Category: Blog

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.

Amazon’s second headquarters (HQ2) is expected to bring up to 50,000 jobs and occupy 8 million square feet (SF) of office space in Arlington County, VA. The build-out is likely to occur over 20 years. The arrival of HQ2 in the Arlington County will have economic, fiscal and housing impacts on the County, the Washington region and the Commonwealth of Virginia. This report primarily focuses on the broader impacts on the Washington region. For a detailed analysis on the impacts on Arlington County, VA and the Commonwealth of Virginia, see The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Locating Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington County, Virginia.

This piece ran in the Washington Business Journal in the September 21, 2018 edition. The graphic was prepared by the Washington Business Journal using data supplied by the Institute. The Washington region’s gross regional product (GRP) increased 2.1 percent in 2017. Of all 382 metros, our region ranked 151st in terms of growth. Of the largest 15…