Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is older than the country, and it is also one of the most confusing place names in Northern Virginia real estate. The City of Alexandria is an independent city of about 160,000 people on the Potomac, with its own government, taxes, and schools. “Alexandria, VA” as a mailing address covers that city and a much larger swath of Fairfax County to the south and west. The two share a name and a ZIP code prefix and almost nothing else.

Inside the city

Old Town is the reason most people know Alexandria: a grid laid out in 1749, brick sidewalks, rowhouses from the 18th and 19th centuries, and King Street running a mile from the Metro station down to the waterfront, lined with restaurants and shops. The riverfront has parks, marinas, and the Torpedo Factory Art Center. Living here means a rowhouse or a condo, historic-district rules on exterior changes, and the usual old-city trade-offs on parking and yard space.

North of Old Town, Del Ray has become one of the region’s best-known walkable neighborhoods: 1920s and 30s bungalows and small colonials around Mount Vernon Avenue, a main street of independent restaurants and shops with a strong local identity. Rosemont and Braddock Heights, between Del Ray and Old Town, are streetcar-era neighborhoods of detached homes on quiet streets, an easy walk to two Metro stations.

West of the King Street station, Carlyle and Eisenhower East form a planned district around the federal courthouse and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with high-rise condos, apartments, and newer townhouses. Further north, Potomac Yard is turning a former rail yard into a new district, with a Metro station that opened in 2023 and Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus at its center.

The city’s higher ground, Seminary Hill and North Ridge, is where its larger detached homes sit, on bigger lots with mature trees and a feel closer to the suburbs. And Parkfairfax, a 1940s garden condominium community of about 1,600 units near Shirlington, is a National Register district and one of the most attainable ways to own inside the city. The West End, along I-395 and Duke Street, mixes high-rise and garden condos with townhouses and is being reshaped by the redevelopment of the former Landmark Mall site around a new Inova hospital campus.

Outside the city

Mount Vernon, Fort Hunt, Belle Haven, Kingstowne, Franconia, Huntington, and other Fairfax County communities all carry Alexandria addresses. They are governed by Fairfax County, taxed by Fairfax County, and attend Fairfax County Public Schools. None of that is visible from the address line, so it is the first thing to check on any listing.

Getting around

Five Metro stations serve the city: King Street–Old Town, Braddock Road, and Potomac Yard on the Blue and Yellow Lines, Eisenhower Avenue (Yellow), and Van Dorn Street (Blue). Alexandria Union Station, next to King Street–Old Town, adds VRE commuter rail and Amtrak. The George Washington Parkway runs along the river to Reagan National Airport, about ten minutes away, and to the District; Route 1, I-395, and the Beltway cover the rest. The Mount Vernon Trail follows the riverfront, and the city’s free King Street trolley links the Metro to the waterfront.

Schools

The city runs Alexandria City Public Schools, a system with a single comprehensive high school, Alexandria City High School (renamed from T.C. Williams in 2021), on two campuses. That system stops at the city line; Alexandria-addressed homes in Fairfax County belong to Fairfax County Public Schools, with entirely different boundaries. Confirm the jurisdiction before the school.

Buying or selling here

Each Alexandria neighborhood is its own market, and the spread is wide: an Old Town rowhouse, a Del Ray bungalow, a Carlyle high-rise condo, and a Parkfairfax unit have little in common except the city. Buyers do best by settling on a neighborhood first and by understanding historic-district and condominium rules where they apply. Sellers benefit from steady demand for the walkable, Metro-served neighborhoods, and from pricing to the specific block rather than to the city as a whole.

Guides to individual neighborhoods

Alexandria is large enough that its submarkets behave differently from one another. Each of these has its own guide:

• Old Town — the historic district, and its rules.
• Del Ray — the Mount Vernon Avenue village.
• Rosemont and North Ridge — the established single-family streets.
• Carlyle and Eisenhower East — the city’s newest district.
• Potomac Yard — the new Metro station and the Virginia Tech campus.
• West End and Landmark — the largest redevelopment, and the lowest prices.