Good Friday 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 — Sep 8, 2023.
A worker fell into a hard-to-access area at a construction site along Columbia Pike this afternoon, prompting a rescue operation.
Firefighters were dispatched to the intersection of Columbia Pike and S. Oak Street just before 4 p.m. for a report of someone who fell into a concrete box and needed to be hoisted via a rescue basket.
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 has the Arlington single-family home market performed in the first half of 2026?
Answer: Arlington’s single-family detached (SFD) market got busier and more competitive in the first half of 2026, yet prices increased at their slowest pace since 2023.
More Competition, Modest Appreciation (Resale Market)
Note: this data is for resales of single-family detached (SFD) homes; I have a separate analysis of the new construction market further down.
- The average and median price increased 3.5% and 1.9%, respectively
- Over the past five years, the average and median price increased 13.9% and 11.1%, respectively
- The average and median price of a home increased to $1.44M and $1.299M, respectively
- Demand and competition rose to the highest levels since 2022, with 66% of homes selling within the first ten days on market and 68% of homes selling at or above the original asking price
- The average buyer paid 1.3% more than the original asking price, compared to 2025 when the average buyer paid 0.3% less than the original asking price
- Buyers of homes that went under contract within the first week on market paid an average of 4.7% over the asking price
Dig Deeper: Performance Varied by Size, Price Point
The appreciation gap between the average price (3.5%) and median price (1.9%) matters. The average is more sensitive to expensive sales. In 2026, 15.7% of closed resales sold for $2M or more, up from 12.7% in 2025. At the other end of the market, only 21.7% sold below $1M, down from 24.4%. That shift toward higher-priced homes helped lift the average faster than the median.
Average and median prices are useful, but neither tells us whether gains were shared evenly across the market. To test that, I divided the closed resale market into four sold-price quartiles for each year. Each quartile represents one-fourth of that year’s sales, from the least expensive 25% to the most expensive 25%. (more…)
Yesterday’s Severe Thunderstorm Watch resulted in nary a raindrop for Arlington — but Friday evening might be different.
Another Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for the county, for D.C., and for much of the region. It’s in effect until 11 p.m. tonight.
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Last night, hundreds gathered outside the family home of Cpl. Spencer Collart, who died tragically during a training exercise in Australia, to honor his life.
Despite the somber atmosphere at the Maywood home of Collart’s parents, Alexia and Bart, neighbors, friends and family offered prayers, shared fond memories and joined together to sing Spencer’s favorite song, “Africa” by Toto.
Join DC Road Runners and Potomac Valley Track Club for our annual Family Night at the Track and Meet of Miles. The event is open to runners of all ages and paces as well as nonmembers.
This event hosts 400 meter and 800 meter races for kids ages 1-8, as well as multiple 1-mile heats for participants of all ages. There is also a 3K race that is open to participants of all ages.
Announcing the Princess Kona!, the newest Arlington Pet of the Week.
This royal is living it up in her penthouse in Clarendon. She even has her own website that her loyal subjects can follow!
A restrictive covenant used to block a duplex also barred non-white people from buying or renting it
Using a restrictive covenant in a 1938 deed, neighbors in the Tara-Leeway Heights neighborhood convinced a developer to build a single-family home instead of a duplex.
The home, 1313 N. Harrison Street, is not far from a wall that separated the historically Black neighborhood of Hall’s Hill from single-family-home subdivisions originally built exclusively for white people. In addition to specifying that only one home can be built on the lot, a second provision in the deed bars owners from selling to people who are not white.
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(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) Arlington National Cemetery was closed for most of the day today due to a bomb threat.
The cemetery said on social media Friday morning that the threat is being investigated.
This evening, local architecture firms will go can-to-can in a competition to build elaborate sculptures made from canned goods.
The “Canstruction” event takes place at Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. The creations built tonight will be judged on Saturday, though shoppers can also vote for their favorite canned art sculptures through Monday.
Rent Keeps Rising — “Arlington saw the third highest month-over-month increase in apartment rents nationally in August, and now stands as the eighth priciest locality among 100 urban areas monitored by Apartment List. The median rent for an apartment in Arlington stood at $2,318 in the new data, reported Aug. 30. That was up 0.9 percent from a month before, and represents an increase of 9.6 percent since a trough at the start of the year.” [Gazette Leader]
Garvey Mulling Reelection — “Will it be a last hurrah, or serve as the precursor to a re-election bid? Libby Garvey hasn’t made up her mind, but says that either way, she aims to make her (expected) coming year as chair of the Arlington County Board in 2024 an effective one.” [Gazette Leader]