Alexandria is gaining new residents at almost twice the rate it’s gaining new housing units.
A new report from housing nonprofit HAND — linked to in the latest Mayor Justin Wilson newsletter — outlined housing trends in the City of Alexandria and offered a breakdown of what kind of housing is being built.
“Alexandria was home to 155,525 people and had 80,361 housing units in 2022,” the report said. “Since 2010, Alexandria has added an average of 1,300 people and 700 housing units per year.”
The HAND report said that 57% of households in Alexandria were renters and 44% lived in housing considered unaffordable — when households spend more than 30% of their income on housing expenses.
The report shows that Alexandria had a steadily increasing number of housing being built, which spiked from 1,258 up to 2,964 between 2021 and 2022.
The HAND report also details the distribution of household income relative to the area median income (AMI). The AMI for Washington-Alexandria-Arlington for a one person household is $106,500. In Alexandria, 29% of the city is in that 80-119.9% of AMI range, while 43% are above and 29% is below.
