The 10 Cheapest Arlington, VA Neighborhoods To Live In For 2024


The cheapest Arlington neighborhoods are Arlington Heights and Columbia Forest for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

Worst Neighborhoods In Arlington
Source: Wikipedia User Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Arlington might be more expensive than living in rural Virginia, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Arlington neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Arlington are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Arlington For 2024

  1. Arlington Heights
  2. Columbia Forest
  3. Bluemont
  4. Glebewood
  5. Colonial Village
  6. Columbia Heghts
  7. Highland Park-Overlee Knolls
  8. Columbia Heights West
  9. Ballston-Virginia Square
  10. Fairlington-Shirlington

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Arlington for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Arlington Heights looks to be the cheapest Arlington neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Arlington. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Arlington that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Arlington.

For more Virginia reading, check out:


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Arlington For 2024

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 2,985
Cost Of Living Index: 151 (18th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.2 (12th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.011 (6th cheapest)
More on Arlington Heights: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 6,004
Cost Of Living Index: 134 (4th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.7 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (29th cheapest)
More on Columbia Forest: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 7,513
Cost Of Living Index: 163 (25th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.0 (7th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.011 (8th cheapest)
More on Bluemont: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 591
Cost Of Living Index: 160 (24th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.5 (17th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.01 (4th cheapest)
More on Glebewood: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 3,244
Cost Of Living Index: 142 (10th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.0 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (32nd cheapest)
More on Colonial Village: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9.5
/10

Population: 6,804
Cost Of Living Index: 128 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.6 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (49th cheapest)
More on Columbia Heghts: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 1,601
Cost Of Living Index: 180 (36th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.4 (14th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.011 (5th cheapest)
More on Highland Park-Overlee Knolls: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 7,321
Cost Of Living Index: 120 (cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.8 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (53rd cheapest)
More on Columbia Heights West: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 13,585
Cost Of Living Index: 152 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.0 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (30th cheapest)
More on Ballston-Virginia Square: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 10,634
Cost Of Living Index: 144 (13th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.6 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (44th cheapest)
More on Fairlington-Shirlington: Data | Real Estate

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Arlington Hoods In 2024

To rank the cheapest places to live in Arlington, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 54 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Arlington.” We’re lookin’ at you, Arlington Heights.

We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Arlington. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Arlington

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Arlington where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Arlington are Arlington Heights, Columbia Forest, Bluemont, Glebewood, Colonial Village, Columbia Heghts, Highland Park-Overlee Knolls, Columbia Heights West, Ballston-Virginia Square, and Fairlington-Shirlington.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Arlington aren’t all cheap. Buckingham takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Arlington.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Arlington are Buckingham, Long Branch Creek, North Rosslyn, Foxcroft Heights, and Lyon Village.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more Virginia reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Arlington For 2024

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Arlington Heights 151
2 Columbia Forest 134
3 Bluemont 163
4 Glebewood 160
5 Colonial Village 142
6 Columbia Heghts 128
7 Highland Park-Overlee Knolls 180
8 Columbia Heights West 120
9 Ballston-Virginia Square 152
10 Fairlington-Shirlington 144
11 Radnor-Ft Myer Heights 138
12 Nauck 140
13 Donaldson Run 199
14 Claremont 142
15 Alcova Heights 151
16 Arlington-East Falls 180
17 Waycroft-Woodlawn 215
18 Boulevard Manor 178
19 Yorktown 184
20 Stafford Albemarle Glebe 228
21 Chain Bridge Forest 228
22 Westover Village 168
23 Old Diminion 187
24 Arlington Forest 150
25 Penrose 135
26 Cherrydale 187
27 High View Park 173
28 Maywood 186
29 Bellevue Forest 233
30 Rivercrest 233
31 Douglas Park 140
32 Ashton Heights 168
33 Tara-Leeway Heights 181
34 Dominion Hills 169
35 Woodmont 227
36 Arlington View 155
37 Glencarlyn 146
38 Riverwood 227
39 Dover Crystal 221
40 Clarendon-Courthouse 142
41 Barcroft 153
42 Aurora Highlands 142
43 Forest Glen 132
44 Waverly Hills 164
45 Leeway 181
46 Lyon Park 171
47 Williamsburg 206
48 North Highland 165
49 Arlington Ridge 164
50 Lyon Village 203
51 Foxcroft Heights 147
52 North Rosslyn 188
53 Long Branch Creek 160
54 Buckingham 151
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.