The Stephen S. Fuller Institute

In the Washington region in 2017, 13.2 percent of residents lived in a household that did not have a cellular data plan. Residents without a […]

The location of Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington County would generate significant impacts to the benefit of the County’s and Commonwealth of Virginia’s economies.  These economic and fiscal impacts would be seen in job and income growth including the HQ2 workforce and the supporting jobs and personal and business earnings that would be generated annually by HQ2, its workforce, and their families by their spending for goods and service within the Arlington County economy and throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. This new economic activity would generate substantial new revenues in excess of new public expenditure requirements for both Arlington County and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

While HQ2 will generate additional demand for housing, its effects will be geographically dispersed and gradual. Even so, the additional demand would like increase both home sales prices and rental rates, albeit only marginally above the rise that is expected to occur without these households. The average wages of HQ2 workers indicate that many of these households would be able to afford new construction, both ownership and rental housing. Additional supply would mitigate any price increases that would occur for the existing housing stock.