After weeks of playing defense, some D.C.-area leaders are now considering a more aggressive approach to the Trump administration.
“We know the president responds to pressure. It’s really important that we continue to fight,” said Fairfax Supervisor James Walkinshaw during a Wednesday (March 12) meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG).
Arlington’s proposed FY 2026 budget continues after-school programs kicked off last year aimed at curbing substance abuse among local teens.
Data shows that Arlington overdoses did, indeed, decline last year among juveniles and in the general population. However, it’s somewhat unclear how much of a role the new Arlington Public Schools programming played in this.
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…)
Substantial economic uncertainty has left Arlington officials facing tough questions as they consider beefing up the county’s reserve fund this year.
The current Fiscal Year 2026 budget draft includes a proposed $11.5 million increase to the county’s Economic Stability Reserve — increasing it from $21.5 million to $33 million.
As the summer is winding down, Art House 7 is gearing up for August Classes! Offerings include painting, drawing, cartooning, mixed media, and printmaking. Some highlights: Animals of the Serengeti, k-2nd; Digital Art, 4th-6th grades; Painting Metal with Watercolor, Adults. Classes are 3-4 weeks: a short commitment for a lot of creative output. Check out everything on our website.
August Classes at Art House 7:
Arlington Rents Still Rising — “Arlington, Virginia, experienced the largest year-over-year increase in asking rents last month, with a 12.1% rise. The average rent in Arlington now stands at $2,591. Bethesda, Maryland, is nearing $3,000 monthly, with a spike similar to Arlington’s.” [WJLA, Zumper]
NTSB: Close Calls, Radio Problems — “At a crucial moment, just 17 seconds before impact, the pilot and other crew members in the Black Hawk may not have received a key instruction from the air traffic controller guiding their flight. The controller told the helicopter pilot to pass behind the American Airlines plane. But, the NTSB said, according to information from the cockpit data recorder, ‘the portion of the transmission that stated ‘pass behind the’ may not have been received.'” [Washington Post, CNN]
Spring Allergy Season Underway — “Sneezing? Watery eyes? A general malaise? It could be the tree pollen. The D.C.-area tree pollen count climbed to 1504.8 grains per cubic meter of air in the latest update. Boosted by the well-above-average temperatures, that value is more than three times higher than yesterday’s count.” [CWG]
It’s Thursday — Patchy fog will clear by 10am, giving way to mostly cloudy conditions and a high around 59. A gentle northeast wind of 6 mph will be present during the day. The night will also remain mostly cloudy, with temperatures dropping to a low of 43. [NWS]
*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.
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 — Mar 12, 2025.
Here is what’s going on Thursday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Patchy fog will clear by 10am, giving way to mostly cloudy conditions and a high around 59. A gentle northeast wind of 6 mph will be present during the day. The night will also remain mostly cloudy, with temperatures dropping to a low of 43, accompanied by a similar east wind at 6 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
– Albert Einstein
The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
Local businesses are weighing their options to cope as record-high egg prices are expected to continue rising this year.
Several Arlington restaurants and bakeries have told ARLnow they are considering raising prices as they face increasingly high costs and, at times, shortages of the ubiquitous ingredient.
Just a few hours remain until the first round of public input closes on transportation needs along Langston Blvd.
The Virginia Department of Transportation and Arlington County have teamed up on a study of the major east-west corridor from N. Veitch Street to N. Lynn Street.
A local piece of long-lost bar scene history is making a comeback in Clarendon this weekend.
The newly reopened Mister Days sports bar is hosting a once-popular street festival dubbed “Rally in the Alley” this Saturday at 1101 N. Highland Street. It’s the first time the festival will happen in Arlington — and also the first time Mister Days has hosted the event — since the bar left D.C.’s Dupont Circle in 2001.
Demolition has begun at the Red Lion Hotel as plans to replace it with a 441-unit apartment building move forward.
Crews have been at work at 1501 Arlington Blvd, demolishing brick structures built in the 1950s as Reston-based Orr Partners plans to build an eight-story apartment building on the 2.2-acre site.
