Amazon HQ2 is upending Northern Virginia’s housing market

WASHINGTON — Amazon has yet to break ground in Northern Virginia for its second headquarters, but residents are already turning away persistent speculators, recalculating budgets for down payments on homes andfighting rent increases.

Amazon announced in November that its second headquarters would be in National Landing, which includes parts of Crystal City, Pentagon City and Alexandria, all suburbs of Washington. The company will hire 25,000 peopleover the next 10 to 12 years.

“That day in November, I got more Zillow calls, inquiries and leads off of Zillow than I did the entire month of October,” said Michelle Doherty, a real estate agent who focuses on South Arlington, an area that is expected to changea lot.

As of June, the median home price in Arlington County was on track to spike 17.2% by the end of 2019, according to a report by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors and the George Mason University Centerfor Regional Analysis.

Speculators have begun asking homeowners to sell. Potential homebuyers, typically younger, are holding off buying to save more money for down payments. Low-income renters are worried about rising rents and about how they will afford basic necessities.

And Amazon has not even fully arrived yet. The company plans to hire 400 employees for the headquarters by the end of the year and 1,000 to 1,500employees in subsequent years.

James Younger, a homeowner in South Arlington for over 30 years, received inquiries from speculators once or twice a year before the Amazon HQ2 announcement. Now, he gets inquiries at least twicea month.

“I’m certainly not going to sellit,” he said.

Some real estate brokers have gone beyond mailers. Agents hosted a wine and cheese event, with massages, in the community room in Erica Le Blanc’s town home buildingin Crystal City.

“Amazon is just speeding upthe development timeline,” said Le Blanc, who expects to see more restaurants in her neighborhood because of Amazon.

Christian Dorsey, chairman of the Arlington County Board,was careful to note that he did not believe Amazon was directly responsible for the spike in home prices and cautioned that rent increases were typical for the area. “Whether or not the rent increases the people have experienced recently are the result of Amazon, or just the normal demand in the housing market, we don’t know yet,” he said.

But low-income residents in Northern Virginia are worried. Amazon first began in Seattle in 1994, and since then, highly paid workers moving into the region to work at the company have driven up home and rental costs in the area. Homelessness rates haveskyrocketed.

Arlington is already one of the most expensive places to live in Northern Virginia, largely because of its proximity to Washington, and many residents fear that it could now go the way of Seattle. “The fact that we’re going to have 25,000 more jobs in Arlington is just likely to make it even more difficult for someone who doesn’t have a large income to live in Arlington,” said Christine Richardson, a board member of the Northern Virginia Associationof Realtors.

Gloria, a housekeeper who has lived in Arlandria, a neighborhood in Alexandria, for over 13 years, has already seen rent increases. The increases have made it harder for her to afford basic needs like food, clothes and shoes for her daughters, who are in the sixth and seventh grades, and herself.

“Before in the past, every time the rent were to increase, it would only increase around $15 monthly,” said Gloria, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of retaliation from her building’s management company. “But now they increased it up to $75.” She thinks the Amazon announcement prompted the increases.

Gloria has been working withIngris Moran, the lead organizer for Tenants and Workers United, a grassroots nonprofit organization in Arlandria that works with lowincome immigrant communities, to stop her building’s management company from again raising the rent during thislease period.

Ms. Moran said she was nervousabout such increases. She grew up in Arlandria and lives with her husband and her parents in a one-bedroom apartment that has a den. The rent, including utilities, can reachup to $1,700 a month.

“My neighbors, most of them have two to three jobs, and they are earning much less than me, and they still have children so I can just imagine how they’re struggling when I’m struggling myself,”Moran said.

Benedetta Kissel, a homeowner in South Arlington, said her son lived in Maryland because the prices of homes in South Arlington were too high. “Many people’s children can’t afford to live in their hometown due to high rents and home prices,” she said. “Amazon will only make thisworse.”