It’s going to be hot, hazy and moderately unhealthy to be outside today (Thursday).
The National Weather Service just issued a Heat Advisory, starting at 11 a.m. and remaining in effect until 8 p.m. tonight. That’s on top of the earlier Code Orange air quality alert, amid the sweltering weather and smoke from wildfires in Canada and Minnesota.
A Pentagon City ice cream shop is hosting a meet-and-greet this weekend with a local, internet-famous toucan.
Chester, a 9-year-old toucan with nearly 850,000 followers on TikTok, will be posing for photos at Mimi’s Handmade Ice Cream (1201 S. Joyce Street) from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday.
This regularly scheduled column is written by Eli Tucker, Arlington-based Realtor and Arlington resident. If you would like to work with Eli and his team in Northern Virginia and the greater D.C. Metro area, you can reach him directly at [email protected].
Question: How has the Arlington single-family home market performed in the first half of 2026?
Answer: Arlington’s single-family detached (SFD) market got busier and more competitive in the first half of 2026, yet prices increased at their slowest pace since 2023.
More Competition, Modest Appreciation (Resale Market)
Note: this data is for resales of single-family detached (SFD) homes; I have a separate analysis of the new construction market further down.
Dig Deeper: Performance Varied by Size, Price Point
The appreciation gap between the average price (3.5%) and median price (1.9%) matters. The average is more sensitive to expensive sales. In 2026, 15.7% of closed resales sold for $2M or more, up from 12.7% in 2025. At the other end of the market, only 21.7% sold below $1M, down from 24.4%. That shift toward higher-priced homes helped lift the average faster than the median.
Average and median prices are useful, but neither tells us whether gains were shared evenly across the market. To test that, I divided the closed resale market into four sold-price quartiles for each year. Each quartile represents one-fourth of that year’s sales, from the least expensive 25% to the most expensive 25%. (more…)
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) was a supporter of an amendment to slash U.S. military financing to Israel, which divided House Democrats yesterday (Wednesday).
Prior to the 104-314 vote — which pitted supporters including House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) against opponents including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) — Beyer voiced support stripping $3.3 billion in support to Israel.
Reported crimes declined in all major categories between 2024 and 2025 in Virginia, with some rates reaching five-year lows.
Paralleling similar decreases in Arlington, overall violent crime dropped by 6%, from 19,862 crimes in 2024 to 18,722 in 2025, according to a dashboard from Virginia State Police.
Join DC Road Runners and Potomac Valley Track Club for our annual Family Night at the Track and Meet of Miles. The event is open to runners of all ages and paces as well as nonmembers.
This event hosts 400 meter and 800 meter races for kids ages 1-8, as well as multiple 1-mile heats for participants of all ages. There is also a 3K race that is open to participants of all ages.
Iraqi Visit Grounds DCA — New details have emerged about Tuesday’s ground stop at Reagan National, when security for Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s visit halted flights for hours. “Commercial flights were postponed from taking off or landing at the D.C.-area airport from 11 a.m. ET until around 3 p.m. Over 300 flights were delayed and at least 126 flights were canceled, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware.” [CBS News, Dave Statter/X]
JBG Smith Exits Rosslyn — JBG Smith is poised to sell Central Place Residences, a 31-story, 377-unit apartment tower atop the Rosslyn Metro station at 1800 N. Lynn Street, to Boston-based Berkshire Residential Investments for a price expected to top $200 million. The deal would mark the Bethesda-based developer’s full exit from the Rosslyn market. [WBJ]
Drifting at the Pentagon — “Someone had fun at 3:30 this morning at a Pentagon parking lot on Army Navy Drive,” Dave Statter posted Wednesday, sharing video of the pre-dawn drifting. He wondered whether it was the same driver who used to do the same thing at the intersection with Eads Street before police caught him near the Pentagon. [Dave Statter/X]
O’Connell Runners Defend Titles — The Bishop O’Connell boys cross-country team is gearing up to defend two 2025 championships this fall. Last year’s squad first won the Virginia state Catholic crown, then captured the Division I state championship for the first time in 25 years. It has many key performers returning. [RunWashington]
MWAA Taps Airport Advisers — The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority awarded a combined $50 million in contracts to HNTB, Accenture and EY to help oversee coming infrastructure projects at Reagan National and Dulles. The work is expected to include replacing Reagan National’s aging Terminal 1 “banjo” concourse and a $22 billion overhaul at Dulles. [WBJ]
Who Pays for Power Lines — Consumer advocates and Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s (D) administration are pushing state regulators to make data centers pay for the high-voltage transmission lines that serve them, part of a Dominion Energy case over how power line costs hit customer bills. The State Corporation Commission has until Aug. 1 to decide. [Virginia Mercury]
Heat Slows Amtrak Trains — Amtrak has added temperature-related speed restrictions across the Northeast, including the D.C. region, as extreme heat grips the area. Trains may run at reduced speeds and face delays between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. through Friday, and affected customers have already been notified. [Fox 5]
Business Optimism Ticks Up — Optimism among N. Va. business leaders is improving, though some worry about taxes and the state’s new paid family and medical leave program, according to a second-quarter survey from the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and PR firm Pinkston. About three-quarters are optimistic about their company’s performance, up from 67% in the first quarter. [FFXnow]
Youngkin Joins Venture Studio — Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is returning to dealmaking, joining venture studio Red Cell Partners as a partner, chairman and board member, he told Axios. Youngkin, who left as Carlyle co-CEO in 2020 to run for governor, said the role will take one to two days a week and reiterated he has no plans to run for president in 2028. [Axios]
It’s Thursday — Expect mostly sunny skies with a high near 100 and heat index values as high as 104, along with areas of smoke between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Winds will be light from the northwest at 3–8 mph. Overnight, a slight chance of evening showers and thunderstorms gives way to a partly cloudy low around 77. [NWS]
There’s more local news to explore. Check out WSHnow, with stories from around the region.
Photo courtesy Dave Statter
Good Wednesday evening, Arlington. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.
The following articles were published earlier today — Jul 15, 2026.
Here is what’s going on Thursday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Expect patchy smoke from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with mostly sunny and hot conditions, reaching a high near 100°F and a heat index up to 104°F. Winds will be light and variable, shifting to the west at 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon. Thursday night will be partly cloudy with a slight 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11 p.m., followed by patchy smoke. The low will be around 76°F, with west winds around 6 mph turning north in the evening. See more from Weather.gov.
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
– Henry Ford
The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.
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An Arlington man who engaged in an armed standoff with the FBI in May 2025 has been sentenced to prison for sexually exploiting multiple minors.
Stephen Chadwick Howell, 25, was sentenced to 18 years and 10 months behind bars today (Wednesday) for coercing a minor to engage in sexual activity and destroying property to prevent search and seizure.
A suspect accused of stealing a woman’s car at gunpoint in Cherrydale was arrested yesterday evening (Tuesday) following a chase and rollover crash in D.C.
The Prince George’s County Police Department spotted the stolen SUV around 11 p.m., hours after the original incident that took place around 1 p.m. yesterday at 18th Street N. and N. Randolph Street.
A construction project at the former Red Lion Hotel on Arlington Blvd is moving forward as scheduled with plans to start leasing next summer.
The 441-unit project at 1501 Arlington Blvd, dubbed “Elara,” is on track to welcome its first tenants in June 2027, David Orr, founder and CEO of Orr Partners, told ARLnow.
