How Prices In These Hot Tax Zones Are Faring In Arlington

ARLINGTON, VA —"Opportunity Zones" might be a foreign term to most, but the designated areas have the ability to fast-track investment to the neighborhoods that need it most in Arlington.

An Opportunity Zone is a designation created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to allow certain community-benefiting investments in lower-income areas to have tax advantages.

A recent report shows positive signs for Opportunity Zones across the country, but not in Arlington.

Median home prices within Opportunity Zones nationwide increased in nearly two-thirds of cases for the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, according to a new report by real estate data site ATTOM Data Solutions.

Despite the national trend, Opportunity Zone households within Arlington saw a decrease in median home price of 37.7 percent in the first quarter of 2020 as compared with the first quarter of 2019.

The Opportunity Zones in Arlington include census tract neighborhoods in Columbia Pike and Green Valley.

The IRS explains Opportunity Zones as “An economically distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment.”

The special designation allows investors to make investments in the areas that could benefit multiple parts of community development and then receive reduced rates on their federal taxes.

Here’s other information about the price of Opportunity Zone homes in Arlington:

• Median Household Price in Q1 2020 : $452,500
• Median Household Price in Q4 2019: $500,000
• Median Household Price in Q3 2019: $673,500
• Median Household Price in Q2 2019: $500,000
• Median Household Price in Q1 2019: $726,000

While the majority of home prices within Opportunity Zones rose in the first quarter of 2020 as compared with the same period in 2019, the report still shows that 78 percent of Opportunity Zones had median home prices in the first quarter of 2020 that were less than the national average of $265,900.

The information in the report from ATTOM Data Solutions gives a snapshot of Opportunity Zone home prices going all the way back to 2005. You can find the full set of data on its website, but it’s unknown what type of impact the global new coronavirus pandemic will have on the market.

“Home prices in designated Opportunity Zones around the country keep showing strong gains, tracking the housing market boom now in its ninth year. Nearly half did even better in the first quarter of 2020 than the nation as a whole — a notable trend in some of the country’s most distressed neighborhoods,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer with ATTOM Data Solutions. “As with other recent ATTOM reports, this one needs to be taken in the context of the looming impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which could cut the legs out from under the housing market. For now, though, home prices are strong in Opportunity Zones, which offers significant hope to current and potential homeowners and investors.”

Among the 3,010 Opportunity Zones analyzed in the report, California has the most, followed by Florida, Georgia, Texas and North Carolina.

ATTOM compiled the report by using home sales price data taken from recorded sales deeds. For other information within the report, ATTOM used surveys from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Treasury.

You can find the full report on the ATTOM Data Solutions website.