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Home For Sale Real Estate Sign in Front of Beautiful New House.
Alexandria homebuyers and sellers navigated the same crosscurrents as the rest of Northern Virginia in August: fewer sales, slightly higher prices and a market still squeezed for inventory. The city is one of the jurisdictions tracked by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR). Its August figures, released Monday and covering Fairfax and Arlington counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church, show a region moving in step with the national market but running considerably tighter.
Regionwide, closed sales fell 8.0% from a year earlier to 1,324, while the median sold price rose 2.0% to $765,000. Homes changed hands in an average of 26 days, unchanged from August 2025 — and five days faster than the national average.
The national picture pointed the same way, only more gently. About 3.98 million homes sold across the country in August, down 1.2% year over year, and the national median price rose 1.6% to $429,100. Homes nationally averaged 31 days on the market, also unchanged.
Why supply is the real story
The sharpest contrast between the local and national markets is how much is actually for sale. Measured in “months of supply” — how long it would take to sell every listed home at the current pace of sales — Northern Virginia had just 2.08 months in August, less than half the national figure of 4.9 months. That scarcity helps explain why local prices keep edging up even as sales slow.
Inventory is growing — and faster than it is nationally. Active listings across the region rose 18.5% from a year earlier, more than triple the national increase of 5.9%. But the growth is uneven. According to NVAR, condo listings jumped 44.8%, from 915 to 1,325, and townhouse listings rose 29.9%, while the supply of detached single-family homes actually fell 8.5%. “We are seeing meaningful growth in condos and townhomes, while the supply of detached homes has declined,” said NVAR CEO Ryan McLaughlin.
“The market is gaining supply, particularly in the attached-home segments, but buyers are not seeing the same level of choice that exists nationally,” McLaughlin said. “That distinction helps explain why prices continue to edge higher even while sales are down.”
For Alexandria — where much of the housing stock is attached, from Old Town rowhouses to condos along the waterfront and the West End — that pattern lands close to home. Buyers have more to choose from than a year ago, especially among condos and townhouses, but the region overall remains far tighter than the national market, and prices are still inching up.
