For the first time in months, the median rental cost for a two-bedroom Arlington apartment has dipped below $3,000.
That’s according to Apartment List, whose August report pegged the median cost of an Arlington one-bedroom unit at $2,473, a two-bedroom unit at $2,989 and the median for all sizes at $2,627.
That’s down 0.4% month-over-month and 0.5% year-over-year. For the first eight months of 2025, median rents in the county rose 2.6%.
Despite the declines, Arlington retained its position on the Apartment List ranking as the most expensive rental market outside California, with the median rental rate nearly 20% higher than the D.C. metro area as a whole.
Based on typical trends, rates in Arlington and across the region are likely to decline through early 2026. An influx of recently completed units could give renters more of an upper hand than they’ve had in recent years.
Across the D.C. metro region, the median rental rate was $2,198 in August. Among sub-sectors of the region, Ashburn and Tysons followed Arlington as the most expensive, with Forestville having the lowest median rental rate.
Arlington’s rate was 87.6% higher than the nationwide median apartment cost in August, $1,400. Nationally, median rates stood at $1,230 for one-bedroom units, $1,385 for two bedrooms.
Among the 100 large urban areas surveyed monthly by Apartment List, Arlington retained its ranking of fifth most expensive. The top four all were in California: Irvine (median rental rate of $3,084), San Francisco ($3,040) San Jose ($2,940) and Fremont ($2,809).
The least expensive urban area in the survey was Toledo, where the median rental rate for the month was $867.
Nationally, August’s median rental rate of $1,400 was up 22% about January 2021, but represented the first month-over-month decline since January and was the lowest since December 2023.
“All of our key indicators are pointing toward ongoing sluggishness in the multifamily rental market,” Apartment List analysts said, adding:
“Rent growth is slipping and the vacancy rate is at an all-time high. The outlook has been complicated by a continued influx of new units to the market and macroeconomic whiplash being caused by tariffs and other policies being pursued by the Trump Administration.”
Across the nation, urban areas were almost equally split between those where rental costs were rising and where they were falling.
The fastest declines were concentrated in the South and Mountain West, areas that have seen a building spurt that has exceeded immediate demand.
“With construction expected to slow further in the second half of this year and into 2026, conditions are likely to shift, but it will still take time for the market to metabolize the recent growth in the rental stock,” the analysts said.
Nationally, the 7.1% vacancy rate reported in August was the highest in the history of the index. The 29 days required for an apartment owner to lease a unit was up from 28 a month before, but down from 37 recorded at the start of 2025.
Apartment List is one of a number of firms that report monthly apartment-rental data down to the local level. Rent.com also provides updates for Arlington and other communities, using average rather than median prices.
