Updated September 2026
You're standing on a front porch on one Del Ray street, and the house you saw an hour ago is two blocks over. One is a bungalow. The other is a Foursquare. They look like they belong to the same family, and in a way they do.
So which one do you want?
That question is really about trade-offs. Every style in Del Ray gives you something and asks for something back: a room, a staircase, a yard, a renovation plan. Here's how we walk buyers through it, style by style, and what actually moves the price.
Which Del Ray Are We Talking About?
Two public definitions get used, and they aren't the same size.
The first is the historic core. Virginia's Department of Historic Resources describes the Town of Potomac Historic District as most of the former town, made up of six subdivisions: Del Ray, Del Ray II, St. Elmo, Abingdon, Hume and parts of Mt. Vernon. St. Elmo and Del Ray were platted in 1894 by Ohio developers Wood and Harmon and incorporated in 1908 as the Town of Potomac. The City of Alexandria annexed the town in 1930, and the district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
The second is the wider neighborhood. The city's Del Ray residential pattern book, published in 2015, draws it between Glebe Road, Richmond Highway, Braddock Road and Russell Road. The pattern book calls that eastern edge Jefferson Davis Highway, which was the road's name when the document was written. Alexandria renamed it Richmond Highway effective January 1, 2019.
When a listing says "Del Ray," it could mean either one. A mailing address alone won't settle it, so we check the parcel before we talk about the house.
The Styles You'll Actually See
The DHR summary describes the district as "a representation of generally modest residential architecture from the 1890s to 1941." Modest is the right word. These were commuter houses, built for people who rode the rail and trolley lines into Washington or walked to work at Potomac Yard.
The city's pattern book names Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, Craftsman Bungalow, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival as the most common styles, gives the American Foursquare its own section, and calls the bungalow the dominant form, particularly in Del Ray. Here's what each one tends to give you and what it tends to ask back, in our experience walking through them.
The Craftsman Bungalow
What it gives you: A deep front porch, living space on the main floor, and a scale that feels right on a narrow street. It's the house most people picture when they say "Del Ray."
What you trade: The upstairs usually sits under the roof. That means sloped ceilings, knee walls and bedrooms that are smaller than the footprint suggests. Many bungalows have already been expanded up or back, and the quality of that work varies a lot from house to house.
The American Foursquare
What it gives you: Two full stories, a boxy plan and square rooms that are easy to furnish. The upstairs is real space, not attic space.
What you trade: A Foursquare's footprint may leave less yard or room to add on; check the lot and setbacks for the particular house. The simple box appeals to some buyers and feels plain to others.
Colonial Revival
What it gives you: A symmetrical front, a more formal room arrangement, and a look that reads traditional from the sidewalk.
What you trade: Formal layouts can feel divided if you want one open kitchen and family space. Opening walls in an older house is a structural conversation, not a weekend project.
Folk Victorian and Queen Anne
What it gives you: Some of the oldest houses in the neighborhood, with porches, trim and irregular rooflines that give a block its character.
What you trade: Age. Older houses can carry older systems, and the odd angles that look lovely outside can make closets, bathrooms and kitchens tight inside. A careful inspection can help you assess those details in the house in front of you.
Tudor Revival
What it gives you: Steep roofs and a storybook front that stands out on the street.
What you trade: Those steep rooflines can eat into upstairs headroom, and there are fewer of them, so a true comparable sale can be hard to find.
Mail-Order Houses
DHR notes that several houses in the district are mail-order structures, and the pattern book points to Sears and Roebuck homes built in the Town of Potomac. They're a fun piece of history. We'd still treat a "kit house" label in a listing as a story to confirm, not a feature to pay extra for.
Postwar Semi-Detached Houses and Townhouses
After the early building waves, builders filled remaining lots with modest single-family houses, semi-detached pairs and townhouses, according to the pattern book. Some semi-detached houses are older than you'd guess.
What it gives you: A chance to compare a semi-detached layout with detached houses on the same streets.
What you trade: A shared wall, and expansion plans that depend on your neighbor's side as much as yours.
What Shapes a Del Ray Home's Price
Here's the honest answer: a Del Ray house doesn't sell as "a bungalow." It sells as one house on one lot.
Our read, after years on these blocks, is that the gap between two sales of the same style usually comes down to four things:
- The lot. Del Ray lots vary in width and depth because of how the original subdivisions were drawn and later combined. A wider lot can mean a side yard, a driveway or room to add on.
- Finished size. A bungalow with a finished upstairs and a rear addition is a different house from one that hasn't been touched.
- Condition and the quality of past work. An addition done well adds value. One done poorly becomes the buyer's project.
- The block. Distance to Mount Vernon Avenue, traffic, and the feel of a specific street all show up in what buyers will pay.
Style shapes how a house lives. In our experience, those four things shape what it sells for. We go deeper on that process in how Alexandria homes get priced, and you can see how Del Ray sits against other parts of the city in our guide to Alexandria home values by neighborhood.
For citywide context, and not as a Del Ray number: across all home types in the City of Alexandria, the Alexandria Brief reported NVAR data showing an August 2026 median sale price of $752,500, up 9.1% from August 2025. The average sale price rose 12.2% to $847,020, and 130 homes sold, down 28.6%.
Across the wider region, NVAR's August 2026 release put the Northern Virginia median sold price at $765,000, up 2.0% from August 2025. Homes there spent an average of 26 days on the market, unchanged from a year earlier, and active listings rose 18.5% to 2,932.
Those figures mix condos, townhouses and detached houses across a whole city or region. They tell you the weather. They don't tell you what a Foursquare on your street is worth.
Before You Plan to Change the House
Many buyers pick a Del Ray house for what it could become. That's where lot and rules matter as much as style.
Size limits come from the lot, not the style. How much house you can build depends on the zone and the lot you're sitting on. Floor-area limits and setbacks differ from parcel to parcel, and the city has been revising its zoning rules, so confirm the current rules with Planning & Zoning for your address before you design anything. Our look at why Virginia's new ADU law doesn't reach Del Ray walks through how an old lot line still decides what fits in a backyard.
Historic review depends on the address. The city's historic preservation page lists Town of Potomac among Alexandria's National Register districts. It names two local districts regulated by the Board of Architectural Review: the Old and Historic Alexandria District, established in 1946, and the Parker-Gray District. The same page notes that local and National Register boundaries differ, and that buildings designated by City Council as One Hundred-Year-Old Buildings are also regulated by the BAR.
The pattern book calls itself a voluntary guide. Still, check the specific house on the city's preservation map before you plan exterior work. If you're weighing an older house anywhere in the city, our notes on buying a historic home and the due diligence buyers miss apply well beyond Old Town.
Carrying Costs Don't Care About Style
Two costs arrive whether you buy the bungalow or the Foursquare.
Real estate tax. The FY2027 budget adopted April 29, 2026 keeps Alexandria's rate at $1.135 per $100 of assessed value. By our math, that's $1,135 a year for every $100,000 of assessed value. The city applies the rate to its assessment, not to your purchase price, so start with the property's current assessment and bring the rest to your CPA.
Financing.Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the national 30-year fixed average at 7.03% for the week of September 24, 2026, compared with 6.30% a year earlier. That's a national benchmark, not a quote. Your lender will give you your number.
If this is your first purchase, our guide for the first-time buyer in Alexandria covers the steps before you ever walk a porch.
Choosing the House, Not the Label
Pick the style that fits how you live. Then judge the house in front of you on its lot, its size, its condition and its block. That's where the value is.
Elizabeth Lucchesi and The LizLuke Team at LONG & FOSTER REAL ESTATE INC walk these streets as neighbors, and Elizabeth has called Del Ray home for more than three decades. Most of our business comes from referrals and repeat clients. If you're weighing a bungalow against a Foursquare, or wondering what your own house would bring, meet the team and let's talk it through. It all starts with a conversation.
The LizLuke Team at LONG & FOSTER REAL ESTATE INC. 110 N Royal St, Ste 300,
Alexandria, VA 22314. Office 703.683.0400. The LizLuke Team (703) 868-5676. Virginia License #0225069250.
Equal Housing Opportunity.
All information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
This is general information and is not legal or tax advice.
Sources
- Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Town of Potomac Historic District: https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/100-0136/
- City of Alexandria, History of Del Ray and the Town of Potomac: https://alexandriava.gov/historic-sites/history-of-del-ray-and-the-town-of-potomac
- City of Alexandria, Del Ray Neighborhood Residential Pattern Book (September 2015): https://media.alexandriava.gov/docs-archives/planning/info/historic=preservation/del=ray/del-ray-pattern-book-final-september-2015=redux.pdf
- City of Alexandria, Old & Historic Alexandria and Parker-Gray Districts, and One Hundred Year Old Buildings: https://alexandriava.gov/historic-preservation/old-historic-alexandria-and-parker-gray-districts-and-one-hundred-year-old
- The Alexandria Brief, citywide home sales report (NVAR data, City of Alexandria, August 2026): https://www.alexandriabrief.com/alexandria-home-prices-climbed-in-august-as-sales-fell-nearly-29/
- Northern Virginia Association of REALTORS®, August 2026 market release via PR Newswire: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/northern-virginia-housing-market-remains-tighter-than-national-market-302884468.html
- City of Alexandria, City Council adopts FY27 budget (April 29, 2026): https://alexandriava.gov/news-citywide/2026-04-29/alexandria-city-council-adopts-9791-million-fy27-budget
- Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey: https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms
