Arlington's Missing Middle Approved Plenty of Homes. Why Have So Few Been Built?

On North Troy Street in North Highlands, two halves of the same new duplex sold three months apart, and their prices were only $5,000 apart. One closed at $1,615,000 in December 2025, according to Arlington County's EHO data. Its neighbor at 2129 N. Troy closed at $1,610,000 in March 2026, ARLnow reported. These were among the first homes finished under Arlington's Expanded Housing Option, the 2023 "Missing Middle" zoning change. It allows buildings of up to six units on lots that used to be zoned for single-family homes only.

On Oct. 28, the Virginia Supreme Court will hear arguments in one piece of the lawsuit over that ordinance. ARLnow reports that the appeal is procedural and does not touch the substance of the zoning change. The plaintiffs' attorney expects a written ruling roughly four to six weeks after the hearing. Those two facts are connected. Three years of legal uncertainty have shaped what the policy actually builds. What gets built is a small number of large homes priced against single-family houses, not against condos.

A buyer touring an EHO home this fall is buying into an open case

Here is the legal sequence, briefly. On Sept. 27, 2024, Arlington Circuit Court Judge David Schell voided the EHO amendments and stopped new permits. The Virginia Court of Appeals reversed that judgment in June 2025 and again in September 2025. Its reasoning was that a developer with an EHO project already underway should have been allowed into the original case. The County resumed accepting new EHO applications on Oct. 1, 2025. Its trial and appeal page says staff must process applications that comply with the ordinance.

ARLnow's Oct. 15 report lays out what could follow the hearing. If the plaintiffs win, ARLnow says, the County's ability to issue EHO permits could be affected right away, and the case would go back to the Court of Appeals. If the developer's earlier appeal holds, the case returns to Circuit Court and could be tried again. Zach Williams, a land use attorney at Venable LLP, told ARLnow that either way, "It's almost like the battle has just begun."

How a pending ruling affects one specific property is a question for a real estate attorney. This post is general information, not legal or financial advice. For the market, though, the result is already clear. Builders have spent three years deciding what to build without knowing whether the rules will survive, and their choices explain the prices.

From 190 approved units to six finished ones

The County's EHO Annual Data Report, released in March 2026 and covering activity through Dec. 31, 2025, shows how approvals narrowed to finished homes:

1. 47 properties had approved EHO zoning permits, proposing 190 units, of which 132 would be net new housing.
2. 15 permit holders switched to building single-family homes instead, so 57 approved units will not be built.
3. 24 properties showed no construction activity at all by the cutoff.
4. 5 developments, 21 units were under construction.
5. 3 developments, 6 units were complete.

The completed sites are the Troy Street duplex in North Highlands, a duplex at 5041 and 5043 25th St. S. in Claremont, and a conversion of an existing building at 644 S. Illinois St. in Forest Glen. The five projects under construction at the end of 2025 were at 1225 N. Quincy St., 2612 S. Fern St., 3014 7th St. N., 4611 N. Carlin Springs Rd., and 629 N. Monroe St.

Things have moved since then. ARLnow reported in April 2026 that the County had approved nine more EHO projects totaling 40 units after the appellate decisions, and that 59 projects appeared on the County's permitting dashboard. Some of those had also shifted to single-family development.

Permits by year track the court calendar: 23 in 2023, 22 in 2024, and 2 in 2025, a year when the regulations were voided for much of the time. The ordinance caps EHO permits at 58 a year, split by zoning district. The only allocation ever filled was the seven permits for R-5 lots, in 2024. The cap has never been what held supply back.

Switching to a single-family house is the builder's hedge

The step from 47 approvals to 15 single-family switches is the key to understanding this market. A builder who buys a lot planning a multi-unit building, and then watches a judge void the zoning, has a fallback that every Arlington lot already allows: one large detached house. In April 2025, ARLnow found that at least 16 of 45 approved projects had tried to make that switch.

The County's report lists other frictions in its own explanation of why so few building permits followed. They include litigation risk, a separate EHO zoning permit on top of the building permit, subdivision plats for semidetached and townhouse projects, and commercial building code requirements once a building reaches four units. That last item pushes builders toward smaller formats. A duplex or a row of three townhouses stays under the commercial-code threshold, and it can be marketed to the same buyers who shop for detached homes.

Lot rules narrow things further. EHO eligibility requires minimum site areas of 5,000 to 20,000 square feet and minimum widths of 50 to 100 feet, depending on the district, per the County's EHO permit page. Lots that big in walkable North Arlington are not cheap to buy.

The builder most closely tied to the lawsuit has described the hedge directly. J. Alex Wilson, the independent developer whose appeal led the Court of Appeals to reinstate EHO, told ARLnow in August: "I haven't taken on any new EHO projects because it's still all up in the air." He told ARLnow that a separate court ruling supported his vested rights at his Claremont duplex and at 1223, 1225 and 1227 N. Quincy St. His newest project is three townhomes at 836, 840 and 844 N. Burlington St. in Bluemont. Wilson plans to move into one of them, and the other two were listed at $1,899,000 each. The project did not use EHO at all, because the lot was already zoned for a duplex.

What the finished homes sold for, set against the county

ARLnow's September 2026 market report, based on MarketStats by ShowingTime, gives countywide averages rather than medians. That still provides a useful yardstick.

Each North Highlands half sold for more than the average detached house sold for countywide in September. The Claremont halves sold for about twice the attached average, though condos pull that average down. The 2129 unit was first listed at $1,795,000 in May 2025 and closed about $185,000 lower. Buyers pushed back on price, but they still valued the home against detached houses, not against townhouses.

The broader market is giving buyers more room this fall. In September 2026, Arlington had 582 active listings at month's end, up from 475 a year earlier. Homes averaged 33 days on market, sellers received an average of 98.7% of list price, and ARLnow noted mortgage rates holding above 7%.

The six-plex is where the arithmetic changes

Greater Greater Washington has written about a six-unit project under construction at 3802 14th St. N., near the Virginia Square Metro station. The author estimated land cost at about $138,000 per home, compared with $829,000 for the single house that stood on the lot before. The author also guessed that five of the homes might be priced from the mid-$800,000s to the high-$900,000s. Those numbers are one writer's illustration, not listings. Still, they show the math the ordinance was written for, and why it shows up so rarely. Splitting land across six homes is what brings prices down. Six units also bring commercial building code, the most permitting steps, and the most money exposed if the court case goes badly.

Questions buyers are asking this fall

Can EHO homes be built right now? Yes. The County has accepted new EHO applications since Oct. 1, 2025, and says the May 2026 Supreme Court order did not stop permitting. The Oct. 28 hearing could change that, depending on the outcome, according to ARLnow.

Will the Supreme Court decide whether Missing Middle is legal? Not in this round. The current appeal is about procedure, and either outcome sends the case back to a lower court.

Are EHO homes a cheaper way into a single-family neighborhood? Not yet, judging by the homes that have closed. The finished duplexes sold between about $1.2 million and $1.615 million. The lower prices so far exist only as estimates for larger buildings that are still under construction.

If you're weighing a newly built duplex in North Arlington against a detached house a few blocks away, or wondering what a pending court ruling could mean for a home you're considering, the Jeanne Phil Meg team can walk you through the recent sales and help you line up the right attorney questions before you write an offer. Contact Us.