Falls Church City Council members appear ready and eager to give the 6600 and 6700 blocks of Wilson Boulevard the honorary name “Saigon Blvd.”
The new name, which would not impact Postal Service addresses or public-safety responses, will pay tribute to those who came to the local area from South Vietnam after that country’s fall to North Vietnamese forces in 1975.
A Gainesville man is facing a number of charges after a wild incident in Clarendon last night.
Arlington County police say the 45-year-old suspect spat on and threw a brick at a man who was walking in the area. Police say they located the suspect along Clarendon Blvd, leading to a foot pursuit and the suspect allegedly spitting on an officer.
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…)
Reproductive rights, personal values and the economy were at the forefront of many Arlington voters’ minds as presidential election results came in last night.
A few short miles away from the White House, many voters in Courthouse, Ballston and Shirlington pulled from personal experiences as they discussed how a change in the nation’s leadership might affect their lives.
It will be deja vu all over again in the championship match of this season’s girls 6D North Region field-hockey tournament.
For the second straight year, the defending champion Oakton Cougars and Yorktown Patriots will meet in the high-school title match, set for tonight (Wednesday, Nov. 6) at 7 p.m.
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.
Efforts to expedite the conversion of outdated Arlington office buildings to residential uses have moved another procedural step forward.
Planning Commission members voted 8-0 Monday (Nov. 4) to recommend County Board approval of a number of staff proposals aimed at culling aging, often empty, commercial building stock, replacing it with apartments or condominiums.
Democrats in Arlington County Board and School Board races emerged victorious last night by wide margins.
Democratic nominee JD Spain, Sr. claimed 58% of the vote in the race for County Board, according to unofficial election results. This happened in the first round of tabulation, avoiding the need for further tallying under ranked-choice voting.
A Walgreens near Lyon Village is closing today (Wednesday) to make way for redevelopment plans.
The convenience store at 3130 Langston Blvd is on track to be replaced with a 12-story tower with retail on the ground floor and apartments above.
By BEN FINLEY Associated Press
Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia won reelection to his third term Tuesday, defeating Republican challenger Hung Cao.
Fake Arlington Dems Sample Ballot — “Men claiming to be volunteers for Republican 8th District candidate Jerry Torres distributed fake sample ballots with the Arlington County Democratic Committee logo at at least one Alexandria polling location today. The sample ballots — distributed outside of John Adams Elementary School — have all Democratic candidates marked except for Torres.” [ALXnow]
Local Holiday Races — “‘Tis the season for running races. From early November through the end of 2024, you can meet your step goals while honoring veterans, wearing a turkey onesie or laughing all the way. Options run the gamut—ahem—from 5K flat courses to half-marathons on, well, still pretty flat courses.” [Arlington Magazine]
La Coop Opens New D.C. Cafe — After La Coop Coffee closed in D.C. in February, its only brick-and-mortar location was here in Arlington Forest. The café’s shuttered D.C. location has since moved to 500 Kennedy Street NW and opened for business last week. [PoPville]
Rainless Record Likely — “D.C.’s rainless streak — nearing five weeks — will tie a record Tuesday. The day is set to mark the 34th day in a row without measurable rain in Washington, equal to the previous longest streak set in 2007. Weather records in Washington date to 1872. The record is poised to be broken Wednesday, assuming there’s not a stray rain shower, which is just a slight possibility.” [Capital Weather Gang]
It’s Wednesday — Expect partly sunny skies with a high around 79 degrees and southwest winds at 10 to 13 mph, gusting up to 22 mph. The night will be mostly cloudy, with temperatures dropping to around 63 degrees. The southwest wind of 6 mph will become calm after midnight. [NWS]
