Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is SO UGLY and it kills me because the convenience can’t be matched and we love the amenities. CCH is the exception but there’s a bunch of awful new builds popping up there too that are killing the feel of the neighborhood. I don’t get it because the average new builds in Vienna and Alexandria are 10x more charming. Why?? The only thing I can find is the Arlington builders tend to be different from the Vienna ones and so on.

OP here. I agree on the new builds! We recently bought our first house (and to be clear, it’s definitely not going to be posted on this thread haha), but I still like to look on Zillow and daydream about eventually upgrading, but a lot of the new builds are just lacking charm.


I’d love to see a new build in the style of Alexandria homes in Arlington and McLean!

Old mcMansions built in colonial style look like this or can be easily made to look like this. BTW, they are becoming the next teardowns in places with $$$ lots where new construction can sell north of 4 mil and inventory of available ramblers and split levels dwindled. Hurry and get one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mansion Drive in Alexandria. If I had the budget I’d live on this street: https://redf.in/tmA7Ar

Wow that is beautiful!

You can find similar looking homes literally everywhere. It's an old colonial. Some colonial mcMansions look just like this, but with taller windows.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is SO UGLY and it kills me because the convenience can’t be matched and we love the amenities. CCH is the exception but there’s a bunch of awful new builds popping up there too that are killing the feel of the neighborhood. I don’t get it because the average new builds in Vienna and Alexandria are 10x more charming. Why?? The only thing I can find is the Arlington builders tend to be different from the Vienna ones and so on.

I’d love to see a new build in the style of Alexandria homes in Arlington and McLean!

Most of these charming Alexandria City homes are old classic stately homes built with brick on all four sides and slate roofs that have been tastefully renovated and maintained. These construction materials are ridiculously expensive to use in a new build in 2026.

Developers doing new builds in the $1.8 - 3 million range in Arlington would be unprofitable if they built with these classic materials. It’s near-impossible to do, unless someone commissions a custom home — and even then they’d likely have to pay cash or cover a big appraisal gap to get a mortgage.

Fair point. I’m not at all knowledgeable about the options, but surely there’s a middle ground between the entirely brick and slate stately homes from a bygone era and the 100 percent vinyl McMansions that are cropping up? I guess not for builders looking to maximize profit.

I am surprised that the subset of folks who are spending several million on a house aren’t working directly with a builder to build a custom house with higher end materials, but I’m not of that subset, so perhaps the preference is to maximize square footage with cheaper materials!

Going to take more than several million to do what you are talking about in Arlington, and most people don’t see the value of spending that money when you can get substantially cheaper materials that will do 90 pct of what they want - with the exception of impressing people who are stuck in some antiquated mindset of what housing stock should look like.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is SO UGLY and it kills me because the convenience can’t be matched and we love the amenities. CCH is the exception but there’s a bunch of awful new builds popping up there too that are killing the feel of the neighborhood. I don’t get it because the average new builds in Vienna and Alexandria are 10x more charming. Why?? The only thing I can find is the Arlington builders tend to be different from the Vienna ones and so on.

The central parts of Ashton Heights and Lyon Park have a tremendous number of older beautiful houses and thoughtfully designed new builds, starting at Jackson and radiating outwards a few blocks either way. A big chunk of Lyon Village has very nicely designed older homes too even if on smaller lots. Besides here around Clarendon, it’s pretty much Country Club Village part of Arlington for nice looking homes.

Ehh I haven’t been impressed with any of the new builds in Ashton Heights, Lyon Park, and Lyon Village since they moved on from the mid 2010s styles. There’s a ton of new build inventory above $3M in Ashton Heights just sitting and it’s all either ugly or way too big for the lot. Jackson St is a prime example of this.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is SO UGLY and it kills me because the convenience can’t be matched and we love the amenities. CCH is the exception but there’s a bunch of awful new builds popping up there too that are killing the feel of the neighborhood. I don’t get it because the average new builds in Vienna and Alexandria are 10x more charming. Why?? The only thing I can find is the Arlington builders tend to be different from the Vienna ones and so on.

The central parts of Ashton Heights and Lyon Park have a tremendous number of older beautiful houses and thoughtfully designed new builds, starting at Jackson and radiating outwards a few blocks either way. A big chunk of Lyon Village has very nicely designed older homes too even if on smaller lots. Besides here around Clarendon, it’s pretty much Country Club Village part of Arlington for nice looking homes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anything “old” will be cast as “beautiful” by folks here.

True, for the most part. Old houses are very popular with younger crowd.

You're joking right? The younger crowd all wants the new construction, hence the "missing middle" push by younger people to destroy more affordable old houses in favor of more expensive high-density new construction.

Younger people want transitional or modern, contemporary homes - if they had a choice. No one wants old, musty homes no matter how charming

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is SO UGLY and it kills me because the convenience can’t be matched and we love the amenities. CCH is the exception but there’s a bunch of awful new builds popping up there too that are killing the feel of the neighborhood. I don’t get it because the average new builds in Vienna and Alexandria are 10x more charming. Why?? The only thing I can find is the Arlington builders tend to be different from the Vienna ones and so on.

I’d love to see a new build in the style of Alexandria homes in Arlington and McLean!

Most of these charming Alexandria City homes are old classic stately homes built with brick on all four sides and slate roofs that have been tastefully renovated and maintained. These construction materials are ridiculously expensive to use in a new build in 2026.

Developers doing new builds in the $1.8 - 3 million range in Arlington would be unprofitable if they built with these classic materials. It’s near-impossible to do, unless someone commissions a custom home — and even then they’d likely have to pay cash or cover a big appraisal gap to get a mortgage.

I am surprised that the subset of folks who are spending several million on a house aren’t working directly with a builder to build a custom house with higher end materials!

It can be done, but it’s just far more expensive to custom build. Plus you have to be willing to wait a long time for land to be acquired, go through the lengthy back and forth of a custom design process, then the home to be built from scratch. You also take on more risk vs an already built home, like what if the builder goes belly up halfway through the process and leaves you.

All that said there has been a trend of expensive SFH new builds in Arlington being exceptionally ugly over the past few years. Hopefully at some point they’ll hire someone who can design a tasteful house, but hey, people have been buying these ugly beasts, so what’s the incentive for them to try harder?

Belle Haven

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is SO UGLY and it kills me because the convenience can’t be matched and we love the amenities. CCH is the exception but there’s a bunch of awful new builds popping up there too that are killing the feel of the neighborhood. I don’t get it because the average new builds in Vienna and Alexandria are 10x more charming. Why?? The only thing I can find is the Arlington builders tend to be different from the Vienna ones and so on.

Examples?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anything “old” will be cast as “beautiful” by folks here.

True, for the most part. Old houses are very popular with younger crowd.

You're joking right? The younger crowd all wants the new construction, hence the "missing middle" push by younger people to destroy more affordable old houses in favor of more expensive high-density new construction.

You believe the goal of missing middle is to…make housing more expensive?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is SO UGLY and it kills me because the convenience can’t be matched and we love the amenities. CCH is the exception but there’s a bunch of awful new builds popping up there too that are killing the feel of the neighborhood. I don’t get it because the average new builds in Vienna and Alexandria are 10x more charming. Why?? The only thing I can find is the Arlington builders tend to be different from the Vienna ones and so on.

I’d love to see a new build in the style of Alexandria homes in Arlington and McLean!

Most of these charming Alexandria City homes are old classic stately homes built with brick on all four sides and slate roofs that have been tastefully renovated and maintained. These construction materials are ridiculously expensive to use in a new build in 2026.

Developers doing new builds in the $1.8 - 3 million range in Arlington would be unprofitable if they built with these classic materials. It’s near-impossible to do, unless someone commissions a custom home — and even then they’d likely have to pay cash or cover a big appraisal gap to get a mortgage.

Fair point. I’m not at all knowledgeable about the options, but surely there’s a middle ground between the entirely brick and slate stately homes from a bygone era and the 100 percent vinyl McMansions that are cropping up? I guess not for builders looking to maximize profit.

I am surprised that the subset of folks who are spending several million on a house aren’t working directly with a builder to build a custom house with higher end materials, but I’m not of that subset, so perhaps the preference is to maximize square footage with cheaper materials!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is SO UGLY and it kills me because the convenience can’t be matched and we love the amenities. CCH is the exception but there’s a bunch of awful new builds popping up there too that are killing the feel of the neighborhood. I don’t get it because the average new builds in Vienna and Alexandria are 10x more charming. Why?? The only thing I can find is the Arlington builders tend to be different from the Vienna ones and so on.

I’d love to see a new build in the style of Alexandria homes in Arlington and McLean!

Most of these charming Alexandria City homes are old classic stately homes built with brick on all four sides and slate roofs that have been tastefully renovated and maintained. These construction materials are ridiculously expensive to use in a new build in 2026.

Developers doing new builds in the $1.8 - 3 million range in Arlington would be unprofitable if they built with these classic materials. It’s near-impossible to do, unless someone commissions a custom home — and even then they’d likely have to pay cash or cover a big appraisal gap to get a mortgage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anything “old” will be cast as “beautiful” by folks here.

True, for the most part. Old houses are very popular with younger crowd.

You're joking right? The younger crowd all wants the new construction, hence the "missing middle" push by younger people to destroy more affordable old houses in favor of more expensive high-density new construction.

Anonymous wrote:Anything “old” will be cast as “beautiful” by folks here.

True, for the most part. Old houses are very popular with younger crowd.

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend in Arlington who lives in Tara-Leeway and I love the houses in her neighborhood because they are older and most have been renovated/added on through the years. But in the past few years it seems like developers are moving in - there is a new heinous Sagatov house on Harrison that looks pretty close to that viral Fairfax monstrous addition. I think people only care about the interior space. Personally I like the Franklin park neighborhood in McLean and parts of Alexandria - not that I can ever afford it!

Ah I know exactly what new build you’re talking about. Yikes!

Tara is beautiful. Many homes are very close to the 10+ story broadcast tower. Shocked that’s been allowed to stay. We otherwise love the neighborhood but wouldn’t move there because of it.