Two new data analyses agree: Arlington’s relatively high apartment-rental costs are still moving upward.
A Zumper survey released earlier this week has Arlington as the priciest location for apartments in the D.C. region, with a median one-bedroom monthly rental price of $2,410 and median two-bedroom price of $3,220.
It’s the end of an era for a popular Clarendon coffee shop.
After nearly a decade in business at 3003 Washington Blvd, Peet’s Coffee is closing on Sunday, Nov. 24, the company confirmed with ARLnow.
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…)
Board Meetings Could Start Later — Arlington County Board Saturday meetings in 2025 would start an hour later, 9:30 a.m. vs. the current 8:30 a.m., under a proposal coming to Board members Saturday. Any decision won’t be final until the body’s organizational meeting on Jan. 6. [Arlington County]
GMU Law Lawsuit — “Two law students at George Mason University… have filed a free speech and due process lawsuit against the school president and other leaders, saying their constitutional rights were violated after raising concerns about putting tampons in men’s restrooms.” [WTOP, Virginia Mercury]
Ribbon Cutting for Hopkins Clinic — From state Sen. Barbara Favola: “Proud to welcome @HopkinsMedicine to Arlington’s Ballston neighborhood. This center offers primary & speciality care to patients, including walk-ins. It’s located on bus & metro lines in one of our most densely populated areas, taking a step in improving equitable access to care.” [Twitter]
Follow ARLnow on Bluesky — ARLnow will soon start posting local news headlines regularly on Bluesky, the fast-growing social network that just crossed the 15 million user mark. ALXnow and FFXnow are also on the service. [Bluesky]
Local GOP Greets Trump — From Arlington GOP Chair Matthew Hurtt: “Excited to welcome @realDonaldTrump back to the White House today. @goparlington and our friends were out in force as his motorcade made its way onto the White House compound for his historic meeting with @JoeBiden.” [Twitter]
Torri Huske Back on Campus — “An exemplary student, Huske took a gap year last year to prepare for the Olympic Games and returned to Stanford in September. Though she isn’t quite sure of her long-term career goals yet, she will be a design major working in engineering and sustainability.” [Northern Virginia Magazine]
Hacking Event for Parking Data — From Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services: “Hey Arlington nerds: Do this Nov. 16 parking-data hacking event. Please note: this is an in-person multi-person experience so prepare accordingly.” [Twitter]
Some Optimism for More Snow — ” It would be going out on a limb to forecast a cold and snowy winter. But we’re not convinced this winter will be a total bust. In fact, we’re projecting more snow than last winter (8 inches) and perhaps the most since 2018-2019 (16.9 inches). And we don’t expect it to be as mild as most recent winters. We’re predicting that temperatures will end up close to the norm.” [Capital Weather Gang]
It’s Thursday — Expect rain in the afternoon, with cloudy skies and a high of 52°F. Winds will be east at 5-8 mph, and there’s a 70% chance of precipitation, potentially up to a quarter of an inch. Tonight, rain will continue until 4am, accompanied by patchy fog and a low of 45°F, with east wind around 7 mph. The chance of precipitation increases to 90%, with potential amounts between a quarter and half an inch. [NWS]
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 — Nov 13, 2024.
Here is what’s going on Thursday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Expect rain in the afternoon, with cloudy skies and a high of 52°F. Winds will be east at 5-8 mph, and there’s a 70% chance of precipitation, potentially up to a quarter of an inch. Tonight, rain will continue until 4am, accompanied by patchy fog and a low of 45°F, with east wind around 7 mph. The chance of precipitation increases to 90%, with potential amounts between a quarter and half an inch. See more from Weather.gov.
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.”
– Florence Nightingale
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.
With the Player of the Year and multiple other honorees, the Bishop O’Connell Knights were well-represented on this fall’s all-conference girls high-school soccer teams.
Sophomore forward Audrey McKeen, who scored a single-season team record 37 goals this fall, was chosen as the Player of the Year in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. She helped lead O’Connell to a 16-2-3 record, a Northern Virginia Independent Schools State Invitational championship (third in four seasons) and a second in the WCAC tournament.
Three high-school football teams from Arlington will play first-round playoff games in postseason tournaments Friday (Nov.15) with 7 p.m. kickoffs.
The Washington-Liberty Generals and Yorktown Patriots will meet in a 6D North Region contest. Washington-Liberty (10-0) will host the showdown.
Top Arlington County Board priorities including housing affordability and public safety will likely hold steady following JD Spain, Sr.’s victory last week.
However, Spain is seeking to distinguish himself from the Board’s current approach to government oversight, engagement and transparency.
The concept of granting religious organizations more flexibility to create affordable housing on their properties is a good one, Falls Church officials say.
But city leaders remain wary of pending legislation in Richmond that could handcuff local-government zoning powers in order to obtain that outcome.
A new cafe highlighting Turkish, Greek and Lebanese cuisines is opening this week in Falls Church.
Cafe Zevian, a Mediterranean concept by Adem Kaplan, will be located at the bottom of The Kensington senior living facility at 700 W. Broad Street. Opening at 7 a.m. each day, the restaurant will offer breakfast, lunch and dinner options including an array of meat and vegetable dishes.
