heights is the larger cluster south. The river is the west edge.