Falls Church city leaders appear to have a little more budget breathing room over the coming months compared to surrounding jurisdictions.
At a Feb. 23 City Council meeting, finance officials estimated 4% revenue growth in fiscal year 2027 without increasing tax rates. It was a figure Mayor Letty Hardi called “very, very rosy” compared to the situations in Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County.
Arlington home sales were down substantially last month, following trends throughout the D.C. area and across the nation.
January typically is one of the softest months of the year in local real estate, but last month was unusually anemic. In Arlington, 97 properties went to closing, down just over 20% from January 2025, according to data reported Feb. 10 by MarketStats by ShowingTime.
The cost of rent in Arlington appeared to continue a slight decline in January after decreasing in 2025.
The median price of a two-bedroom apartment, $3,120, was down 0.6% month-over-month and 4.9% year-over-year in data reported Jan. 27 by Zumper. The median cost of a one-bedroom apartment, $2,330, was flat month-over-month but down 4.1% from this time last year.
A year with multiple challenges led to a 5% passenger-traffic decline at Reagan National Airport in 2025.
Federal job cuts, the seven-week government shutdown, wintry weather and the aftermath of the fatal midair crash over the Potomac River all affected total passenger levels for the year, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) President Jack Potter said.
The number of Arlington residents counted as unemployed spiked 51% year-over-year in newly released state jobs data.
A total of 5,370 Arlingtonians were recorded as seeking jobs in November, according to figures reported Wednesday (Jan. 21) by the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement. That’s up from 3,561 in November 2024.
Arlington home sales grew 5.4% year-over-year in 2025 despite economic headwinds, according to new data.
A total of 2,315 properties went to closing during the year, up from 2,196 in 2024, according to figures reported Jan. 12 by MarketStats by ShowingTime.
Northern Virginia lost 8,200 jobs as the commonwealth shed tens of thousands of federal workers between November 2024 and November 2025, new data shows.
Non-farm employment in Northern Virginia was down 0.5% as of November, according to data that the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement reported yesterday (Wednesday). The commonwealth as a whole, meanwhile, had lost 22,400 federal jobs year-over-year — an 11.5% decrease.
Median apartment rents in Arlington ended 2025 about 1% lower than they started the year, the first annual decrease in five years.
But according to one analysis, rents in the county remain among the priciest in the nation, about 19% higher than the D.C. area as a whole and 86% more expensive than the national median.
The Arlington real estate market is expected to see a modest rise in sales and prices in 2026, despite economic challenges that may hamper growth.
In the single-family sector, Arlington’s projected 3.8% rate of price growth is on the higher end for jurisdictions in a new 2026 market forecast, released Dec. 29 by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR) and Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.
September jobs data delayed by the federal government shutdown show a 34% year-over-year increase in Arlington residents reported as unemployed, with the rate increasing 54% in Falls Church.
A total of 148,251 county residents were reported employed in the civilian workforce in September, according to figures reported Dec. 18 by the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.
Arlington County’s tax revenue was millions of dollars short of what was expected in the first months of this fiscal year, resulting in cutbacks on some expenditures.
County revenue from real estate taxes and taxes on public consumption — like sales, meals and lodging taxes — was $13 million behind projections during the first four months of the fiscal year that began July 1, County Manager Mark Schwartz said in a County Board briefing yesterday (Tuesday).
Falls Church homeowners may or may not see a dip in real estate taxes next year as property assessments continue to rise.
At a Dec. 3 planning session of City Council members, there was general consensus around the desire to lower the current tax rate to offset expected higher home-assessment values. But doing so was left as a goal, rather than made a requirement, as city staff begins developing the fiscal year 2027 budget.
