Updated August 2026
Most people don't decide to sell all at once. It builds. A job changes, a family grows or shrinks, the stairs start to feel like stairs, and one morning you're standing in the kitchen doing math you weren't doing last year.
If you're at that point in Alexandria, here's what the sale actually asks of you.
Four things decide how it goes: what Virginia requires you to disclose, what transferring the deed costs you, what the citywide numbers can and can't tell you about your block, and the prep work that quietly shows up in the final line of your settlement statement.
The short version
- Virginia is a buyer beware state. The Residential Property Disclosure Statement you sign is a "no representations" notice, not a condition report (Code of Virginia § 55.1-703).
- The Virginia DPOR form in force right now took effect July 1, 2026 and lists 19 "no representations" areas. A revised § 55.1-703 takes effect January 1, 2027 with 20. If you list this fall, expect the paperwork to change mid-cycle.
- Seller-side transfer taxes in the City of Alexandria run about $3.00 per $1,000 of sale price, roughly 0.3%: $1.00 state grantor's tax, $1.00 Regional Congestion Relief Fee, $1.00 WMATA Capital Fee (Prime Title VA, rates current as of August 2026).
- The freshest City of Alexandria closing data we verified for this guide is January 2026: 98 closings, median 48 days on market, 95.7% of original list price (ALXnow, reporting MarketStats by ShowingTime, February 17, 2026).
- The citywide median is a mix number, not your number. In January 2026, only 9 of those 98 closings were single-family detached.
Virginia's disclosure form is not what most sellers think it is
Almost every seller we sit down with expects the disclosure statement to be a condition report, a place to list the water heater's age and the year the roof went on.
It isn't. It's the opposite.
Virginia is a buyer beware state, and the Residential Property Disclosure Statement is a notice pointing that out. On the statutory list of areas, the owner "makes no representations or warranties as to the condition of the real property or any improvements thereon," and purchasers "are advised to exercise whatever due diligence a particular purchaser deems necessary" (Code of Virginia § 55.1-703, version effective January 1, 2027).
So the form is less a confession and more a signpost. It tells the buyer: here are the things nobody is promising you anything about, go look.
That matters for you in a practical way. The buyer's inspection period, not the disclosure form, is where your house gets examined. Sellers who understand that early tend to spend their energy on the right things, which is the condition of the house and the quality of the packet, rather than on drafting paragraphs nobody asked for.
Two versions are in play right now. The Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation form currently in force is dated effective July 1, 2026 and enumerates 19 "no representations" areas. The amended § 55.1-703 taking effect January 1, 2027 enumerates 20 (Code of Virginia). If your listing runs from October into January, you may sign one version and ratify under the next.
There's also an exemption path. First sales of dwellings, meaning new construction, are exempted, and certain other residential transfers are excluded under § 55.1-702 (Virginia DPOR).
One gap, stated plainly: the delivery deadline for the statement and the buyer's termination right if it arrives late are set by § 55.1-709, and condominium and HOA resale packets are governed by separate statutes with their own deadlines and cancellation windows. We're not going to quote day counts from memory in a guide. Your agent pulls the current ones onto your timeline when the file opens.
Five of these disclosure areas land harder in Alexandria than almost anywhere else in Virginia
The statute is statewide. The way it lands is extremely local, and this next part is our read of our own market rather than anything the Code says about Alexandria specifically.
Historic district ordinances. Between the Old and Historic Alexandria District and Parker-Gray, a large share of the city's historic housing stock sits under design review. If exterior work happened on your watch, know how it was approved before a buyer's agent asks. We wrote about what that looks like in practice in preparing a historic Old Town home for sale.
Special flood hazard areas. The Old Town waterfront and the ground along Four Mile Run are the parts of the city where this line on the form stops being boilerplate and starts being a conversation about elevation certificates and insurance quotes.
Marine clay, sometimes called marumsco soils. A genuine Northern Virginia foundation and drainage issue, and one of the few disclosure items where a buyer may arrive already knowing more than the seller does.
Airport proximity and aircraft noise. The approach to National sits over parts of Old Town and Del Ray. Most people who live here stop hearing it. Buyers relocating from elsewhere have not stopped hearing it.
Military ground installation proximity. Fort Belvoir, the Mark Center, and the Pentagon shape this market on both sides of the closing table. It's a disclosure line for you and, often, the entire reason your buyer is here.
None of these are reasons to worry. They're reasons to have your answers assembled before the sign goes in the yard, which is most of what good pre-listing work is.
What transferring the deed actually costs you
This is the part sellers most often guess at, and the guess is usually high.
Virginia's state grantor's tax is $0.50 per $500 of the greater of sale price or assessed value, which works out to $1.00 per $1,000, or 0.1%. It's customarily paid by the seller and split between the state and the locality (Prime Title VA, current as of August 2026).
In Northern Virginia, two regional fees stack on top, each at $0.10 per $100: the Regional Congestion Relief Fee and the WMATA Capital Fee. Both are imposed on the grantor and customarily paid by the seller (Prime Title VA). The City of Alexandria sits inside the district where both apply, alongside Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties and the region's other independent cities. Fauquier County does not charge them, which is a useful boundary to know if you're comparing notes with someone selling further out.
What you're paying | Rate | Per $1,000 of sale price |
|---|---|---|
Virginia state grantor's tax | $0.50 per $500 | $1.00 |
Regional Congestion Relief Fee | $0.10 per $100 | $1.00 |
WMATA Capital Fee | $0.10 per $100 | $1.00 |
Total customary seller-side transfer cost | about 0.3% of sale price | $3.00 |
Customary seller-side transfer taxes and regional fees, City of Alexandria, VA. Rates current as of August 2026. Source: Prime Title VA. The grantor's tax applies to the greater of sale price or assessed value.
An illustration, not a quote: on a $503,250 sale, which was the verified City of Alexandria median for January 2026, those three line items come to roughly $1,510. That arithmetic is ours; the rates and the median are cited above. Your actual settlement figures depend on your contract and your closing date.
One mechanical detail worth knowing: the clerk will not admit the deed to record until the tax is paid, so this comes out of proceeds at settlement rather than out of your pocket beforehand (Prime Title VA). Transfer taxes are one line among several at settlement. For the fuller picture on both sides of the table, see closing costs in Alexandria.
The last citywide numbers we can stand behind, and how old they are
Here's the vintage up front. The freshest City of Alexandria closing data we could verify from a named source for this guide is January 2026, reported by ALXnow from MarketStats by ShowingTime on February 17, 2026. That's seven months old as of publication. Newer months exist. We'd rather hand you a current Bright MLS pull for your specific street than repeat a number we can't trace, so treat everything in this section as context for how the market behaves, not as today's reading.
A boundary note, because it trips people up constantly: these figures cover the City of Alexandria, which is an independent city. A mailing address that reads Alexandria is not always inside the city line. If yours sits in Fairfax County, the citywide report is not describing your market, and the transfer fees still apply but the assessment and school picture do not match.
With that said, January 2026 in the City of Alexandria (all figures ALXnow / MarketStats by ShowingTime):
- 98 residential properties closed, down 20.3% from 123 in January 2025
- Median days on market 48, up from 26. Average days on market 58, up from 34
- Homes captured 95.7% of original list price, down from 98%
- 237 active listings at month end, up 50% from 158
- Pending sales up about 18% year over year
- Average sale price per square foot $453, versus $458 a year earlier
The single most useful line there is the days on market. Twenty-six days to forty-eight days is close to a doubling, and it changes what "we'll test a price for two weeks" costs you. If you want the concept itself unpacked, we did that in what days on market actually means.
One caution before you carry that number to your own block. Citywide and neighborhood are different animals, and they don't move together. We looked at Old Town on its own, over a later window, in the Old Town homes selling in eighteen days, and the ones moving quickest were the ones whose exterior work had already cleared the Board of Architectural Review. Different geography, different months, different vendor, and a very different pace. That gap is the whole argument for pricing off your block instead of a headline.
Chart 1. Days on market for closed residential sales, City of Alexandria, VA, January 2025 versus January 2026. Zero baseline. Source: ALXnow, reporting MarketStats by ShowingTime, February 17, 2026.
Why the median fell while the average rose
In January 2026 in the City of Alexandria, the median sale price was $503,250, down 23.8% year over year, while the average sale price rose 6.3% to $684,654 (ALXnow / MarketStats by ShowingTime). Those two numbers moved in opposite directions in the same market in the same month.
The explanation is mix, not collapse. Only 9 of the 98 January 2026 closings were single-family detached, against 16 of 123 the year before. Swap a handful of houses for a handful of condos and the median drops even if nothing about value changed.
Chart 2. Year over year change in residential sale price, City of Alexandria, VA, January 2026 compared with January 2025. Median and average shown separately. Zero baseline on percent change. Source: ALXnow, reporting MarketStats by ShowingTime, February 17, 2026.
This is why we don't price houses off headlines. A ninety-eight-sale month in a city this size is a small sample, and any single slice of it is smaller still. Your comparable set is a handful of homes on and around your block, in your product type, in your condition tier.
What actually moves the number on your settlement statement
The list is shorter than most sellers expect.
Your first two weeks. They're the only two weeks your listing is genuinely new, and they set the tone for everything after. City of Alexandria homes captured 95.7% of original list price in January 2026, down from 98% a year earlier (ALXnow / MarketStats by ShowingTime). In our experience that kind of gap concentrates on listings that opened high and corrected late, though the report itself doesn't break it out that way.
Condition, in the order buyers see it. Front walk, front door, entry, kitchen, primary bath, basement smell. Money spent out of order is money spent twice.
A packet that's ready before you need it. Disclosure statement, plat, permits and any Certificate of Appropriateness for exterior work, HOA or condo resale documents ordered early, utility history, warranties. Nothing kills a good week like waiting on paperwork.
Access. A house that's hard to show is a house that sells slower. That's not a market condition, it's a scheduling decision.
Honest pricing. Not low. Honest. There's a real difference, and the days-on-market numbers above are what the difference looks like in practice.
Neighborhood notes
Prep work is not the same across the city. Elizabeth founded The LizLuke Team here in 2003 and has been selling these blocks ever since, and she'd tell you the packet looks different depending on where you sit.
In Old Town, the question is almost always historic review and what documentation exists for past exterior work. In Del Ray and Warwick Village, it's older housing stock, additions of varying vintage, and how much of the improvement history is written down anywhere. Rosemont, North Ridge, Beverly Hills, and Seminary Ridge bring larger lots, mature trees, and drainage questions that are worth answering before an inspector does.
These are observations from working the blocks, not data. Neighborhood-level pricing is exactly the thing we'd rather pull fresh for you than generalize about.
A pre-listing checklist
- Ask your agent which version of the disclosure form your timeline will land on.
- Order HOA or condominium resale documents early if they apply to you.
- Locate permits and any historic review approvals for past exterior work.
- Get a current Bright MLS comparable set for your street and product type, not a citywide median.
- Budget roughly 0.3% of sale price for transfer taxes and regional fees, plus your other closing costs.
- Do the condition work in the order buyers encounter it.
- Decide your access rules before the listing goes live, not after.
When you're ready to talk
Selling a house in this city is not complicated so much as it is specific. The statute is statewide, the fees are regional, and the part that decides your outcome is almost entirely local: your block, your product type, your two weeks.
We work the whole market, small condos through the high end. Most of our business comes from referrals and repeat clients, and that's the part we're proudest of, because it means people trusted us with the next one, and with their friends.
If you're thinking about selling, or just want to know what your house would realistically do right now, Elizabeth Lucchesi and The LizLuke Team at LONG & FOSTER REAL ESTATE INC in Old Town Alexandria would be glad to sit down and put a real number to it. It starts with a conversation.
Sources
- Code of Virginia § 55.1-703, Required disclosures; buyer to beware (version effective January 1, 2027). https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter7/section55.1-703/
- Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, Residential Property Disclosures (form effective July 1, 2026). https://www.dpor.virginia.gov/Consumers/Residential_Property_Disclosures
- ALXnow, "Home sales across Alexandria kick off 2026 on a somewhat sluggish note," February 17, 2026, reporting MarketStats by ShowingTime. https://www.alxnow.com/2026/02/17/home-sales-across-alexandria-kick-off-2026-on-a-somewhat-sluggish-note/
- Prime Title VA, "Virginia Grantor's Tax Explained." https://primetitleva.com/virginia-grantors-tax/
- Prime Title VA, "Northern Virginia Congestion Relief Fee and WMATA Capital Fee." https://primetitleva.com/northern-virginia-congestion-relief-wmata-fee/
Disclosures
The LizLuke Team at LONG & FOSTER REAL ESTATE INC. 110 N Royal St, 3rd Floor, Alexandria, VA 22314. Office 703.683.0400. The LizLuke Team (703) 868-5676.
Equal Housing Opportunity.
All information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
This guide is general information for home sellers and is not legal or tax advice.
