No real surprise here: Despite declines from a year before, the District of Columbia and Arlington County finished 1-2 when it came to housing costs on a per-square-foot basis across the region in 2023, while Fairfax County was in the middle of the pack.
D.C. retained its top-of-the-heap ranking in spite of a year-over-year drop of 3.7 percent in average per-square-foot housing costs (from $545 per square foot to $525), according to figures reported by Bright MLS as analyzed by the GazetteLeader.
Arlington also saw a decline, with its average per-square-foot cost dropping 1.1 percent from $478 to $473, but that was enough to retain the No. 2 position it had held most of the year.
Rounding out the top five: Alexandria (which saw an increase of 5.2% to $463), Falls Church (down 4.7% to $424 and falling from third in 2022 to fourth in 2023) and Fairfax County (up 3.3% to $346).
Among other major jurisdictions in the region: Montgomery County saw its per-square-foot cost rise 3.3 percent to $309; in Loudoun County, the average rose 4.1 percent to $278; in Prince George’s County, the average price was up 2.5 percent to $242; and in Prince William, a rise of 4.4 percent propelled the average per-square-foot cost to $234.
For Bright MLS’s Mid-Atlantic coverage area, which spans all or part of six states plus the District of Columbia, the average per-square-foot sales price of $237 for 2023 was up 3 percent from $230 in 2022.
