I don't know what you've been observing, but the DC area is pretty much legacy programmer heaven. Nobody there thinks that they'll be out of work by their late thirties. Whoever told you that programmer careers end at the same age in the Bay Area misinformed you also. The issue of slow/absent career growth beyond the first decade working is definitely not market-specific (it has more to do with the current state of software engineering and the business of software), but that is a world apart from unemployment.