Alexandria city, VA

Alexandria city has a valuation-to-income tension: Zillow’s county median home value of $686,785 sits against a $2,284 monthly median asking rent, which fell 1.33%, leaving a supplied 3.99% gross yield before operating costs. The setup merits investigation by buyers who can validate durable rents and expenses; buyers relying on rent growth or immediate cash flow should be cautious. This is a county-level screen, not a property conclusion.

Market rent—not HUD’s $2,246 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent payment standard—supports the yield calculation; FMR is not asking-rent evidence. Carrying costs matter: the effective property-tax rate is 0.96%, and median annual property tax is $7,024. FHFA’s annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 1.00% and its five-year cumulative change was 23.24%. The FHFA annual reading is a distinct vintage and method from Zillow’s county observation; it is not a dollar value and should not be combined into Zillow’s growth rate. Gross yield excludes tax and other costs.

Demand evidence is mixed rather than decisive. QCEW annual covered employment at county workplaces declined 0.94%, while Professional and business services was the largest disclosed private supersector at 28.04% of private covered jobs; this describes covered work sites, not residents, unemployment, or a forecast. Net tax-return migration was 299 households, but incoming movers’ average AGI was $96,647 and trailed departures by a calculated $9,077, weakening a simple affluent-inflow reading. Investors represented 5.68% of purchase mortgages to non-occupants, a limited measure of buyer competition rather than all-cash or total investor demand.

Inland flood is the dominant hazard, with modeled expected annual building-value loss of 0.12%; it should be tested against parcel flood exposure, elevation, insurance terms and deductible rather than treated as a realized loss. Realtor.com listing price, active listings, days on market, price-reduction share and pending ratio are not published here, preventing an MLS-based read on asking-price competition, visible supply and marketing time. No vacancy, operating-expense, insurance-quote, debt-service or closed-sale evidence is supplied, so stabilized net income, leveraged coverage and exit-price underwriting remain unproven.