Living in Arlington, VA: A Local’s Guide to Getting More Space Without Losing the City

If you’re weighing whether living in Arlington, VA is the right move, here’s the short version: it’s the closest thing the DC area has to having it both ways. You get a real, walkable neighborhood with its own restaurants and a Metro stop, and you’re still fifteen minutes from downtown DC on a good day. I’ve lived it myself, in Arlington for over a decade before moving into DC, and I’ve helped a lot of clients make this exact decision.

Is Arlington, VA a good place to live?

Yes, for most of the reasons people move to a close-in suburb in the first place: strong schools, walkable commercial strips, and a short commute into DC without DC’s price tag or density. The tradeoff is that “Arlington” isn’t one neighborhood, it’s a dozen very different ones, so the right answer depends on which part of it you’re picturing.

Some pockets (Clarendon, Courthouse) feel like an extension of the city. Others (North Arlington’s residential streets, Bluemont) feel more like a classic suburb with bigger lots and quieter blocks. Both are “Arlington.”

What is the best neighborhood to live in Arlington, VA?

There isn’t one best neighborhood, there’s a best neighborhood for what you’re trying to solve for. If nightlife and walkability matter most, you want the Orange Line corridor. If you want a single-family home with a yard and still don’t want to feel cut off from the city, you’re looking further out within Arlington, or just over the line into Alexandria.

Clarendon — walkable, restaurant- and bar-heavy, dense. Best for buyers who want DC energy without DC rent.

Courthouse — similar to Clarendon, a bit quieter, close to the courts and county offices. Best for young professionals who want easy Metro access.

Ballston — more corporate and retail, newer high-rises. Best for condo buyers who want amenities and a mall nearby.

Rosslyn — closest to the Key Bridge and Georgetown, very dense. Best for commuters who want the shortest possible trip into DC.

North Arlington (Country Club Hills, Yorktown) — established single-family streets, mature trees, quieter. Best for buyers who want space but won’t go past Arlington’s borders.

Is it better to live in Arlington or DC?

This is the question I get from almost every client relocating out of DC, and it usually isn’t really “Arlington or DC.” It’s “how do I get more space without losing what I liked about living in DC in the first place.”

The pattern I see over and over: someone wants a single-family home, but if they push too far out looking for it, they end up feeling secluded and missing the DC activity they built their life around. That’s exactly why Arlington, along with Old Town Alexandria, Del Ray, and Rosemont just across the county line, stays so in demand. You keep the walkability and the closeness to the city. It doesn’t feel like you traded your life away for square footage, which is the actual fear underneath “should I move further out.”

Can you live in Arlington, VA without a car?

In parts of Arlington, yes, comfortably. The Ballston/Virginia Square corridor has a Walk Score of 76, meaning most errands can be done on foot, plus a Transit Score of 51 and a Bike Score of 70. Further from the Orange and Blue/Silver Line corridors, you’ll want a car for daily life the same as most of Northern Virginia.

If not needing a car is a priority, that alone should narrow your search to the Metro-adjacent neighborhoods rather than “Arlington” broadly.

What salary do you need to live in Arlington, VA?

By MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, a single adult in Arlington County needs to earn $30.26 an hour, or about $62,933 a year, just to cover basic living costs, before anything discretionary and well before what most buyers would budget for a mortgage here. It’s a floor, not a comfortable number, and it moves quickly for a household or a family.

If you’re planning around a home purchase rather than just covering rent, your pre-approval conversation with a lender will tell you far more than any general salary benchmark.

Is it cheaper to live in Arlington or DC?

Not by much, and counterintuitively, Arlington can run slightly higher. BestPlaces.net puts Arlington’s overall cost of living index at 164.3 against a national average of 100, and their comparison tool shows Arlington running about 8.2% more expensive than Washington, DC overall.

Housing is usually the driver. Arlington’s smaller inventory of single-family homes and townhomes tends to command a premium over DC’s broader mix of housing types, even before you factor in what you’re getting for it.

Which is safer, Arlington or Alexandria?

Both are considered safe relative to the DC metro overall, but by the numbers, Alexandria edges out Arlington. BestPlaces.net’s comparison shows Alexandria with 44% less violent crime and 35% less property crime than Arlington.

That said, crime stats like these are citywide averages, they can vary a lot block to block, and I’d rather walk a specific street with a client than lean on a citywide number alone. If safety is a top priority, that’s a conversation worth having neighborhood by neighborhood, not city by city.

So, is Arlington right for you?

If what you actually want is more space without losing the parts of DC life you’d miss, Arlington (and its close-in neighbors like Old Town Alexandria, Del Ray, and Rosemont) is usually the answer, not the compromise. I grew up in Northern Virginia, spent over a decade living in Arlington myself, and now help clients make this exact call every week.

If you want to talk through which Arlington neighborhood actually fits how you live, reach out and let’s find a time to talk.

Andreea Leu is a Realtor® and Principal Agent based in Arlington, VA, representing buyers and sellers across DC, Arlington, and Northern Virginia. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from George Mason University, has been licensed for 13 years, and spent over a decade living in Arlington before moving to DC’s Bloomingdale neighborhood. More about Andreea.