Arlington apartments ranked priciest in D.C. area
Two new data analyses agree: Arlington's relatively high apartment-rental costs are still moving upward.
A Zumper survey released earlier this week has Arlington as the priciest location for apartments in the D.C. region, with a median one-bedroom monthly rental price of $2,410 and median two-bedroom price of $3,220.
Those rates were up 5.2% and 7.7%, respectively, from a year before.
In both bedroom categories, Arlington was trailed in second place regionally by D.C. ($2,310/$3,120), which in each case saw rates down from a year before.
The city of Fairfax and its immediate surroundings in Fairfax County ranked third highest in the list. Lowest-priced rental rates were found in the outer areas of the region, including Hagerstown (median $1,000 monthly for a one-bedroom unit), Fredericksburg ($1,580) and Frederick ($1,750).
Herndon saw the fastest year-over-year rate of growth in the broader Washington area. Arlington and Silver Spring were second and third, respectively, in growth rates.
Apartment List, another firm that analyzes rental rates, has slightly different numbers but the same conclusion — Arlington rents lead the pack regionally, and continue to go higher.
In its October report, released Oct. 28, median rental rates in Arlington were $2,441 for one-bedroom units and $2,950 for two bedrooms, with an overall median rental cost of $2,593.
That was fifth costliest among 100 national urban areas surveyed each month, and Arlington's year-over-year growth rate of 4.1% was sixth highest among those 100.
Among sub-sectors of the Washington area, Apartment List pegged Tysons running second to Arlington, with median apartment-rental rates of $2,401 for one-bedroom units and $2,879 for two bedrooms.
Nationally, the median apartment rent for units of all sizes was $1,394 for October, according to Apartment List. That was down a fraction of a percent from a year before.
Nationally, "apartments are on average slightly cheaper today than they were one year ago," Apartment List analysts said. "Year-over-year rent growth ... has now been in negative territory for nearly a year and a half."
Despite that decline, the national median rent is still more than $200 per month higher than it was pre-pandemic, the analysts say.
