District residents need to bring in $69,840 a year to afford a two-bedroom on one-third of their monthly income, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Otherwise, they’re considered “cost-burdened households.”

Vacation rentals can provide a cheaper, more comfortable option for tourists visiting D.C. The only problem? They might not be legal.

WMATA announced on Friday that an retail agreement with Movie Solution — who operates “a new and innovative vending machine that dispenses DVD’s, Video Games, and CD’s all at the touch of its interactive screen” — to rent DVDs inside Metro stations would go into effect this summer. Kiosks will be placed inside Farragut North, Farragut West, Foggy Bottom-GWU, Gallery Pl-Chinatown, L’Enfant Plaza, Metro Center, New Carrollton, Rosslyn, Shady Grove and Union Station.

Renters who were able to lock in lower prices this past fall as landlords freaked out about the recession may have been the last to have the upper hand, as rents appeared to rebound in the first quarter of this year. From today’s Wall Street Journal:Apartment rents rose during the first quarter, ending five straight quarters of declines and signaling the worst may be over for the hard-hit sector. Nationally, the apartment vacancy rate…

We’ve argued that the private home rental market for the inauguration has been seriously overblown. Few D.C. residents we’ve talked to report having successfully rented out their pads via Craigslist or other online listing service. But more and more, we are hearing that locals will be playing host to friends and/or family who are willing to crash on a couch for a chance to be a part of the historic celebrations. Are you hosting any…

Ever since Barack Obama was elected president, we’ve heard about the huge crowds coming to Washington for the Inauguration. There have been endless stories for months about D.C. residents renting out their homes and apartments to revelers, and Craigslist is awash in ads. They’re even popping up on Gmail and Facebook. There’s also been a lot written about the numbers associated with the rental phenomenon, with sometimes astronomical figures: $1,000 a night; $30,000 for…

This is the first installment of a new weekly real estate column from Mark Wellborn of UrbanTurf, a local blog and newsletter that covers the residential real estate scene in D.C., MD, and VA. A few weeks before the Democratic National Convention came to Denver this past summer, an email popped up in my inbox from an industrious friend in the Colorado city. “I am going to get $3,000 for my place for the week,”…