Alexandria residents have continued to seek out local tax assistance as the city’s economy reels from federal layoffs, rising living costs and increased unemployment.
Alexandria has currently provided a total of 95 car tax payment plans averaging some $1,053 each, in addition to 12 real estate payment plans that average $4,189 per year.
Alexandria’s apartment rental costs have cooled over the past year, but remain well above pandemic-era lows.
The city’s median apartment-rental rate in November was $1,996 for a one-bedroom unit, $2,452 for two bedrooms and $2,179 for all units, according to the monthly data analysis by Apartment List.
Facing a decline in job growth, a struggling commercial real estate market and a climbing population, today (Friday) Alexandria released the draft of its first economic development strategy in nearly two decades.
The 63-page ALX Forward draft plan makes a number of recommends to reverse negative trends, including leveraging economic opportunities in Old Town North, Eisenhower East, the West End, and Potomac Yard; retaining local businesses and attracting high-growth industries like artificial intelligence firms; and strengthening support for the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Homes that sold across Alexandria in October garnered the highest per-square-foot price of any jurisdiction in the metro area for the month.
City sellers pocketed, on average, $516 per square foot for their properties, according to new data from Bright MLS, the region’s multiple-listing service.
Homebuyers are out in force across Alexandria, and more sellers in the city are dropping their prices to encourage faster sales, according to new data.
Alexandria saw a total of 625 home showings for the week ending Nov. 2, according to new data from Bright MLS. That’s up 6.1% from the same week a year before and is well above the D.C.-area increase of 3.6% to 23,070 showings during the same period, reflecting “a significant amount of pent-up demand,” according to the report.
Alexandria’s month-over-month and year-over-year apartment-rental costs declined this month but remain above the regional median, according to new data.
The median rental costs of $2,027 for one-bedroom units and $2,490 for two bedrooms represents a 1% decline from September and a 1.1% drop from October 2024, according to data reported yesterday (Thursday) by Apartment List.
Our top story this week is on a new report that Alexandria is among the hardest-hit localities affected by the Trump administration’s layoffs of federal workers. According to a new Brookings Institution report, Alexandria and its neighboring jurisdictions saw sharp unemployment increases. More than 13,000 federal workers live in Alexandria, and more than 76,000 federal employees live in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, which includes Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church and parts of Fairfax County, according to U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-8).
“I do worry that might be a sign of the sort of federal government cuts causing people to feel they need to leave the city,” Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley said in a City Council meeting on Sept. 9.
Alexandria City Public Schools wants a formalized collective bargaining agreement sent to the city manager by the end of the year, but it comes as the city is renegotiating its agreements with police, fire, and administrative and technical staff.
It’s been a year since the school system failed to reach a collective bargaining agreement with the Education Association of Alexandria (EAA). Last year, the School Board held a public hearing and approved a draft collective bargaining resolution with the goal of presenting the package to City Manager Jim Parajon for inclusion in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
Update 1/29: A memo rescinding telework and remote work specifically notes that it does not apply to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
A new executive order mandating federal employees end telework and return to offices could be a boon to the local markets, though a local expert warned not to expect a return to the pre-Covid office market.
On the eve of an annual report on the city’s economy from the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, ALXnow sat down with AEDP CEO Stephanie Landrum to discuss the future of development in three areas of the city: Carlyle, Potomac Yard and Old Town North, and the Landmark-Van Dorn corridor. These will be broken up into a multi-part series covering each location.
Potomac Yard and Old Town North are two of the major hubs of upcoming development in Alexandria, but some of the city’s ambitious plans for the neighborhoods have both hit stumbling blocks in recent years.
This month kicks off a major downsizing at the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) in the Carlyle neighborhood.
A new report from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) put the exact amount of office space the PTO is shedding at 764k square feet.
