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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Behind the Washington region's cooling housing market is a household ledger under growing pressure: personal bankruptcies are rising faster across the metro than in the country as a whole, and food-assistance enrollment is falling — though for reasons that are not all signs of recovery.
The figures come from Brookings' DMV Monitor, the interactive dashboard tracking the regional economy that the institution updated June 4. They set the backdrop for Tuesday's City Council meeting, where City Manager James Parajon is scheduled to deliver his monthly State of the Economy report and Police Chief Tarrick McGuire is set to update members on crime.
Personal bankruptcy filings across the metro rose 27.1% between the first quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2026, according to the DMV Monitor, which draws the figure from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The regional increase ran just behind the 27.6% rise in very large metros and ahead of the 25.1% national increase. Alexandria recorded 98 non-business bankruptcy filings per 100,000 residents as of March, among the higher rates in the region — a figure consistent with the financial strain the Brief reported in March.
Ryan Belmore
The pressure is visible in the city's own eviction data as well. Nearly all eviction cases in Alexandria — 97% — stem from unpaid rent, with the average amount owed reaching $5,668, according to the city's Office of Analytics, Innovation and Data dashboard, with figures as of April 1. The average time from an eviction summons to a writ of eviction was 58 days.
Food assistance is moving the other direction. The number of residents enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program across the metro fell 5.83% between February 2024 and February 2026, a smaller decline than the 8.22% national drop, according to state agency reporting compiled by Brookings. Alexandria counted 10,477 SNAP participants in February.
A falling SNAP count, however, does not necessarily mean fewer residents need help. Brookings has cautioned that declines in food assistance and Medicaid enrollment across the region reflect multiple factors, including the unwinding of pandemic-era enrollment expansions, and are not solely tied to the federal job losses reshaping the regional economy. New federal SNAP work requirements that took effect Nov. 1 expanded the age range for time-limited benefits and tightened exemptions for parents with dependent children — changes that can push residents off the rolls regardless of need. Parajon told council in December that local SNAP enrollment had already slipped from 12,300 in October 2024 to 11,589 a year later.
The strain has shown up elsewhere at City Hall. In his fall and winter reports, Parajon described residents living "paycheck to paycheck" and a rising number of taxpayers seeking payment plans for car and real estate taxes. He has tied much of the pressure to the loss of federal employment across the region.
Not every indicator points downward. Major crime across the metro fell 24.1% per capita from 2024 to 2025, slightly outpacing declines in very large metros, at 22.5%, and nationally, at 22.4%, according to FBI data in the DMV Monitor. Alexandria reported 2,660 major criminal incidents per 100,000 residents through September. The city's improvement has been especially sharp: McGuire told council in March that Alexandria led the DMV in per capita crime reduction, a point he is expected to revisit Tuesday.
The DMV Monitor, a joint project of Brookings and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, tracks 25 indicators of the region's economic health. Tuesday's council meeting is scheduled to take up both Parajon's economic update and McGuire's public-safety briefing.
