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Amazon’s heralded HQ2 has yet to break ground in northern Virginia, but a report by the The New York Times states its pending opening has wreaked havoc on the local housing market.
“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, Virginia, an area that is expected to change a lot.
The report states that median home prices in Arlington County in June 2019 are set to increase 17.2% by the end of the year, according to a report by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, and the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis.
Amazon announced in November that HQ2 would be located National Landing, which includes the Virginia cities of Crystal City, Pentagon City, and Alexandria, all suburbs of Washington. Amazon intends to hire 25,000 over the next 10 to 12 years.
Although not yet opened, Amazon has plans to hire 400 employees by the end of the year, and 1,000 to 1,500 people in the following years.
The New York Times reports that Arlington is already one of the most expensive places to live in northern Virginia due to its proximity to Washington D.C., and many residents are cautious of the coming growth.
“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 Association of Realtors.
Virginia is not the only market seeing home prices grow, as the latest CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI) revealed national home price rose 3.6% year-over-year in May 2019.
The report added that CoreLogic is forecasting prices to increase 5.6% from May 2019 to May 2020. The May 2019 gains was lower than the 6.4% increase of May 2018, but a slight increase from March 2019’s 3.3%.
Homes in the lower-price tier saw the largest annual increases at 5.4%. The middle low-to-middle tier rose 4.5%, middle-to-moderate price tier increased 4%, and the high-price tier jumped 3%.
