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.
With President Joe Biden announcing last week that he would not be running for reelection, it’s worth examining the somewhat understated impact Biden had on Alexandria.
Though most of its discussion was relegated to long City budget meetings, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that Biden helped spearhead had a significant impact on Alexandria’s recovery from Covid.
Alexandria is still working out the kinks in its short-term rentals policies, but rentals on sites like Airbnb have already taken over a considerable amount of the city’s transient lodging market.
In a newsletter, Mayor Justin Wilson said there are over 700 short-term rentals in Alexandria, comprising less than 1% of the city’s housing stock, but that those rentals account for over a quarter of the city’s transient lodging tax revenue — a market traditionally defined by hotels.
(Updated 4:40 p.m.) The large office building in Carlyle containing the Motley Fool headquarters is heading to a foreclosure auction.
The 164,407-square-foot office building has a stately appearance at the northern entrance to the Carlyle neighborhood — with the iconic lion statues out front and a distinctive circular turret design — but the building has been the victim of market upheaval since the pandemic devastated office real estate.
(Updated 12/27) An economic impact report released last Friday said the new Potomac Yard arena would create 30,000 jobs and more than double the economic output of previous development plans.
The report came from HR&A Advisors, a consultant hired by the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership AEDP in June as a technical advisor.
Six months in, participants in a new guaranteed income pilot aren’t diving into pools of money; it’s just helping them tread water a little easier.
While there aren’t restrictions on what the money can be used for, Economic Mobility Program Officer Julie Mullen said most of the money distributed in the city’s ARISE Guaranteed Income Pilot is helping those in need with basic necessities.
