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.
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.
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- Best Places To Live In Virginia
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Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table
The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Arlington For 2024
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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
/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
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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
/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
/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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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