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Herndon and Fairfax City posted the largest year-over-year declines in median one-bedroom asking rents among eight D.C.-area localities included in Zumper’s latest data, as the company’s regional apartment listings increased.
Herndon’s median asking rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $2,000 in June, a 4.8% decrease from June 2025 and the steepest decline among the eight localities. Fairfax City followed with a 3.8% drop to $2,010, equivalent to a decrease of approximately $76 per month.
The changes placed both Northern Virginia localities close to the D.C. metropolitan area’s median one-bedroom asking rent of $2,025.
Five of the eight localities recorded annual declines. Laurel, Maryland, had a 3% decrease. The three markets with increases were Manassas, where the median rose 3.4%; Hagerstown, Maryland, with a 2% increase; and Arlington, with a 0.8% increase.
Zumper analyst Crystal Chen described the results as “a general softening across the metro area, rather than something specific in one or two markets.”
“What’s more telling is the overall trend as this cooling isn’t isolated to Herndon and Fairfax,” Chen said.
More listings accompany lower asking rents
The number of available apartments in Zumper’s internal listings database for the D.C. region increased 18% between June 2025 and June 2026. Chen said that growth may be contributing to the declines.
“More inventory always tends to put downward pressure on asking rents,” she said.
Chen characterized the changes as “real, but not dramatic.” She also identified reduced demand amid uncertainty surrounding federal employment as another possible contributor to the regional results. The available information, however, does not establish that federal-employment uncertainty caused demand to fall.
Asking rents varied substantially across the markets cited in the report. Arlington remained the most expensive, with a median one-bedroom asking rent of $2,450. Alexandria ranked next at $2,310, followed by Washington, D.C., at $2,300. Hagerstown had the lowest median at $1,030.
The local declines contrasted with a slight increase nationally. The U.S. median one-bedroom asking rent was $1,526 in June, up 0.4% from a year earlier. Zumper reported that this was the first annual increase in the national figure since May 2025.
The regional figures offer a snapshot of advertisements in Zumper’s listings database rather than a comprehensive measure of what every renter is paying. They reflect asking rents for available units and do not necessarily represent the rents paid by existing tenants. The supplied data also does not establish whether the eight cited localities represent conditions throughout the broader D.C. metropolitan rental market.
Still, the combination of lower asking rents in five surveyed localities and an 18% expansion in listed availability points to broader easing within the portion of the regional market captured by Zumper. For apartment seekers comparing Northern Virginia communities, the June data showed the largest annual reductions in Herndon and Fairfax City, even as nearby Manassas and Arlington moved in the opposite direction.