News

Stephen Oxenrider, a beloved former Arlington Public Schools teacher, passed away on Tuesday, Aug. 12, after nearly two years of battling pancreatic cancer. He was 73.

Oxenrider taught English as a Second Language (ESL) for 35 years in Arlington, beginning at Kenmore Middle School before transferring to Swanson Middle School, where he stayed until retiring in 2007, per his obituary.


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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: What areas of Northern VA have the most and least expensive new construction homes?

Answer: The biggest and most expensive new builds in Northern VA are in Great Falls and Mclean. Prince William County offers the most affordability, along with the most house and land for your money.

The following data is based on MLS sales of new construction detached homes in Northern Virginia from 2025-June 1 2026.

Great Falls, Mclean, and Everybody Else

  • The small town of Middleburg is the only city with an average new home price over $3,000,000.
  • Dumfries and Bristow are the only Northern VA cities where the average new home costs less than $1,000,000
  • The average price for a new home in Vienna is $22,000 higher than Arlington

How Big Are New Homes?

  • Most new homes throughout Northern VA come in around 5,000-6,000 finished square feet
  • Mclean (8,450) and Great Falls (8,700) average nearly 2,000SF more than homes in Vienna, the city with the third largest average new home
  • Despite having significantly more room to build, homes in Loudoun County and Prince William County are constructed with a “modest” 4,800 finished SF
  • On average, 5,700 finished SF in Northern VA is filled with 5.4 bedrooms and 5.1 full bathrooms

If Yard and Privacy Matter the Most

  • The average new home in Prince William County sits on nearly 2.7 acres and provides new home buyers with the lowest cost per acre for a new home
  • Privacy in your new home is hard to come by in Arlington, Ashburn, Brambleton, Dumfries, and Bristow with average lot sizes under 0.2 acres
  • Great Falls (1.69) and Oakton (2.07) are the only jurisdictions within Fairfax County with an average lot size over one acre
  • In Northern VA, the average new home is built on 0.84 acres

(more…)


News
Cyclists ride past Minor’s Hill (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Local Marine Died Attempting Rescue — “Alexia and Bart Collart braced for a hard visit. Marines came to their home in Arlington, Virginia, last week to brief them on what caused the Osprey crash in Australia last year that resulted in the death of their son and two other Marines. But they weren’t expecting to hear these words: Your son didn’t die in the crash… Collart ‘heroically reentered the burning cockpit of the aircraft in an attempt to rescue the trapped pilots,’ the official Marine Corps investigation into the crash found. ‘He perished during this effort.'” [CBS News]

From Tragedy to Wedding — “Spencer’s family met Waser for the first time at the funeral. This time it was Waser who put on dress blues to serve as a pallbearer and escort his best friend’s remains from Dover Air Force Base to Arlington National Cemetery. Spencer’s younger sister, Gwyneth Collart, felt instant chemistry. Her parents saw it too… Gwyneth Collart and Waser married July 6 in Arlington and held their reception at Top of the Town, a ballroom that has a terrace overlooking Arlington National Cemetery.” [Associated Press, YouTube]

County Fair Starts Today — “With free entertainment, family friendly attractions and food eating championships galore, the Arlington County Fair is returning next week. New this year at the fair — which opens on Wednesday, Aug. 14 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 18. — is an additional eating competition. A burrito eating contest hosted by Los Chamacos.” [ARLnow]

School Board Mulls Budget Changes — “School leaders are working sooner rather than later to address the possibility that the good times might stop rolling. School Board members and top school-system staff in July gathered in a retreat setting to take ‘a very strategic look’ at budgeting going forward, Superintendent Francisco Durán said at the Aug. 1 School Board meeting.” [Gazette Leader]

Weenie Beenie Anniversary — “A business in Arlington County, Virginia, may have the funny name of “Weenie Beenie,” but it has a serious reputation for cooking up wildly popular food. This year, the eatery is celebrating its 70th anniversary, having been around since 1954.” [WTOP]

VSP Steps Up I-66 Enforcement — “The Virginia State Police Culpeper and Fairfax Divisions will be conducting Operation DISS-rupt on all 76 miles of Interstate 66 in Virginia on August 16-17, 2024. The traffic enforcement and educational safety initiative focuses on Distracted driving, Impaired driving, Speed compliance and Seat belt safety.” [Press Release]

Local Home Sales Flat — “Both sales and average sales prices in Arlington’s single-family homes market in July were as flat as could be compared to a year before. The 78 sales of single-family properties represented no change from a year before. The average sales price of $1,413,294 was up less than $1,000 (.07%) from a year ago.” [Gazette Leader]

F.C. Asks for Special Election — “At its Monday, August 12, 2024, City Council meeting, the Council voted to petition the Arlington Circuit Court to allow a Special Election, concurrent with the General and Special Elections on November 5, 2024, to fill the vacancy after the resignation of former Council Member Caroline Lian.” [City of Falls Church]

It’s Wednesday — Expect sunny conditions with a high near 86 and a north wind of 5 to 8 mph. Wednesday night will be mostly clear, with a low around 66 and a light northwest wind. [NWS]


Around Town

Good Tuesday evening, Arlington. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.

🕗 News recap

The following articles were published earlier today — Aug 13, 2024.

📅 Upcoming events

Here is what’s going on Wednesday in Arlington, from our event calendar.

☀️ Wednesday’s forecast

Expect sunny conditions with a high near 86 and a north wind of 5 to 8 mph. Wednesday night will be mostly clear, with a low around 66 and a light northwest wind. See more from Weather.gov.

💡 Quote of the Day

“In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.”
– Nikos Kazantzakis

🌅 Tonight’s sunset

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.


Around Town

Forty years since its founding, the Eden Center remains a community pillar of Falls Church and thriving destination for visitors from throughout the D.C. area and beyond.

Known for its immigrant-run restaurants and grocery stores, the expansive commercial center — situated just over the Arlington border on the 6700 block of Wilson Blvd — is a landmark of Northern Virginia’s Vietnamese community.


Around Town

A new donation program at Reagan National Airport is providing local charities with unopened and gently used toiletries that would otherwise be thrown away.

Since April, the “Donate Don’t Discard” initiative has collected 2,913 items that failed to comply with TSA restrictions and would otherwise have gone to the landfill. Instead, products such as toothpaste, lotion, hair gel and sunscreen now go to D.C.-area charities that distribute products to unhoused people, domestic violence survivors and other people in need of basic necessities.


Around Town

Nearly every morning for the past four years, an Arlington 87-year-old has made the trek from his apartment in Ballston to Glencarlyn Park to scour the recreation area for litter.

Alan Wile typically leaves his home around 7 a.m. and spends the next two to three hours combing the trails and picnic areas of the 100-acre park. He collects an average of three to four bags of trash each day — everything from beer bottles and cans to discarded diapers and plastic bags.