Northern Virginia Guide › Fairfax County › Fairfax
Fairfax, Virginia
Half sold above asking. One in seven on a VA loan.
At a glance
Six numbers that describe Fairfax.
The median single-family home with a Fairfax address sold for $985,000 in 2026, went under contract in five days, and more than half sold for more than the seller asked.
What a house actually costs in Fairfax this year, who is buying it and how, what it rents for, which of four high schools it feeds, and how long the drive is. Every number below is from Bright MLS closed sales, pulled on October 2, 2026, not from a listing site's estimate.
"Fairfax" on this page means a Fairfax mailing address in Fairfax County: zips 22030, 22031, 22032 and 22033 around the independent City of Fairfax, which is its own jurisdiction with its own tax rate and is not in these numbers. The city has its own page. Single-family means a detached house with at least three bedrooms and two full baths; townhouse means end-of-row and interior-row homes; condos are not included. Source: Bright MLS, closed sales January 1 to October 2, 2026, pulled by Ahmed Makkiyah on October 2, 2026.
Prices
What $985,000 buys, and what the range looks like.
Fairfax's cheapest single-family sale of 2026 was $450,000 and its dearest $2,649,941, and the middle is a crowded band: 340 of the 448 houses sold between $800,000 and $1.5 million.
The typical Fairfax house is a 1960s to 1980s split-level or colonial on a quarter to half acre: Kings Park and Kings Park West in 22032, Mantua in 22031, Fairfax Villa in 22030, Greenbriar's Levitt ramblers in 22033. Updated, it sells at $950,000 to $1.2 million, usually to a family that has been outbid twice already. Original, it sells under $900,000, and that is where the investors are. Above $1.5 million (52 sales) is the newer stock: Shirley Gate Park, Hampton Chase, Fairfax Farms and the rebuilds in Mantua.
Townhomes are a big market here too: 313 sold at a median of $735,000, from $400,000 to $1,465,000. Fair Lakes and Fair Ridge in 22033 had 122 of them; Mosaic and MetroWest in 22031 had 89. They took 6 days to go under contract and 55% sold above asking.
By zip: 183 houses sold in 22032, 101 in 22033, 100 in 22030 and 64 in 22031. At $451 per square foot for houses, Fairfax prices match the county ($457 in September) and run about $90 a foot under Vienna, next door on the Orange Line.
Median single-family sale price, 20262
Bright MLS closed sales, 2026 year to date, except the Fairfax County row (September 2026 alone). The town rows are filtered to 3+ bedrooms and 2+ full baths and leave out condominium-regime homes; the Fairfax County row has no size filter. Fairfax, Alexandria and Falls Church mean the Fairfax County addresses, not the independent cities, and Chantilly means its Fairfax County side. Arlington County, the neighbor to the east, is one row for the whole county (pulled October 3, same filters). The Cities of Fairfax, Falls Church and Alexandria are independent cities next to the county, shown under their own names. Oak Hill (20 sales) and Dunn Loring (12) are too small to chart.
| Measure | Single-family | Townhouse |
|---|---|---|
| Homes sold | 448 | 313 |
| Median sold price | $985,000 | $735,000 |
| Average sold price | $1,091,514 | $768,228 |
| Median price per square foot | $451 | $439 |
| Median days to contract | 5 | 6 |
| Median sold-to-list | 100.6% | 100.6% |
| Sold above asking | 239 (53.3%) | 172 (55.0%) |
| Under contract within 7 days | 62.3% | 65.2% |
| Lowest sale | $450,000 | $400,000 |
| Highest sale | $2,649,941 | $1,465,000 |
| Total dollar volume | $489.0M | $240.5M |
What can you afford in Fairfax? Start from the monthly payment you can live with, not the price. The calculator adds Fairfax County tax, insurance and HOA for you, and there is no town tax to add on these addresses.
Follow the money
Fairfax is a financed market. Only one buyer in seven paid cash.
In 2026, 67 of 448 single-family sales closed without a mortgage, 14% of the dollars, against 36% of buyers in McLean and 23% in Vienna. Fairfax houses are bought by families with loans.
Share of single-family sales paid in cash, by price range
Cash is at the bottom, where investors and builders buy the original houses under $800,000. Through the family market from $800,000 to $2 million it is a steady one in eight. Only 8 houses sold above $2 million.
How 448 single-family purchases were paid for
Cash buyers paid less: a median of $940,000 against $995,000 financed, and closed in 5 days against 6. The bigger story is the VA loan. 65 of 448 house buyers, one in seven, used one, about three times the share in McLean (4%), Great Falls (7%) or Vienna (5%). Fairfax sits between the Pentagon, Fort Belvoir and the federal campuses along I-66, and its sellers see VA offers every week.
What that means if you need a loan: you are competing with other financed buyers, so the loan is not what loses the house. Speed and price are. In 2026, 239 Fairfax houses sold above asking and six in ten went under contract within a week. Ahmed's rule: a full pre-approval, an escalation cap decided before the open house, and an appraisal gap you can actually cover. A VA loan is a strong offer here when it comes with the same discipline.
Townhomes: 45 of 313 sales were cash (14%), and those buyers spent $35.9 million of $240.5 million (15%). The cash median was $753,000 against $731,250 financed; above $835,000, 19% of townhomes sold for cash. Mixed cash-and-loan deals were counted as financed, so the true cash share is slightly higher.
The interesting facts
Half sold over asking, and the one federal families pick.
Four things in the 2026 numbers that are true of Fairfax and not of McLean, Great Falls or Vienna.
Competition. A median sold-to-list of 100.6% means the typical Fairfax house sold over its price, not at it. McLean's median was 99%. The houses that sit are the ones priced like Vienna.
Who is buying. Federal, military and contractor families on loans, which is why cash is low and VA is high, and why Fairfax prices track paychecks more than portfolios. That makes it steadier than the markets at the top of the chart.
Rentals. A Fairfax house rents for a median of $4,000 a month, $800 less than Vienna and $2,000 less than McLean, and 407 townhomes leased this year. With GMU, Fair Oaks and the Mosaic District inside the four zips, the renters never run out.
Rent or buy
Right at the line where buying starts to win.
A single-family home rents for a median of $4,000 a month and sells for $985,000, a price-to-rent ratio of 20.5; a townhome rents for $3,300 and sells for $735,000, a ratio of 18.6.1
| Measure | Single-family | Townhome |
|---|---|---|
| Homes rented | 142 | 407 |
| Median monthly rent | $4,000 | $3,300 |
| Average monthly rent | $4,175 | $3,359 |
| Median rent per square foot | $2.00 | $2.03 |
| Median days to lease | 18 | 15 |
| Rent range | $3,000 to $6,500 | $2,200 to $5,100 |
Gross yield is before the mortgage, tax, insurance, HOA and upkeep. At a ratio near 20, a family staying five years or more in a Fairfax house can expect buying to beat renting, and a townhome at 18.6 gets there sooner.
Own in Fairfax already? Half the houses here sold over asking this year, so last year's assessment is probably behind. Ahmed runs a real comparative analysis against the 448 sales on this page, not a website estimate.
The houses
Four zips around a city, four kinds of house.
The Fairfax mailing address wraps around the independent City of Fairfax on every side, and each of its four zips is a different market with a different high school.
22032, Kings Park and Kings Park West. The biggest market, 183 house sales: Kings Park's 1960s split-levels and colonials, Kings Park West (built 1967 to 1986) with townhome clusters, Middleridge, Country Club View and Olde Creek. Robinson Secondary is the school, Burke Lake the park, and civic associations, not HOAs, run most of it.
22031, Mantua and Merrifield. Mantua's 1960s and 1970s colonials on half-acre lots with a community pool and the Woodson pyramid; Fairhill's 1950s ramblers; and the new townhomes and condos at the Mosaic District and MetroWest, a short walk from the Orange Line.
22030, Fairfax Villa and the Braddock side. 1960s Fairfax Villa, the Random Hills condos, and the large newer houses at Shirley Gate Park and Hampton Chase near GMU, where most of the $1.5 million to $2.6 million sales are.
22033, Greenbriar, Fair Lakes and Penderbrook. Greenbriar is about 2,000 Levitt houses from the 1960s with no HOA. Fair Lakes was farmland until the 1980s and is now townhomes, colonials and condos, 122 of this year's townhouse sales. Penderbrook is 1,776 homes around a public golf course with a master HOA; Fairfax Farms is half-acre lots with no HOA.
What to check. First, that the address is in the county and not the City of Fairfax, which has a different tax rate and services. Then radon, 1960s electrical panels and galvanized pipe in the originals, and in any HOA community the resale packet: under Virginia's Property Owners' Association Act you have three days after receiving it to cancel.
Schools
Woodson, Oakton, Chantilly or Robinson, and the street decides.
Fairfax addresses feed four main pyramids: Carter G. Woodson High (US News #7 in Virginia), Oakton (#8), Chantilly (#18) and Robinson Secondary (#21), with Fairfax High and Falls Church High taking some streets.3
A+
Carter G. Woodson High School
Niche #8 in Fairfax County, US News #7 in Virginia. Renamed from W.T. Woodson in 2024. Serves Mantua, Fairfax Villa and much of 22031 and 22030 through Frost Middle.
A+
Oakton High School
Niche #4 in the county, US News #8 in Virginia. Serves Penderbrook, Fairfax Farms and the MetroWest side of 22031.
A+
Chantilly High School
Niche #7 in the county, US News #18. Serves Greenbriar and part of Fair Lakes; home of a Governor's STEM Academy. Skyview High will take 333 of its students in 2027-28.
A
Robinson Secondary School
Grades 7 to 12, about 3,900 students, IB. Niche #13 in the county, US News #21. Serves Kings Park West and most of 22032.
Masjid
ICNV, ADAMS Sully and Mustafa Center
The Islamic Center of Northern Virginia is on Shirley Gate Road in 22030. ADAMS Center's Sully branch in Chantilly is closest to Fair Lakes, and Mustafa Center in Annandale to Kings Park.
GMU
George Mason University
Virginia's largest public university, about 39,600 students, on the 22030 side, with EagleBank Arena for concerts and games. Its students are a big share of the rental market.
Fairfax High (owned by the City of Fairfax, run by FCPS) serves parts of 22030 and the Fair Lakes side of 22033, and Falls Church High serves Merrifield near Mosaic. FCPS says its January 2026 boundary review did not change the secondary-school lines in these pyramids, and new elementary studies for the Merrifield area run into 2027. A listing's school claim is not a guarantee. Check the exact address at the FCPS Boundary Locator, and ask Ahmed to pull the assigned schools from the MLS record.
Commute
The Orange Line, or I-66 with a toll.
Vienna/Fairfax-GMU station at Nutley Street is the train, 66 Express is the drive, and from Kings Park the VRE at Burke Centre is the quiet third option.
| To | Drive | Transit | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown DC (Metro Center) | 40 to 60 min | 29 min | I-66, 35 to 45 minutes in the express lanes; Orange Line from Vienna/Fairfax-GMU |
| Pentagon | 35 to 50 min | — | I-66 to Route 110, or Route 50 |
| Tysons | 20 to 30 min | — | Route 123 or Gallows Road |
| Reston Town Center | 25 to 35 min | — | Route 50 to the Fairfax County Parkway |
| Dulles Airport | 30 to 40 min | — | Route 50 or I-66 to Route 28 |
| Union Station, from 22032 | — | 51 min | VRE Manassas Line from Burke Centre, 1,516 free spaces |
Vienna/Fairfax-GMU station has about 5,200 parking spaces at roughly $5 a day5, and the Flats at MetroWest are a five-minute walk. Fairfax Connector routes 621 to 623 run from the station to the Government Center, Fair Lakes and Penderbrook; Metrobus F60 and F61 replaced the old 1 and 2 routes on Route 50 in 2025. On 66 Express, carpools of three ride free with an E-ZPass Flex; everyone else pays a toll that moves with traffic. From Fair Lakes add 10 to 15 minutes to DC and subtract 10 to Dulles. Ahmed will do the 7:45 drive with you before you offer.
Daily life
Mosaic, Fair Oaks, Burke Lake, and the halal butchers on Route 29.
Shopping. The Mosaic District in Merrifield is the walkable one: Target, MOM's Organic Market, the Angelika cinema and a street of restaurants. Fair Oaks Mall anchors 22033, with a Fresh World grocery and Sky Zone coming into the old Sears; Fair Lakes has the Whole Foods, the Walmart and the Promenade. Fairfax Corner is the dinner-and-a-movie block.
Outdoors. Burke Lake Park's 4.7-mile loop, golf, mini train and marina sit on the 22032 edge. The Cross County Trail runs along Accotink Creek through Eakin Park from Pickett Road to Wakefield Park. Lake Accotink is being studied as a smaller lake with wetlands, with a decision expected late 2026.
Halal and Middle Eastern. Halal Bazar and Fairfax Halal & Meat on Lee Highway are the Afghan and Middle Eastern butchers; Halalway on Jermantown Road has been there since 2004; H Mart on Fairfax Boulevard has a halal meat counter. Erbil Kabob on Old Pickett Road is the Iraqi kitchen, and Saba on Pickett Road does Yemeni mandi.
Hospitals and airports. Inova Fair Oaks Hospital is in 22033; Inova Fairfax, Northern Virginia's only Level I trauma centre, is 10 minutes from 22031. Dulles is 30 to 40 minutes, Reagan National about 35 to 45.
Taxes.4 These addresses are unincorporated Fairfax County, so there is no town tax: the 2026 rate is $1.12 per $100 plus $0.0335 in county fees, about $1.15 all in, roughly $11,400 a year on a $985,000 house. Some streets add a leaf-collection or refuse fee. The City of Fairfax, in the middle, charges $1.0725 and runs its own services, so check which side of the line a listing is on. The car tax is $4.57 per $100 of each vehicle's value.
Where to eat
"Ahmed, where do you go to eat?" The Fairfax list.
The top five within about fifteen minutes of Fairfax Circle in each cuisine, the one doing best at the top, and halal marked.7
Also worth knowing: Charcoal Chicken in Chantilly (Pakistani, fully halal), Jaipur Royal at Fairfax Circle and Bollywood Bistro on Chain Bridge Road for Indian, SimSim on Main Street (Palestinian, halal, new in 2026), and Ciao Osteria in Centreville for a big Italian dinner. Closed in 2025-26, so not listed: Alta Strada and Matchbox at Mosaic, Brio at Fair Oaks Mall, Star Kabob, Shawerma Express. Rankings weigh current reviews across Google, Yelp and OpenTable, the 2026 Washingtonian and Northern Virginia Magazine lists, and whether the place is busy; the halal note comes from Zabihah or the restaurant's own menu. Know one that belongs here? Tell Ahmed.
Who buys here
Families with a loan, a commute and a school list.
Federal and military families on VA and conventional loans; move-up buyers who want Woodson, Oakton or Robinson for under $1 million; first-time buyers in the townhomes of Fair Lakes and Merrifield; and investors in those townhomes at 5.4%.
Buyers choose Fairfax over Vienna for about $470,000 of median and a bigger lot for the money, and over Centreville and Chantilly for a shorter drive and the Orange Line. They choose it over the City of Fairfax for the county schools and services on their own street. The ones who leave are usually trading up to Vienna or Oakton, or retiring out of a 1960s house that sold above asking in a week.
Questions
What people ask about Fairfax.
How much does a house cost in Fairfax, Virginia in 2026?
The median single-family home (3+ bedrooms, 2+ full baths) with a Fairfax address in Fairfax County sold for $985,000 in 2026 through October 2, across 448 sales in Bright MLS, at $451 per square foot. The median townhouse sold for $735,000 across 313 sales. Houses ran from $450,000 to $2,649,941 and townhomes from $400,000 to $1,465,000. These numbers exclude the independent City of Fairfax.
How competitive is the Fairfax housing market?
Very competitive. In 2026, 53.3% of single-family homes and 55.0% of townhomes sold above the asking price, 62% of houses went under contract within a week, and the median house took 5 days. The median house sold at 100.6% of its list price.
What percentage of Fairfax home buyers pay cash or use a VA loan?
Only about 15% paid cash: 67 of 448 single-family sales in 2026, against 36% in McLean and 23% in Vienna. Another 65 buyers, about one in seven, used a VA loan, three times McLean's share, and 298 used a conventional loan. Cash is highest under $800,000, where 27% of houses sold to cash buyers, mostly investors and builders.
What is rent in Fairfax, Virginia?
In 2026 the median single-family rental (3+ bedrooms) with a Fairfax address in the county leased for $4,000 a month across 142 closed leases in Bright MLS, and the median townhome for $3,300 across 407 leases. Houses ran from $3,000 to $6,500 a month and took a median of 18 days to lease; townhomes took 15.
Is it better to rent or buy in Fairfax?
Fairfax sits right at the line. The price-to-rent ratio is 20.5 for a single-family home ($985,000 against $48,000 a year in rent) and 18.6 for a townhome, with gross rental yields of 4.9% and 5.4%. A family staying five years or more can expect buying to beat renting, and sooner in a townhome.
Which high schools serve Fairfax, Virginia?
Fairfax addresses in the county feed four main high schools: Carter G. Woodson (Niche A+, US News #7 in Virginia) for Mantua and much of 22031 and 22030; Oakton (A+, #8) for Penderbrook and Fairfax Farms; Chantilly (A+, #18) for Greenbriar and part of Fair Lakes; and Robinson Secondary (A, #21, IB) for Kings Park West and most of 22032. Fairfax High and Falls Church High take some streets. Check any address at the FCPS Boundary Locator.
How long is the commute from Fairfax to Washington, DC?
About 29 minutes on the Orange Line from Vienna/Fairfax-GMU station to Metro Center; the station has about 5,200 parking spaces at roughly $5 a day. By car it is 40 to 60 minutes at 8 am, or 35 to 45 in the I-66 express lanes. From Kings Park the VRE at Burke Centre reaches Union Station in about 51 minutes.
What is the property tax in Fairfax, Virginia?
Fairfax addresses outside the City of Fairfax are unincorporated Fairfax County, so there is no town tax. The 2026 rate is $1.12 per $100 plus about $0.0335 in county fees, about $1.15 all in, roughly $11,400 a year on a $985,000 house. The independent City of Fairfax charges $1.0725 and runs its own services, so check which side of the line a listing is on.
Ask Ahmed
Your Trusted Realtor in NOVA.
Tell me what you are looking for in Fairfax.
Buying, selling, using a VA loan, or deciding between Fairfax and Vienna. Send the situation and get the numbers back, in English or Arabic, not a pitch.
REALTOR®, Douglas Realty of Virginia · VA License #0225242357
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Ahmed's take
Two or three sentences in Ahmed's own voice go here: who Ahmed sees buying in Fairfax, what it takes to win a house that gets five offers in a weekend, and the first thing Ahmed checks on a listing (county or city).
دليل شمال فرجينيا
السكن في فيرفاكس، فرجينيا.
بلغ السعر الوسطي للبيت المستقل 985,000 دولار في 2026، وبيع أكثر من نصف البيوت بأكثر من السعر المطلوب.
يُقصد بفيرفاكس هنا البيوت التي يحمل عنوانها اسم فيرفاكس لكنها تقع داخل المقاطعة، حول مدينة فيرفاكس المستقلة (الرموز البريدية 22030 و22031 و22032 و22033). السوق سريع: بلغت المدة الوسطية حتى توقيع العقد خمسة أيام. واشترى مشترٍ واحد من كل سبعة بقرض VA. المدارس هي وودسن وأوكتون وشانتيلي وروبنسن، وفيها مركز ICNV الإسلامي على شارع شيرلي غيت، ومتاجر اللحم الحلال على شارع لي هايوي، ومطعم أربيل كباب العراقي. جميع الأرقام من Bright MLS، مبيعات مغلقة من 1 يناير إلى 2 أكتوبر 2026.
حسابياً، تقع فيرفاكس عند الحد الذي يصبح فيه الشراء أفضل من الإيجار: نسبة السعر إلى الإيجار 20.5 للبيت المستقل و18.6 للتاون هاوس. انتبه: إذا كان البيت داخل مدينة فيرفاكس لا في المقاطعة، فإن الضريبة والخدمات تختلفان. هل تفكر في فيرفاكس، أو تحتار بينها وبين فيينا؟ أرسل لي تفاصيل وضعك، وسأحسب معك أرقامك الحقيقية، بالعربية أو بالإنجليزية.
وكيلك العقاري الموثوق في شمال فرجينيا.
Vienna
Next stop on the Orange Line.
$1.453M
Median house, 2026
McLean
Langley, the river, Tysons.
$2.3M
Median house, 2026
Buying power
Start from the payment.
Tax, insurance and HOA included
Home valuation
Priced on evidence.
A real comparative analysis, not a website estimate
Fairfax County
Fifty-one years of prices.
$950K
Median house, September 2026
بالعربية
Every step, in Arabic.
بالعربية أو بالإنجليزية، كما تفضّل