In September, Alexandria broke from the broader Northern Virginia trend by posting a double-digit decline in both home prices and transaction volume. The median price of a house sold in the city settled at $660,000, representing an 11.4% decrease compared with September 2025. Meanwhile, the average sale price slipped to $750,137, down 12.5% year over year. Fewer buyers closed deals as well – only 143 homes changed hands, a 14.4% drop from the same month a year earlier.
These figures come from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR) and paint a picture of a market that is cooling faster than its neighbors. While the NVAR region overall recorded a 4.2% increase in the median price to $744,950, Alexandria’s median sits roughly $85,000 below that benchmark, second only to Arlington in terms of lower pricing.
Changing inventory mix pushes prices down
The shift in housing stock is a key factor behind Alexandria’s price erosion. Listings for condominiums and townhouses surged dramatically over the past year – condo inventory rose 44.8% and townhouse listings climbed 29.9%, according to NVAR’s August report. Both property types typically command lower prices than detached single-family homes, whose supply actually fell by 8.5% in the same period. NVAR chief executive Ryan McLaughlin noted that the market is seeing “meaningful growth in condos and townhomes, while the supply of detached homes has declined.”
Because a larger share of the market now consists of more affordable multifamily units, the overall median price is being pulled downward. Yet the overall supply of homes in the NVAR region expanded by 30.7% to 3,477 active listings, translating to a 2.5-month inventory – still tighter than the five-to-six-month balance typically regarded as healthy.
National pendants: pending sales hit record lows
Alexandria’s local slowdown mirrors a broader national chill. Redfin’s latest data show pending home sales across the United States fell 1.9% from the previous week, reaching the lowest level recorded since Redfin began tracking in 2021. The decline was universal, affecting all 50 of the most populous metro areas for the second consecutive week.
Higher borrowing costs are a primary driver. Mortgage rates have lingered around 7.4%, pushing the median monthly mortgage payment to $2,796 – the second-highest point in Redfin’s history. Despite this, the median sale price nationally edged up only 0.2% year over year, suggesting that price growth is losing momentum.
New listings slipped 1.4% week over week, hitting the smallest weekly total since July, while total active listings crept up a modest 0.1% to 1,507,161. The market now offers roughly 4.4 months of supply, inching toward the “balanced” range of four to five months.
What the numbers mean for buyers and sellers
For prospective homeowners, the combination of expanding inventory and stagnant price growth could improve negotiating power, especially in areas where sellers outnumber buyers. Yet affordability remains a hurdle; first-time buyers still grapple with the high monthly payment required to secure a mortgage at current rates.
Agents and developers are being urged to diversify the stock further, adding more entry-level units to meet demand across price points. While Alexandria’s condo and townhouse surge is a step in that direction, officials caution that simply increasing inventory does not automatically make homeownership more reachable.
Overall, the data suggest a market in transition: Alexandria’s price dip and the national pending-sale slump reflect the lingering impact of elevated financing costs, while a broader increase in supply hints at a gradual shift toward a more buyer-friendly environment.
