Arlington County

With a median house sale price of $570,000, Arlington continues to be the second-most-expensive jurisdiction in the Washington area, topped only by its neighbor Alexandria.

That price was up 24 percent over 2004, according to a Washington Post analysis of government records of sales of single-family houses and townhouses. Condos, an important part of the Arlington housing market, were analyzed separately. The median condo price was $375,000, up 19 percent from 2004.

The two Zip codes with the steepest house-price appreciation were 22209 and 22204, with 32 percent and 27 percent growth respectively. Prices there, though, remained relatively modest compared with the rest of the county. Houses in 22209, which includes Rosslyn, sold for a median price of $461,150 while those in 22204 -- the area between Route 50 and Interstate 395, not including Shirlington -- sold for a median price of $448,000.

"There's been a lot of new construction throughout both the Orange Line corridor and in 22204. Those sell for a premium; the tide isn't rising all boats at the same level," said Ron Cathell of Weichert Realtors.

Cathell stressed that individual houses in those Zip codes didn't necessary rise 32 percent in value. "Growth in 22209 was mostly due to a single townhouse development . . . called the Bromptons, which sold for the high nines and around one million. Nothing had ever sold in that price range in that area before."

Price increases also reflect home buyers' willingness to explore less obvious areas of Arlington -- a mile or more from a Metro station, for example -- to find homes in their price ranges. For example, the Columbia Pike corridor in 22204 has been a growing hub of renewal, with increased attention paid to infrastructure and cosmetic improvements. The 22209 area in Rosslyn, once thought of as a concrete jungle with no neighborhood or nightlife, is attractive to the commute-weary.

As in the rest of the D.C. area, the number of homes sold across the county decreased in 2005. "It's still a great market. It's just becoming a fair market -- a more balanced market that benefits everyone," said Billy Buck of Buck & Associates, on Wilson Boulevard between Courthouse and Clarendon for 30 years.

The highest median price in the county, $700,000, was in Zip code 22207, an area encompassing the northernmost end of Arlington, bordered roughly by Lee Highway and Spout Run to the south. For many years, prices in the northern part of the county have been notably higher than those in the southern part.