Schools

Yorktown High School students are enjoying a three-day weekend thanks to a power issue at the school.

An internal breaker blew, shutting off power to most of the building, according to Arlington Public Schools spokesman Frank Bellavia. APS is awaiting delivery of a part to fix the issue, and expects power to be restored by this afternoon.


News

HQ2’s Employee Count Keeps Growing — “Amazon.com Inc.’s Arlington headquarters seems to get larger by the week. At latest count, there are just shy of 715 employees in leased office spaces in Crystal City and about 125 pending starts.” [Washington Business Journal]

MS-13 Members Plead Guilty to Shooting — “Two MS-13 members pleaded guilty today to their respective roles in a December 2018 shooting and stabbing that occurred in Four Mile Run Park on the border of Alexandria and Arlington. According to court documents, Juan Francisco Rivera-Pineda, 25, and Jefferson Noe Amaya, 24, both Alexandria residents… confronted the victim in the park, shooting him in the throat and arm, and stabbing him in the back. The victim was transported to the hospital where he underwent surgery and survived.” [USDOJ]


Sponsored

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: What areas of Northern VA have the most and least expensive new construction homes?

Answer: The biggest and most expensive new builds in Northern VA are in Great Falls and Mclean. Prince William County offers the most affordability, along with the most house and land for your money.

The following data is based on MLS sales of new construction detached homes in Northern Virginia from 2025-June 1 2026.

Great Falls, Mclean, and Everybody Else

  • The small town of Middleburg is the only city with an average new home price over $3,000,000.
  • Dumfries and Bristow are the only Northern VA cities where the average new home costs less than $1,000,000
  • The average price for a new home in Vienna is $22,000 higher than Arlington

How Big Are New Homes?

  • Most new homes throughout Northern VA come in around 5,000-6,000 finished square feet
  • Mclean (8,450) and Great Falls (8,700) average nearly 2,000SF more than homes in Vienna, the city with the third largest average new home
  • Despite having significantly more room to build, homes in Loudoun County and Prince William County are constructed with a “modest” 4,800 finished SF
  • On average, 5,700 finished SF in Northern VA is filled with 5.4 bedrooms and 5.1 full bathrooms

If Yard and Privacy Matter the Most

  • The average new home in Prince William County sits on nearly 2.7 acres and provides new home buyers with the lowest cost per acre for a new home
  • Privacy in your new home is hard to come by in Arlington, Ashburn, Brambleton, Dumfries, and Bristow with average lot sizes under 0.2 acres
  • Great Falls (1.69) and Oakton (2.07) are the only jurisdictions within Fairfax County with an average lot size over one acre
  • In Northern VA, the average new home is built on 0.84 acres

(more…)


News

To combat a new scam, Arlington County Police are making it clear: they’re not going to call and threaten to arrest you unless you pay them with a prepaid debit card.

The department says it has received several reports of residents receiving unsolicited phone calls claiming to be from an Arlington police officer. The caller asserts that the victim has “an outstanding warrant for their arrest” for an unpaid fine and demands payment, threatening to arrest the victim unless a payment is received via — it’s then revealed — prepaid debit cards.


Event

Join Jadin O’Brien, Olympic athlete, 3x NCAA pentathlon champion and 10x All-American (heptathlon) winner for this in-person and virtual 5K. This event is sponsored by The Alex Manfull Fund to raise awareness and advance research on debilitating infection-associated neuroimmune disorders (including PANS and PANDAS) that affect young people. The 5K is part of the organization’s 36 Hours for PANS and PANDAS Advocacy in Motion event. Runners will receive a Finisher’s Medal, Technical (Drifit) Event Shirt and A Chip Timed Event. The event commemorates the life of Alex Manfull, who died at age 26 due to PANDAS. Susan and William Manfull established the Fund in their daughter’s name with the vision that no life ever again be cut short—or interrupted—by these illnesses. Learn more at TheAlexManfullFund.org.


News

After last summer’s devastating flash flooding, Arlington is ready to move forward with a new set of changes to try to prevent the same level of flood damage.

Staff said at Tuesday’s Arlington County Board meeting that the trend of increasing intensity and frequency of the storms has forced the county to take flood resilience more seriously. Shorter-term solutions that are in progress include new flood sensors, included in this year’s budget, and plans to change regulations for new developments.


Opinion

(Updated at 2:45 p.m.) Mental health wellness is something that has unfortunately been a scapegoat or justification for a number of policy issues to become “unfixable.”

From gun violence and suicide prevention, to long-term healthcare, to test taking and education, a binding thread is a need to focus on mental health. Without the ability to change our national system, what is it that we are doing here, and what are opportunities for improvement?


News

The former Starbucks space at Pentagon Row will soon be serving coffee once again.

The shopping center’s owner announced today that Origin Coffee Lab and Kitchen will be coming to the 2,000 square foot space between Basic Burger and Lebanese Taverna. It’s expected to open this summer.


Feature

Title insurance is boring, but Allied Title & Escrow is here to decode the jargon and make it (somewhat) more interesting. This biweekly feature will explore the mundane (but very necessary!) world of title insurance while sharing interesting stories of two friends’ entrepreneurial careers.

In this week’s edition of Boring Title, we sit down with Melody Abella of TTR Sotheby’s & Ru Toyama of Monument Home Loans to discuss what it takes to beat out other offers in a competitive market. The realtor, lender & title company need to be on the same page and have the ability to close quickly!


Events

Arlington Public Library is hosting author Roxane Gay as part of its 2020 Arlington Reads spring series.

Gay’s collection of essays, “Bad Feminist,” was a New York Times best seller, and was named as one of the best books of the year by NPR. She has also written several other works, including the novel “Untamed State,” the collection of short stories “Difficult Women,” and her memoir “Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body.”