Arlington's Missing Middle Comes Down to a Few Addresses, With Prices to Match

On paper, Arlington approved 190 Missing Middle homes. By December 31, 2025, six of them were finished.

The gap starts with one piece of paperwork. Under the Expanded Housing Option, or EHO, the zoning change the County Board approved in March 2023, an owner can get a zoning permit for two to six units on a lot once zoned only for single-family homes. According to the county's March 2026 EHO data report, that permit "does not authorize construction." The owner still needs a building permit, and sometimes land disturbance, stormwater, or subdivision approvals as well. In practice, the EHO permit works like an option. Owners can use it or walk away and build a single-family house on the same lot.

If you're comparing Arlington with Bethesda, Silver Spring, or Northwest D.C. because you've heard Arlington now has a cheaper new-construction tier, that option explains what you'll find. The tier is real. It's also small enough to list address by address, and the reasons it stayed small tell you a lot about what buying into it involves.

Fifteen Owners Took the Exit

The county's report covers July 2023 through December 2025. In that time, 47 properties received EHO zoning permits. Only eight building permits were issued for EHO projects. Three projects were finished and five were under construction. Fifteen permit holders went ahead with single detached houses instead, which accounts for 57 approved units that won't be built. Twenty-four other approved properties showed no construction activity at all.

The county lists its own reasons for the low number of building permits:

1. Litigation. Applicants were reluctant to start building while the lawsuit was unresolved.
2. An extra zoning step. The EHO permit is a separate approval that comes before the building permit.
3. Subdivision plats. Semidetached homes and townhouses need plat approval before a building permit application is accepted.
4. Commercial code at four units. A project with four or more units falls under the commercial building code, which brings a learning curve and extra consultation time for builders used to residential work.

Each item adds time or risk, and the single-family exit has none of them. The switching began early. In April 2025, ARLnow reported that at least 16 of the 45 EHO projects approved at that point had applied to become single-family projects.

The friction also falls hardest on the larger projects. According to the county, 53% of approved EHO permits are for two- or three-unit projects, and all three finished developments have two units. Six-unit buildings were the most ambitious part of the policy, and as of the end of 2025 none had been completed.

The Short List

The county's project data names each finished and in-progress EHO address as of December 31, 2025.

The builders are local names. ARLnow identified Advantage Properties as the developer of the North Troy project. Wilsons Ventures, run by independent developer J. Alex Wilson, built the 25th Street pair and is behind the North Quincy townhouses, which were still under construction at the end of 2025. Midtown Partners' marketing presents it as the builder of the Monroe, 7th Street, Fern, and Carlin Springs projects. Its undated materials advertise the three Monroe townhomes from $1,649,000. For the two six-unit condo buildings, it directs buyers to interest lists rather than publishing prices. The county's records stop at the end of 2025, so a buyer should confirm the current construction status of each address directly.

What the Finished Ones Sold For

This is where the option logic pays off for buyers. With so little built, only a few sales show what Missing Middle housing costs, but they all point the same way.

• 2127 N Troy St sold for $1,615,000 on December 15, 2025. It was the only EHO home sold by the end of 2025.
• 2129 N Troy St, next door, sold for $1,610,000 in March 2026, according to ARLnow's April 2026 report. ARLnow described the two homes as a five-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath unit and a four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath unit in North Highlands.
• 5041 and 5043 25th St S each sold for around $1.2 million, citing property records, according to ARLnow's August 2026 coverage. The article didn't give sale dates.

Those prices only make sense next to the alternative. The county found that the December 2025 North Troy sale was 45% below the average price of a newly built single detached home in 22201, and the lowest new-construction sale price in that ZIP code since 2020. Newly built single detached homes carry 2026 assessed values of $1.3 million to $4.3 million, with an average of $2.4 million.

Part of the difference is size. Among permits approved through December 2025, the average EHO unit is 1,649 square feet, compared with 5,348 for the average new single detached house. The most common EHO unit has three bedrooms, while the most common new detached house has five. So the Missing Middle buyer isn't getting a bargain on the same house. They're getting new construction in the same neighborhoods, with less space, at a price the detached market in 22201 hasn't offered since 2020.

One nearby comparison helps. In August 2026, Wilson listed two five-bedroom townhomes on the 800 block of N. Burlington Street in Bluemont at $1,899,000 each. ARLnow noted that the lot was already zoned for a duplex, so the project didn't use EHO at all. Attached new construction in Arlington doesn't automatically mean Missing Middle, so check which zoning a project actually used.

The Court Date Two Weeks Out

The lawsuit is the reason so many permit holders hesitated. Its timeline matters to anyone weighing one of these homes:

• September 27, 2024: An Arlington Circuit Court judge voided the ordinance, and permit processing stopped.
• June 2025: The Virginia Court of Appeals reversed that ruling. It found that a developer who had invested in an EHO project was an "indispensable party" with a right to take part in the case.
• September 5, 2025: The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment again and sent the case back to Circuit Court. Arlington reopened EHO applications on October 1, 2025.
• May 19, 2026: The Supreme Court of Virginia agreed to hear the plaintiffs' appeal. According to the county's trial and appeal page, that appeal concerns a developer's right to participate, not the underlying merits, and the court did not halt EHO development.
• October 28, 2026: Nordgren v. County Board of Arlington, No. 250919, is on the Supreme Court of Virginia's October session schedule for 15 minutes of argument. The schedule was revised October 8 and says it is subject to change.

The county's position for now is that it will keep applying the 2023 ordinance. Its update states that staff "do not have the legal discretion to deny an EHO permit that meets all Zoning Ordinance requirements."

The developer whose appeal put EHO back on the books has stepped away from the case. As ARLnow reported in August, Wilson's attorney notified the court in late July that he wouldn't file a response brief. Wilson told the outlet that a separate court ruling had supported his vested rights at the 25th Street and North Quincy projects. He also told ARLnow he hasn't started anything new under the policy:

"I haven't taken on any new EHO projects because it's still all up in the air."

Builders with protected projects have kept them moving. Builders weighing new projects can still choose single-family, and that choice carries no legal question at all.

Questions Buyers Ask About Arlington's Missing Middle

Where are these homes concentrated? The 47 approved permits are spread across 25 civic associations. The county reports that 79% sit within three-quarters of a mile of a Metro station or half a mile of a premium transit stop on Columbia Pike or Richmond Highway.

Does the county's permit dashboard show what's actually being built? No. The dashboard tracks EHO zoning permits only, not building permits, construction, or occupancy. ARLnow counted 59 EHO projects there in April 2026 and noted that some had already switched to single-family.

What should I ask about a specific listing? Start with process questions. Was the project built under an EHO permit or under existing duplex or townhouse zoning? When was the building permit issued? Has the builder recorded any court notices tied to the project? An attorney is the right person to explain what the answers mean for a particular property.

If you'd like a closer look at North Troy, 25th Street, or the townhouses still underway as you compare Arlington with Bethesda and Northwest D.C., Levin Group can help. We'll walk you through recorded sales and permit status address by address, and we'll keep an eye on what comes out of the October 28 argument. Get in touch for a personalized consultation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.