A large, publicly traded company has landed in Arlington, noting the convenient location and nearby amenities of its new spot in Ballston.
Argan, Inc. — which pulled in $257 million in revenue in the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2025 — has relocated its headquarters to Two Liberty Center at 4075 Wilson Blvd.
Additional no-turn-on-red traffic restrictions are coming to Falls Church, and even more may be on the way.
Police Chief Shahram Fard told City Council members that the Department of Public Works has approved several of his requests for additional no-turn-on-red restrictions along Broad Street.
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…)
NTSB Recommends Helo Re-Route — “The National Transportation Safety Board issued urgent safety recommendations to permanently prohibit helicopter operations on Route 4 between Hains Point and Wilson Bridge when runways 15 and 33 are in use at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.” [ALXnow, NBC News]
Home Sales Down, Prices Higher — Arlington home sales totaled 146 in February, according to new figures from Bright MLS, the region’s multiple-listing service. That’s down from 161 a year before. Average sales prices were up in two of three market categories, rising 5.5% to $1,478,212 for single-family homes and 3.2% to $620,551 for attached properties but down 6.9% to $519,375 for condominiums. –Scott McCaffrey
Cherry Blossom Update — “Cherry blossom buds have reached first stage – GREEN BUDS – We think they’re going to advance thru stages FAST this year because of mild weather.” [CWG/X, CWG, NPS/X]
Local Spring Markets — “Head to these (mostly) open-air pop-up shopping venues to forage for deals on all kinds treasures, from live plants and consumable goodies to gently used children’s clothes, books, recycled household goods and handcrafted art pieces by women and minority makers.” [Arlington Magazine]
Free Lyft Rides This Weekend — “Offered by the nonprofit Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP), the 2025 St. Patrick’s Day SoberRide program will be in operation each evening (4:00 pm to 4:00 am) from Saturday, March 15th through Monday, March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day) as a way to keep local roads safe from impaired drivers during this traditionally high-risk period.” [Press Release]
Lunar Eclipse Tomorrow — “The D.C. region along with all of North and Central America, and much of South America, will experience a total lunar eclipse late Thursday into early Friday.” [CWG]
It’s Wednesday — Expect mostly sunny skies with a high temperature around 61 degrees. The north wind will blow at 6-8 mph, eventually shifting to the east in the afternoon. As the night progresses, clouds will increase, and the low temperature will be around 44 degrees. [NWS]
Families will also have the opportunity to tour the Dojo, meet our team, learn about our coding programs and camps, and take advantage of special Open House enrollment offers.
Admission is free, but registration is encouraged.
Good Tuesday 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 11, 2025.
Here is what’s going on Wednesday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Expect mostly sunny skies with a high temperature around 61 degrees. The north wind will blow at 6-8 mph, eventually shifting to the east in the afternoon. As the night progresses, clouds will increase, and the low temperature will be around 44 degrees with an east wind ranging from 3-8 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
– Lao Tzu
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.
Join the Rosslyn BID and Arlington Arts at the 34th Rosslyn Jazz Fest 2026 featuring live jazz, food trucks, local vendors, and family-friendly activities in the heart of Rosslyn! This year’s lineup is bringing a diverse mix of performers and bands redefining the jazz music genre including Plena Libre, Sally Baby’s Silver Dollars, Parlor Greens, and Dogo du Togo & the Alagaa Beat Band.
A dispute over obstructed views from multimillion-dollar condos in Rosslyn has left some officials up in arms and homeowners threatening a lawsuit.
County-government staff last month received multiple tongue-lashings from members of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) over their handling of a 2023 zoning matter at The Waterview condo building in Rosslyn.
A suspect is in custody after a gun was stolen from a Clarendon firearm store, prompting a manhunt.
Police were dispatched to Nova Armory at 2607 Wilson Blvd around 12:20 p.m. for a report of a man who ran off with an unloaded Glock handgun.
A D.C. man is facing several charges after the alleged theft of an electric bike in Crystal City.
Police were dispatched to the neighborhood shortly after 4:30 p.m. this past Thursday after a caller reported seeing a man stealing a locked e-bike and then walking away with it while an alarm sounded.
Even more Arlington office space could become apartments after plans for another adaptive reuse project in Ballston were filed last month.
The owner of 4100 Fairfax Drive, the 13-story tower home to Bronson Bierhall, proposes to convert the structure into an apartment building with 269 housing units. Site plans call for 186 one-bedroom apartments, 66 two-bedroom apartments and 17 studios.
Arlington County Board members have a lighter-than-usual agenda as they plan to gather for their monthly meeting on Saturday (March 15).
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some items worth watching. Among them:
