Real estate assessments for Arlington County’s single-family homes dropped an average of 1.25 percent for 2008, officials said last week, but numbers show the county’s real estate picture is all about location.
“The changes that have occurred in the real estate market many times are isolated to neighborhoods, types of properties and even price categories,” said Thomas Rice, the county’s director of real estate assessments. “We’re seeing the downward shift with properties at the lowest end of the price spectrum.”
The northern tip of the county was the only area to see values increase, according to 2008 figures.
Assessments climbed 1.4 percent for homes in the northwest corner of Arlington that is bounded by North Lexington Street on the east and Interstate 66 on the south.
Values rose 1.1 percent in the area just east of that, bounded by N. Glebe Road on the east and Lee Highway on the south, and rose 0.1 percent for the area that stretches east of that to George Washington Memorial Parkway.
The chunk of the county that saw the sharpest drop in values was the southeast section that roughly encompasses Glencarlyn, Forest Glen, Arlington Forest, Barcroft, Columbia Heights West and Alcova Heights. Assessments dropped an average of 5.7 percent there.
The area just north of that, which includes Boulevard Manor, Bluemont, Dominion Hills and part of Arlington Forest, saw a 3 percent value — the second-worst in the county.
Most other areas saw drops of between 1.3 and 2.5 percent, except for the Rosslyn–Clarendon area and the southeast tip of the county including Shirlington, where values stayed the same.
“The change in values for single-family homes largely represents market adjustments over the past two years after six years of double-digit increases earlier in the decade,” an Arlington spokesman said.
County officials did not break down condo figures by neighborhood but said that values dropped an average of 2 percent throughout Arlington.
Neighboring jurisdictions are expected to see similar or sharper decreases in residential real estate values. Officials will release Alexandria assessments in February and Fairfax assessments in March.
