Alexandria experienced something of a population surge between 2016 and 2017, registering 5,600 more residents, the most new additions in nearly 20 years.
The city’s 2017 population, according to a draft copy of Alexandria’s fiscal 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial report, is 156,100, up from 150,500 in 2016. It hasn’t risen that much since 1999-2000, when the population jumped from 121,700 to 129,147, or 7,447 people.
Rising population will eventually have a profound effect on Alexandria’s economy, in terms of costs for public services and new tax revenue from residential and retail development, though we don’t appear to be seeing the fruits yet, and might not for several years.
Most of the new apartment and condo buildings planned for the Eisenhower Avenue corridor, North Potomac Yard and Landmark areas — from the likes of Paradigm, Perseus Realty, JM Zell and Hines, StonebridgeCarras, JBG Smith Properties (NYSE: JBGS), Rushmark Properties, and Howard Hughes Corp. (NYSE: HHC) — have yet to come online or even start construction.