Arlington VA

Arlington, Virginia consistently ranks as one of the top DC Suburbs in which to live. It is one of the most sought-after areas for singles, young professionals, families and empty nesters in the metro DC Area. It’s not often a city or town will attract residents from such a diverse demographic. What is it about Arlington that it has such an enduring popularity? Is there anything bad about living here?

Let’s get into Arlington and do a good old-fashioned Pros and Cons analysis.

Pros: What’s Great About Arlington, VA?

Prime Location

Arlington ranks at the top of the list as the most convenient place to live for commuting – anywhere. How is that possible? Easy. It’s in the middle of many different employment areas. DC, Tyson’s Corner and the Dulles Tech Corridor. There are lots of corporate headquarters in Northern Virginia putting you within easy access if Arlington is where you call home.

Because it’s not all about work but overall lifestyle, Arlington offers quick access to DC with bridges connecting to Georgetown, the National Mall and the Southwest Waterfront.  Old Town Alexandria is just down the road if you want to spend some time soaking up local history and charm. Tyson’s Corner is about 20 minutes for restaurants and retail. Virginia wine country out toward the Shenandoah Valley is a couple hours away plus you have two airports – Reagan National Airport right in Arlington and Dulles for international travel.

If you don’t want to drive, you can easily grab the metro in multiple locations in Arlington and the expansion of the silver line out to Ashburn and the airport has really made navigating Northern Virginia much easier.

Green Space, Parks & Outdoor Recreation

Arlington has tons of parks and trails and many walkable areas to enjoy the outside. There are large parks in the northern part of Arlington like Potomac Overlook and Glebe Road Park. There are dozens of smaller neighborhood parks closer to the Wilson Blvd Strip and throughout South Arlington. There are also a bunch of spray-grounds and trails scattered throughout, as well as several dog parks in all parts of Arlington.

For trails, there’s the 18 mile Mount Vernon Trail which runs alongside the Potomac River from Rosslyn to George Washington’s home in Mount Vernon. There’s also the W & OD Trail which is a 45 mile paved trail that starts in the Shirlington neighborhood of Arlington and follows the road of the former railroad, out to Purcellville, VA.

Something that’s pretty cool is that Arlington residents have the opportunity to take advantage of so many activities offered through Parks and Recreation. Classes, camps, sports – they offer an outstanding rec program. The YMCA also has a couple locations, a huge gymnastics program, and a dedicated tennis center.

Hot Tip: Classes can open for people non-residents of Arlington. I’ve been lucky to get the kids into a couple classes even though we’re DC Residents. You will have to wait out the first week of registration though, where preference is given to residents of Arlington.

Arlington also has pools. You can check out the locations and information on their website. There are indoor pools at the three Arlington high schools, an indoor pool at Long Bridge Aquatic Center and an outdoor waterpark at Upton Hill Park.

Arlington Public Schools

All schools in Arlington are administered by Arlington County Public Schools. There are 2 different high school pyramids in the school system that serve North Arlington – Yorktown High School and Washington-Liberty High School. There is one high school that serves South Arlington – Wakefield High School.

Arlington also has HB Woodlawn, which is a high school in Rosslyn that handles admission by lottery. Woodlawn offers more self-directed study and independence, and they have smaller classes.

Elementary schools are all rated well by various online metrics. Scores slide a bit for middle school, but that isn’t an Arlington-specific trend. We all know middle school is the worst, so can anyone really blame the kids?

A few things to know about the school scores – not just in Arlington but the entire DC Area. Because it is so diverse here and because the school scores are derived from testing, this is a tougher metric to use to measure a school. I highly recommend in-person visits to determine if a school is right for your family.

There’s a sentiment in Arlington that if your child needs extra assistance or is ahead of his or her grade, that you have to advocate for your child on your own. But in these conversations with stressed out parents, whether in Arlington, DC or pretty much anywhere else in the country – this seems to be the case.

Food

There is so much variety for food in restaurants and grocery stores. Even some coffee shops like Northside Social have a local cult following here. There are a variety of restaurants and ethnic foods available without feeling like you must venture over to nearby DC. In North Arlington, most of the restaurants are along the Wilson and Clarendon Blvd strips which run one way and parallel to each other. From Rosslyn to Ballston you will find everything from Balkan food at Ambar to Mexican food, to southern cooking at Tupelo Honey, barbeque at Rocklands, seafood at Quarterdeck, pho, burgers and pizza.

Special nod to Colony Grill for pizza. They hail from my hometown in Connecticut and I was thrilled when they began their DC expansion several years ago.

Restaurants are more spread out in South Arlington. You will find them along Route 1 in Pentagon City, along Columbia Pike and in Shirlington. There’s Italian, Mexican, Salvadorean, diners, burgers, pizza and special mention for the Thai restaurants in South Arlington. Thai Square is one of my favorites, but you will find a lot of delicious Thai food in South Arlington!

Every grocery store from the usual local places like Safeway and Giant, to Harris Teeter, Whole Foods and Costco are in Arlington as well.

Diversity

Every type of lifestyle is here. If it’s a large home with a yard and a garage and driveway to park your cars, you can easily find that in the northern part of North Arlington as well as in other areas around the county. If you want to live in a townhome that’s close to retail and other amenities you can go to on foot, that’s also possible in areas like Clarendon. If you want to live a more city/urban lifestyle, there are tons of condos around the county where you can have that lifestyle as well.

Arlington has some initiatives to ensure that the home prices don’t rise out of reach – namely the program called the “Missing Middle Housing.” The premise is that creating homes that are between the larger single family home and apartment/condo style is a duplex or triplex. You can house more families in the county this way, so the idea was to not issue any more single family building permits.

As you can imagine, this has caused all sorts of arguments. Then came the lawsuit and in September 2024, a judge ruled against the county, and the county is appealing. The court said the Arlington County Board was not within their legal rights to pass this bill. And that’s a great lead into my next pro about Arlington…

Good Sense of Community

Many neighborhoods are walkable. People describe friendly neighborhoods, neighborhood text message chains, kids who walk to school, older teens who are allowed freedom to walk around retail areas like Ballston or Clarendon. This is a great place to raise a family. It has an urban lifestyle but if you want to be more suburban, you can find that too!

Cons: What’s Not Great About Arlington, VA?

I’ve described a pretty idyllic place, but there has to be some downsides. Of course there are.

Cost of Living

You guessed it, it’s costly to live here. The median salary in Arlington is $120,071 – which is more than twice the national average in the mid $50,000’s. Household income skews higher for residents living in the northern parts of Arlington and home prices follow suit. While property taxes are higher in Virginia than in DC, income taxes are lower on this side of the Potomac.

Traffic

Traffic was already pretty bad here, but with all the businesses coming to Northern Virginia, expect it to get worse. Fortunately, there is plenty of public transportation available with several metro stops on the blue, yellow and orange lines.

All three metro lines originate in DC, and the orange line heads west and services North Arlington along the Rosslyn, Court House, Clarendon, Virginia Square, Ballston corridor. The blue and yellow lines head into South Arlington. The blue line takes you to Arlington National Cemetery, connects with the yellow line at the Pentagon, then they split again at King Street and head in different southern directions.

Most people in Arlington have cars, but if you live close to public transit, you can go without a vehicle. The metro and buses are thankfully adequate to service most of Arlington with ease.

Tough Real Estate Market

If you are looking for a sweet steal on a home that’s been sitting on the market for a while, Arlington isn’t the place. Homes here move quickly, with a lot of competition. An already tight real estate market was made much worse when Amazon announced HQ2’s arrival to the Crystal City neighborhood of South Arlington.

Most of the homes in North Arlington are larger single-family homes. There are expanded cape cods which will sell in over $1.5M, and McMansions which sell over $2M. Condos are found in the more urban areas – along the Wilson Boulevard corridor from Rosslyn through Ballston. South Arlington has everything from bungalows to huge homes that have been “mcmansioned” from a formerly smaller home like a rambler or ranch.

The land is supremely valuable in Arlington so you will find McMansions that have been built right to the lot lines. It’s always a crapshoot as to what you’ll find when touring homes here. There used to be lots of homes in Arlington, particularly in Crystal City that were used as rentals for many years. Those homes became the young professional’s “group house.”

And then there is a whole other group of homes that have been renovated and added on to by various owners over the years. This often makes valuation for a purchase really difficult because there’s no telling what’s hidden behind the walls. Then what I’ve noticed most recently is a lot of empty nesters who have raised their family here and are downsizing. These homes can be priced all over the place. Sometimes the price makes sense and the home sits on the market, other times it seems overpriced and it gets multiple offers. It’s all about location and condition.

Even though an Arlington home can be beat up from years of tenants or that it is a hodgepodge of design, someone will snap it up because the land is so valuable. This is usually very tough for people moving to Arlington to understand. There will be multiple offers on most everything.

The good news though is that your home value stays strong and real estate stays in high demand.

Conclusion on Living in Arlington VA

If convenience, location, great schools and outdoor activities are on your list of must-haves, it’s worth a visit to Arlington. Arlington checks most of the boxes for most homebuyers. There are price points for mostly every budget. There are also lots of parks and green space. Arlington also offers a location that is easily commutable to Washington DC, Tyson’s Corner and the tech corridor where much of the local jobs are located.