Northern Virginia’s housing market is booming after Amazon’s HQ2

Tech giant expects to bring 25K workers to area

The housing market in northern Virginia took off as soon as Amazon announced it would be bringing half of its second headquarters to Crystal City, and that boom shows no signs of letting up more than a year down the line.

Data released by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors shows that the average home sale price in Alexandria City and Arlington and Fairfax counties rose by 4 percent, from $590,582 in 2018 to $614,236 in 2019. While total sales remained on par with the previous year, rising prices drove up total dollar volume.

“Northern Virginia has been the region’s leader in job creation, and as Amazon and other local employers build their workforces in 2020, this should help sustain our strong Northern Virginia housing market,” NVAR chief executive Ryan Conrad told WSUA, the local CBS affiliate.

The tech company plans to eventually bring 25,000 employees to the area, and 400 are already working from leased space, Inman reported. Construction on the Crystal City headquarters – owned by real estate firm JBG Smith – is set to begin early this year.

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Inventory in the area surrounding Crystal City fell drastically in the wake of Amazon’s November 2018 announcement. The amount of time the average home stays on the market in northern Virginia has been cut in half, falling to 24 days compared to 55 days in 2018.

Amazon’s announcement produced a similar wave of excitement in Long Island City’s real estate circles, but those effects have long worn off following the e-commerce behemoth’s decision to scrap those plans in the face of local opposition. [Inman] — Kevin Sun