Six hundred thousand dollars is the median price of a detached house in Prince William County. Take that same number to Arlington and it buys a little more than the median condo.
Same money. Same region. Two very different homes.
I pulled the price-by-type medians for the counties I work in most, and side by side they explain a lot about how buyers are shopping right now.
| County | Detached | Townhouse | Condo | |---|---|---|---| | Prince William | $600,000 | $450,000 | $300,000 | | Loudoun | $983,625 | $703,000 | $400,000 | | Fairfax County | $1,100,000 | $674,000 | $390,000 | | Alexandria | $813,000 | $715,000 | $350,000 | | Arlington | $1,553,000 | $1,024,000 | $550,000 |
Source: Bright MLS, June 2026.
The price per square foot tells the same story from another side. A square foot in Arlington sold for about $498. In Loudoun it was $294, in Prince William $256, and in Stafford $204. Closer in, each dollar buys less house. People accept that trade because of where the house sits and how long the drive is.
One caution before anyone takes these numbers too literally. A median is the middle sale, nothing more. Detached homes in Loudoun sold anywhere from about $750,000 to well past $10 million, so the middle number says very little about any one street.
How buyers actually use this
Most buyers I meet don’t start with a county. They start with a monthly payment. The payment turns into a price, and the price turns into a short list of trade-offs.
Someone with about $700,000 to spend can buy a Loudoun townhouse near the median, an Alexandria townhouse just under it, or a detached house in Prince William with room to spare. All three are reasonable. The buyer is really deciding what matters most to them: the yard, the square footage, or the time in the car.
If you are buying, my advice is to settle that question before you start touring. It is much easier to rule out a trade-off on paper than to talk yourself out of a house you have already walked through.
Why this matters if you are selling
This is the part I spend real time on with sellers, because it changes who your competition is.
Say you are listing a Loudoun townhouse around $700,000. You are competing with the townhouses down the street, yes. But the buyer touring yours on Saturday may have toured a detached house in Prince William that morning, with a garage and a backyard, for less money. In their head, your house is up against that one.
That is no reason to panic or cut your price. Loudoun homes have been selling at about 101 percent of asking. It does mean your listing has to answer the question that buyer is quietly asking: why this one, instead of more house for less money a few exits down the road?
Usually there is a good answer. A shorter commute. A home that needs nothing. Less yard to mow and a smaller utility bill. The job is to make that answer obvious in the photos, in the description, and in how the house feels the minute someone walks in. Buyers comparing across counties are comparing value, and they will give you credit for the things you show them clearly.
When I price a home, I look at the sales next door first. I also look at what the same budget buys twenty minutes in each direction, because that is what the buyer is looking at too.
If you want to see how your home or your budget lines up against the counties around you, I am happy to pull those numbers for your situation. You can reach my office at 571-496-9009.