Look, we get it – there are a million podcasts out there.
But how many of them will tell you about a TikTok-famous toucan getting stuck behind a Pentagon City dishwasher? Or dive deep into why that Waymo self-driving car was seen parked in Arlington?
A new mahjong studio for both established players and those hoping to learn the popular game has opened in Falls Church.
Local mahjong player Tori Rittinger, who launched Talk Tiles to Me at 113 Rowell Court last week, said she fell in love with the game when a friend got her hooked in 2021.
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 much of an impact do you think the ROAD to Housing Act will have on housing affordability in Arlington?
Answer: The Road to Housing Act became law ten days ago, with the stated goal of improving housing affordability in the United States.
I don’t see many policies in the Act that will improve affordability in the Arlington/Northern VA/DC Metro markets, outside of incentives for more affordable multi-family housing, but there are policies that should improve affordability in other markets that are more saturated with institutional investors that own swaths of single-family homes (e.g. Atlanta and Phoenix) and for manufactured/mobile homes.
The Local Conversation Needs to Change
If we are going to improve affordability in our market, most of the change has to be done locally/regionally, not nationally, but it requires a paradigm shift in how we discuss and solve for housing affordability.
Affordability Disconnect: Near Term Expectations Not Realistic
A disconnect between housing affordability expectations and reality prevents the right community and political conversations from happening. We expect/demand housing affordability immediately, ignoring the difficulty, and consequences, of achieving it that quickly.
Stable and healthy housing affordability is a long-term process requiring gradual change over a 10-15+ year period.
Demand-Side Solutions Won’t Work
Demand-side solutions, such as lower interest rates or easier financing, artificially inflate home values, as seen during the COVID-era housing boom and early 2000s. They are not a good long-term solution to affordability because they push values even higher (along with your property taxes) and affordability gets worse when rates/lending normalize and no longer provide artificially low monthly payments.
Supply-Side Solutions Are Not Immediate
Most policy discussions focus on supply-side solutions: building more/faster and denser housing (e.g. Arlington’s Missing Middle/Expanded Housing Option), incentivizing more existing home sales, or disincentivizing concentrated ownership by companies and individuals. Econ 101 tells us that more supply = lower prices = affordable housing (winner winner!).
This is the only path to stable, long-term housing affordability…BUT, at current interest rates, prices must drop 30-35% in the United States to become affordable, at current income levels. A 30-35% drop in home values would devastate the economy, so a supply-side solution won’t (shouldn’t) provide immediate affordability. (more…)
Two men allegedly tried to rob a mail carrier in Arlington this past Friday afternoon.
Arlington County police were dispatched to N. Columbus Street just north of Route 50 — in the Arlington Forest neighborhood — around 12:45 p.m. on Sept. 5, for reports of an attempted robbery by two men, one of whom implied having a gun.
A family-owned steakhouse and raw bar from Maryland hosted a ribbon cutting at its first Virginia restaurant yesterday (Monday) in Falls Church.
Olney-based GrillMarX is now open in the Little City, serving hand-cut steaks, hearty entrees and Virginia wines at 510 S. Washington Street. The new two-level restaurant hosted its grand opening on the ground floor of 455 at Tinner Hill apartments.
*Mamistad Groups meet IN PERSON-only the introductory Zoom call is virtual. :)
Pregnancy and new mom groups are a lifesaver when it comes to normalizing those feelings we just can’t be prepared for.
A national boxing gym franchise appears to be planning a new location on Columbia Pike.
Title Boxing Club is laying the groundwork for a possible location at Centro Arlington, in the retail bay where Orangetheory Fitness closed last year. The business applied for a commercial builders’ permit there last month.
A major affordable housing provider plans to transition near-all of its Arlington properties to new management firms by the end of the year.
Affordable Homes & Communities (AHC) has hired two new management groups to oversee its D.C.-area properties, including 23 apartment buildings in Arlington. The nonprofit, which has faced complaints of poor living conditions at some of its Arlington communities, says it hopes to improve residents’ experiences.
Should Arlington Public Schools bring back school resource officers? Candidates running for School Board have starkly different opinions.
School Board candidate James “Vell” Rives IV used the Sept. 2 Arlington County Civic Federation candidate forum to press for a return of resource officers, known as SROs, which were removed from county schools four years ago.
Two nonprofits are preparing for a survey of Arlington voters’ experiences with ranked-choice voting shortly after polls close in November.
The goal is to “have the survey in the field immediately after the election, so opinions are fresh,” said Sally Hudson, executive director of Ranked Choice Virginia.
Acquisition for Ballston Company — “Safran Defense and Space Inc., the Arlington-based unit of French aerospace manufacturing giant Safran SA, is beefing up its ties to the U.S. defense sector with its first-ever acquisition. The company, whose U.S. headquarters is in Ballston, has acquired Attollo Engineering, a Camarillo, California, company.” [WBJ]
Results from Local Tech Fund — “A county-backed fund in Arlington is seeing some return on investment as it enters its third year. The Arlington Innovation Fund… granted funding to startups in early 2024: Nine firms received non-dilutive funding ranging from $25,000 to $50,000. Since then, companies have collectively raised $25 million after participating in what’s called the Catalyst Grant Program.” [Technically]
Arlington Then and Now — ” I can remember walking on the North Scott Street bridge over I-66, on my way to the Metro, and wondering why there was no traffic on the highway (I-66 in Arlington had not yet been opened). At that time the Ballston Metro was the end of the line.” [FCNP]
Substance Abuse in N. Va. — “Inova Health on Wednesday released new data finding nearly half of adults in Northern Virginia are either personally impacted by substance use or know someone who is, with even higher numbers among millennials.” [FFXnow]
It’s Tuesday — Expect sunny skies and a high of around 76 degrees with a northeast wind blowing at 6 to 9 mph. By Tuesday night, the sky will be mostly cloudy with a low temperature near 59 degrees. [NWS]
