Alexandria, VA

Alexandria spans roughly 15 square miles along the Potomac and packs in three very different kinds of housing. Old Town is a National Register historic district of 18th- and 19th-century brick rowhouses and Federal townhomes on cobblestone streets, where renovation work has to respect original materials and preservation rules. Just inland, Del Ray and Rosemont are early-1900s trolley suburbs full of Craftsman bungalows, Cape Cods, and Colonial Revival homes built mostly between 1908 and 1930.

The city's West End tells a newer story. Cameron Station, Landmark, and the Eisenhower Avenue corridor are dominated by late-1990s-and-later master-planned townhomes, mid-rise condos, and high-rise buildings, many with HOA rules and on-site management. That split, walkable historic core versus modern condo and townhouse communities, means home care here ranges from gentle work on original plaster and heart-pine floors to building-access coordination in West End mid-rises.

Alexandria's riverfront setting and mature street trees also shape the work. Older interior neighborhoods carry heavy spring pollen, a serious fall leaf and gutter load, and warm-season pressure from ants, mosquitoes, and rodents drawn to century-old basements and crawl spaces.