A restaurant, brewery and ax throwing venue plans to open in what is currently the ground floor of Barnes & Noble at The Crossing Clarendon.
Three Notch’d Brewing Company is expected to open in 2026 as the bookstore consolidates into its upper level at 2800 Clarendon Blvd, April Laney, a senior leasing agent for property owner Regency Centers, told ARLnow.
ARLnow columnist Eli Tucker wants to answer your burning real estate questions, in person.
The local real estate expert is hosting a free Home Buyer Workshop on Tuesday, October 29th, from 6-7:30 p.m. at Arlington Central Library’s Bluemont Room. This event, co-hosted by Eli Residential Group and Atlantic Coast Mortgage, aims to demystify the home buying process in Arlington’s competitive market.
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…)
New signs have appeared in Courthouse indicating changes in how much it costs to park.
The signs stand at the intersections of N. Courthouse Road with 13th Street N. and Clarendon Blvd with N. Barton Street, indicating both the number and price of available parking spots in real time.
Candidate Fundraising Update — “As of Sept. 30, [Democratic County Board nominee JD] Spain’s campaign committee received a total of $192,476 in donations, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks campaign finance in the state. By comparison, Independent candidate Audrey Clement reported receiving $17,511, Forward Party candidate Madison F. Granger raised $9,180 and Republican Juan Carlos Fierro brought in $8,516.” [Patch]
Armed Robbery on Columbia Pike — “At approximately 3:35 p.m. on October 18, police were dispatched to the report of an armed robbery. Upon arrival, it was determined that the suspect entered the business, approached the counter and asked to purchase merchandise located behind the counter. When the employee opened the cash register to complete the sale, the suspect brandished a firearm, reached over the counter and stole an undisclosed amount of cash from the register before fleeing the scene on foot.” [ACPD]
Drug Take-Back Day Nears — “The Arlington County Police Department (ACPD) is encouraging the community to safely dispose of unwanted, unused and expired prescription medications on Saturday, October 26 during the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) fall National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day… Arlington County offers four permanent drug take-back boxes where community members can anonymously dispose of prescription medications for free.” [ACPD]
Honor for AFAC Head — Charles Meng, CEO of the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC), has been named recipient of the 2024 Community Leader Award from the Inter-Service Club Council of Arlington. The award will be presented at a luncheon on Nov. 20, featuring keynote speaker John Milliken. –Scott McCaffrey
Student Growth at F.C. Schools — Falls Church City Public Schools saw its student enrollment grow 3.1% year-over-year to 2,174 in new data reported to the Virginia Department of Education. The official 2024-25 enrollment count on Sept. 30 was 489 at Mount Daniel Elementary, 592 at Oak Street Elementary, 638 at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle and 920 at Meridian High, plus 75 pre-K students citywide. [Falls Church City Public Schools]
It’s Tuesday — Expect sunny skies and a high temperature of around 81°F, with light south winds of around 5 mph picking up in the afternoon. Tuesday night will be mostly clear, with lows near 51°F. [NWS]
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.
Good Monday 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 — Oct 21, 2024.
Here is what’s going on Tuesday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Expect sunny skies and a high temperature of around 81°F, with light south winds of around 5 mph picking up in the afternoon. Tuesday night will be mostly clear, with lows near 51°F, and south winds remaining at about 5 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
– Nelson Mandela
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.
Female competitors will take the spotlight for the remainder of the Virginia High School League’s 2024 golf season.
Thirteen players from Arlington schools are among 70 throughout Northern Virginia that will participate in a state-tournament qualifying event at Twin Lakes Golf Course in Clifton. Then, on Monday, Oct. 28, those who earned berths will play in the VHSL’s Girls State Open, for all enrollment classifications combined, at Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonburg.
The Wakefield Warriors fell to 2-6 overall with a 40-15 road loss to the Marshall Statesmen on Oct. 18.
The third straight setback kept Wakefield winless in the Liberty District high-school football standings with a 0-4 record.
An unresponsive driver was pulled from an SUV after a three-vehicle crash Monday afternoon in Ballston.
The crash happened shortly before 3:15 p.m. in front of the apartment building at 4000 Wilson Blvd.
A fire engine in the Ballston area was out of service last night due to understaffing at the Arlington County Fire Department.
Engine 102 was ACFD’s busiest fire engine last year, responding to over 3,400 calls. As the department continues to grapple with high vacancy rates, however, the equipment was temporarily “browned out” — impacting firefighters’ ability to respond to medical calls as well as fires.
