A recent spike upward in the number of price cuts in the Arlington housing market could be connected to local and regional economic anxiety .

A key expert in the field tells ARLnow the data will be worth watching, but it is still too early to tell whether it is a one-time blip or the start of a more significant trend.

For the week ending Monday (March 3), 11.1% of Arlington home sellers reduced listing prices. That’s more than double the 5.4% rate of a year before, and comes during what typically is the beginning of the robust spring home-sales season.

That figure was among weekly data r eported by Bright MLS , the region’s multiple-listing service. The organization’s chief economist is not yet sure whether it’s a trend in the making.

“Typically, between 7% and 8% of active listings would have a price drop in a given week,” Lisa Sturtevant told ARLnow. “While this week the share is higher in Arlington, we’ll have to wait and see if this is a larger trend in sellers cutting their asking price.”

She and her colleagues are “watching pricing trends very closely,” Sturtevant said.

Among major jurisdictions across the DC region, Arlington had the highest percentage of price cuts, and was the only one in double digits.

In Northern Virginia, the rates of price-cutting reported March 3 were 6.9% in Alexandria, 7.8% in Fairfax County, 8% in Prince William County and 8.6% in Loudoun County. In Maryland, rates were 7.6% in Prince George’s County and 9.9% in Montgomery County. In the District of Columbia, the rate was 7.5%

Across the DC region as a whole, homes with price cuts during the preceding week totaled 7.8%, up 1.3 percentage points from a year before.

The median sales price for homes that went on the market across Arlington for the week was $899,000, according to Bright MLS data. That figure includes all types of properties, from single-family to condominium.

Arlington home-sales figures for February are slated to be released March 10.

Among Northern Virginia jurisdictions, Arlington is the home to one of the largest percentages of federal workers and contractors as residents. That, coupled with the significant presence of federal agencies located in Arlington, puts the county at significant economic risk as the Trump administration continues efforts to hack away at the workforce and, in some cases, entire government agencies.

Apartment Rents Still on the Rise: Median apartment rates across Arlington are not yet showing any outward signs of softening in the wake of federal-government cutbacks.

Arlington’s median apartment-rental rate of $2,437 for one-bedroom units and $2,945 for two bedrooms in February represented an increase of 1.3% month-over-month. That compares to a national increase of 0.3% for the same period, according to figures reported March 1 by Apartment List .

Arlington’s rental-appreciation rate for the month ranks seventh highest among the 100 major urban areas tracked by Apartment List.

The county’s overall median rental rate ($2,588) for February was fifth highest among those 100 urban areas, and the highest outside California.

Irvine, Calif., led the list at a median rental rate of $3,042. The national median rate was $1,375.

Among the 32 sub-sectors of the DC market, Arlington trailed only Tysons ($2,620) in median rental rate.

The vacancy rate among Arlington apartments in February was 4.6%, down 0.5 points from the rate in February 2024, according to Apartment List data.