Despite year-over-year declines, Arlington’s median apartment rent is now up 16% from the immediate pre-Covid era and almost 37% from its pandemic low, according to new data.
The median apartment rent in June was $2,601 — $2,449 for one-bedroom units, $2,959 for two bedrooms — according to data released June 30 by Apartment List.
That maintains the county as fifth most expensive among the 100 urban areas tracked by the firm, and the most expensive outside California.
The county’s median rent has followed cyclical norms, rising 3% since January. But it is down 1.9% year-over-year.
A similar trajectory has played out nationally. The median rent across the U.S. in June was $1,385. That was the fifth consecutive monthly increase, but was down 1.2% year over year.
According to Apartment List analysts:
“We are now in the middle of the peak summer moving season, and as such, we’ll likely see prices continue to increase for another month or two before the fall cooldown begins. This trend is in line with typical seasonal patterns — prices generally increase in the spring and summer when most moves take place, and then soften in the fall and winter as moving activity slows.” “The broad contours of this seasonal pattern are a dependable trend, but in recent years we’ve seen sharper winter dips and more modest summer bumps as the market has gone through a soft spell amid a wave of new multifamily construction. As a result, full year rent growth has been negative for each of the past three years.”
In April 2020, just before the full impact of Covid hit the region, the median rent for Arlington apartments stood at $2,235. The county’s rental market bottomed out in January 2021 at a median rental cost of $1,901 before rebounding.
In June, the only urban areas to see higher median rents than Arlington were in California — $3,558 in San Francisco, $3,058 in San Jose, $3,046 in Irvine and $2,929 in Fremont.
At the other end of the scale, the most affordable median rents were found in Toledo ($895), Detroit ($1,036) and Tucson ($1,040).
Across the D.C. metro area, the median June rental cost was $2,168.
Nationally, the vacancy rate has been relatively stable since mid-2025. It was 7.2% in June.
“Despite being on the downslope of the construction boom for nearly two years, the market had been struggling to absorb the swell of new inventory,” Apartment List analysts said. “That may finally be changing, as we see multifamily occupancy also hitting an inflection point in tandem with rent growth.”
Zumper pegs county 7th most expensive
Another firm that analyzes rent trends, Zumper, suggested Arlington was the seventh most expensive rental area in the nation in June.
According to its analysis, the price of one-bedroom units in Arlington grew 2.1% to $2,450 year-over-year, while two-bedroom units fell 3.5% to $3,310.
For the first time since May 2025, the median U.S. one-bedroom rent was in positive year-over-year territory in the Zumper analysis, rising 0.4% to $1,526. The median rental rates for two-bedroom units were essentially flat at $1,905.
“The biggest story in housing is still supply,” Zumper CEO Shawn Mullahy said, adding:
“The national average hides what’s really happening — rent trends are diverging sharply by market, and the common denominator is inventory. Where supply remains elevated, rents are still soft, although the declines are moderating. Where supply is constrained, rents are rising, sometimes aggressively.”
The national rent index “is simply the midpoint between those two realities,” Mullahy added.
