I did a search on MLS for homes for sale in Alexandria, VA. It's in the suburbs of DC. The cheapest home listed currently is a 1 bedroom 1 bath condo at 707 sf for $149,900.
https://www.brightmlshomes.com/homes...2303-298755885
The market prices here are not being driven by people buying McMansions. It's driven by the stability of the job market with the Fortune 1 employer of the US Federal Government along with the drag with the ancillary support business that feed off of Federal Government. As I said previously, people are willing to forgo size for the sake of being close to work so they're not in a car for about 4 hours a day commuting in from a place that has affordable housing for what many would deem to be an acceptable sized home.
Local governments are quick to suck on the teet of the increased taxes that are generated with ever booming real estate values but won't do anything to fix the transportation issues that are contributing to housing prices climbing through the roof. And because this area is what it is they all have short term memory as to how much of a disaster it was to evacuate people during a major crisis...9/11. The Federal building I was working at when 9/11 happened took 2 hours to evacuate because of the absolute gridlock that occurred. And the traffic situation has gotten worse in this area since 9/11.
There was mention of affordable housing. Some counties in this area have a requirement for some amount of affordable housing to be allocated for every new development that goes up. Of course there are loop holes developers can do to get around this. And when one does get put up, it's not a solution either. I know. I lived next to a group of affordable housing units. The people that lived there didn't care about the nice helping hand they got and subsequently trashed these new homes in just 2 years. Typical human nature. The whole saying of not having any skin in the game.