Though down month over month and year over year, Arlington’s apartment-rental market remains the priciest in the nation outside California, according to one analysis.
The median apartment-rental cost in Arlington was $2,575 in October, according to figures reported by Apartment List. That represents a drop of 0.9% compared to September and 0.7% compared to a year before — both relatively in line with national trends.
Median rental rates for the county were $2,424 for one-bedroom units and $2,930 for two bedrooms.
The local and national rental markets are facing “ongoing sluggishness” due to seasonality and an influx of new construction that is hitting the market. Rent prices are down and the vacancy rate — 6.6% in Arlington and 7.2% nationally — is the highest it’s been since the early part of the pandemic.
While the market is expected to reach an equilibrium between renters and landlords early next year, “the supply boom still has a bit of runway remaining, and the demand outlook has begun to appear weaker amid a shaky labor market,” Apartment List analysts said.
Across the metro area as a whole, the median apartment-rental rate for the month was $2,166. In the region, Arlington’s overall median rental rate was below only the $2,608 recorded in Ashburn.
Ashburn’s median overall rate is boosted by a larger percentage of two-bedroom or larger apartments in the overall mix. Year-over-year, its rate was up 2.3%.
A community more comparable to Arlington — Tysons — is the most expensive apartment-rental area in Fairfax County. It recorded a 2.1% month-over-month and a 2.3% year-over-year decline in rental prices, with October’s figures coming in at $2,335 for one-bedroom units and $2,800 for two bedrooms.
All other major rental corridors of Fairfax County posted year-over-year increases for October.
The national median rental rate of $1,381 in October was down 0.9% ($13) from a year before, and is off 4.2% from the August 2022 peak of $1,442.
Among the 100 large urban areas tracked by Apartment List, Arlington ranked fifth most expensive for the month, a position it has held for most of 2025 even as local rental rates have cooled from a mid-year peak when Arlington’s median two-bedroom rental rate was more than $3,000 monthly.
The four more expensive areas in the ranking all were in California: Irvine (an overall median rental rate of $3,095), San Francisco ($3,089), San Jose ($2,918) and Fremont ($2,781).
At the other end of the ranking was Toledo, Ohio, with the lowest median rental rate of $892.
D.C. ranked 14th on the list of 100 urban areas at a median rental rate of $2,166.
Nationally, the Austin metro currently has the softest conditions among the nation’s large rental markets, with the median rent there down by 6.5% over the past year. The highest rate of year-over-year growth for October was recorded in Providence, R.I., at 5.3%.
Units are taking an average of 33 days nationally to get leased after being listed, up one day both from a month and a year ago.
While Arlington and the nation as a whole have seen year-over-year declines in median rental rates, Virginia posted an increase of 1% from October 2024 figures in the new data.
