New data from the real estate firm CBRE showed that the first half of 2025 was the second-worst start to the year for Greater Washington’s economy going back to 2009, eclipsed only by the first year of the pandemic.

The suburbs have been hit the hardest, said Ian Anderson, CBRE’s senior director of research and analysis. Northern Virginia has seen the steepest drop in federal employment while federal government contracts and grants procured in suburban Maryland fell more than twice as fast in the first six months of 2025 than other parts of the region, according to CBRE’s REVIVE Regional Vibrancy Index, a monthly index tracking the health of the local economy.