Northern Virginia Guide › Prince William County › Bristow
Bristow, Virginia
A four-bedroom house for $825,000, and hardly anyone pays cash.
At a glance
Six numbers that describe Bristow.
The median single-family home in Bristow sold for $825,000 in 2026 and went under contract in six days. It had four bedrooms and about 3,610 square feet, and more than half of Bristow houses sold above the asking price.
Bristow is in western Prince William County, south of I-66 and Gainesville, with a VRE station on the Manassas Line, and much of it was built as planned subdivisions with HOA pools and trails. This page covers what a house or townhouse costs, how buyers pay, what it rents for, which high school it can feed, and the commute. Every number is from Bright MLS closed sales, pulled on October 2, 2026, not from a listing site's estimate.
Bristow is an unincorporated community in Prince William County. All sales were in zip 20136. Single-family means a detached house with at least three bedrooms and two full baths; townhouse means end-of-row and interior-row homes; condominium-regime homes are left out of both. Source: Bright MLS, closed sales January 1 to October 2, 2026, Postal City = Bristow, County = Prince William, pulled by Ahmed Makkiyah on October 2, 2026.
Prices
$825,000 buys a 3,610-square-foot house in Bristow, $25,000 less than in Gainesville.
At $304 a square foot, a Bristow house costs less per foot than one in Gainesville ($314) or Haymarket ($326), and far less than in Centreville ($379) or on the Fairfax side of Chantilly ($424).
Houses. 149 houses sold, from $620,000 to $1,338,000, and the median one had four bedrooms. 80 of them sold above asking and 56% went under contract within a week, as busy as Centreville (54% over asking) and busier than Gainesville (37%) or Haymarket (33%). The median buyer paid 100.1% of the list price.
Townhouses. 78 sold at a median of $570,000, from $425,000 to $675,000, at $328 a square foot. That is close to Gainesville ($585,000) and Centreville ($565,000) and well under Haymarket ($750,000). 47% sold above asking.
Against the neighbors. The chart sets Bristow against the other western Prince William postal cities and the nearest markets across the county lines: Gainesville $850,000, Centreville $904,500, Chantilly's Fairfax side $923,650, Haymarket $992,500, Clifton $1,100,000 and Aldie in Loudoun $1,348,862. It also shows the rest of Prince William: Nokesville ($1,006,250) above Bristow, and below it Manassas ($749,900), Dumfries ($675,000), Triangle ($662,500), the independent Cities of Manassas Park ($634,900) and Manassas ($625,000), and Woodbridge ($610,000).
Median single-family sale price, Prince William and nearby, 20262
Bright MLS closed sales, 2026 year to date, filtered to detached houses with 3+ bedrooms and 2+ full baths, condominium-regime homes left out. Nokesville, Haymarket, Gainesville, Bristow, Manassas (county part), Dumfries, Triangle and Woodbridge are Prince William County postal cities. The Cities of Manassas and Manassas Park are independent cities with their own governments and schools. Aldie, Clifton, Chantilly and Centreville are neighbors across the county lines. Occoquan and Dale City have too few house sales under their own names to chart; nearly all Dale City homes use Woodbridge addresses.
| Measure | Houses | Townhouses |
|---|---|---|
| Homes sold | 149 | 78 |
| Median sold price | $825,000 | $570,000 |
| Average sold price | $829,028 | $564,215 |
| Median price per square foot | $304 | $328 |
| Median days to contract | 6 | 6.5 |
| Median sold-to-list | 100.1% | 100.0% |
| Sold above asking | 80 (53.7%) | 37 (47.4%) |
| Under contract within 7 days | 56.4% | 52.6% |
| Lowest sale | $620,000 | $425,000 |
| Highest sale | $1,338,000 | $675,000 |
| Total dollar volume | $123,525,211 | $44,008,793 |
| Cash sales | 8 (5.4%) | 5 (6.4%) |
No Bristow house or townhouse sold for more than 112% or less than 88% of its list price this year, so there are no outliers lifting the averages. The average house, $829,028, is almost the same as the median.
What can you afford in Bristow? Start from the monthly payment you can live with, not the price. Prince William's tax rate is lower than Fairfax County's, and most Bristow subdivisions charge HOA dues; the calculator adds them for you.
Follow the money
Only 8 of 149 Bristow house buyers paid cash, and none above $825,000.
Cash buyers spent $5.9 million of $123.5 million, 4.8% of the dollars. Their median house cost $761,250, against $830,000 for buyers with a loan, and all 75 houses at $825,000 and up were financed.
Share of sales paid in cash, houses by price and townhouses
Cash is rarer in Bristow than in Gainesville (15.1% of houses) or Haymarket (13.5%), and every cash house buyer bought in the cheaper half of the market. The five townhouse cash buyers paid a median of $530,888.
How 149 Bristow house purchases were paid for
One house buyer in six used a VA loan, 25 of 149, a bigger share than in Haymarket (32 of 208) or Gainesville (23 of 238). Three in four used a conventional loan.
What that means if you need a loan: you are competing with other financed buyers, not with cash, and a VA offer is ordinary here. But more than half of Bristow houses sold over asking and 56% went under contract within a week, so the offer that wins is a full pre-approval, a short inspection window and an appraisal-gap plan you decided before the open house.
Townhouses: 55 conventional, 10 FHA, 5 VA, 5 cash, 2 adjustable-rate and 1 other of 78. Mixed cash-and-loan deals were counted as financed.
The interesting facts
A four-bedroom, 3,610-square-foot house for $825,000.
Four things in the 2026 numbers that set Bristow apart.
Space for the money. The median Bristow house is about 3,610 square feet at $304 a foot. On the Fairfax side of Chantilly the median house costs $923,650 at $424 a foot, for about 2,900 square feet. The trade is the drive: Bristow is farther out on I-66.
Cash stays low. Bristow's 5.4% cash share for houses is lower than Springfield's (7.5%) or Herndon's (8.2%), and well under Gainesville's 15.1%. Above $825,000, every buyer used a loan.
A landlord's numbers. A townhome that sells for $570,000 rents for $3,000 a month, a 6.3% gross yield, and a house earns 5.6%. That is why investors look at Bristow townhouses.
Rent or buy
A Bristow townhome rents for $3,000 a month and sells for 15.8 years of rent.
A Bristow house rents for a median of $3,850 a month and sells for $825,000, a price-to-rent ratio of 17.9; a townhome rents for $3,000 and sells for $570,000, a ratio of 15.8.1
| Measure | Houses | Townhomes |
|---|---|---|
| Homes rented | 23 | 57 |
| Median monthly rent | $3,850 | $3,000 |
| Average monthly rent | $3,839 | $2,967 |
| Gross rental yield | 5.6% | 6.3% |
| Rent range | $2,995 to $4,700 | $2,300 to $3,750 |
Gross yield is before the mortgage, tax, HOA, insurance and upkeep. A ratio under 20 means a home sells for relatively few years of rent, so buying is good value for a family staying five years or more; on the Fairfax side of Chantilly the house ratio is 21.2. Only 23 houses were leased, so treat the house rent as a rough guide; the townhome market, with 57 leases, is the steadier number.
Own in Bristow already? More than half of Bristow houses sold above asking this year. Ahmed runs a real comparative analysis against the 227 sales on this page, not a website estimate.
The houses
Braemar's 2,800 homes, Victory Lakes and Lanier Farms, built from 1996 to 2008.
Bristow's best-known subdivisions went up between the late 1990s and the late 2000s, so many houses are about 18 to 30 years old, with HOA pools, trails and clubhouses.
Braemar. A planned community built from 1996 to 2008 with more than 2,800 homes, from townhouses to large single-family houses, plus walking trails and recreation centers.
Victory Lakes. Built around 2005 to 2007, much of it by Miller and Smith, around a recreational lake and a clubhouse. It is known for big four-level townhouses with detached garages.
Lanier Farms. 180 single-family homes on Devlin Road, started in 2004, with a tot lot and a basketball court.
HOAs. Braemar, Victory Lakes, Kingsbrooke and most other Bristow subdivisions have a homeowners association. Dues usually cover trash pickup, community pools, tennis courts and common areas, and they differ by section and home type.
What to check. The high school assigned to that exact street; the HOA resale package with dues and any special assessment; the age of the roof, windows and HVAC on a house from the late 1990s; what is planned on nearby open land, since parts of western Prince William have been rezoned for data centers; and concert-night traffic if the house is near Jiffy Lube Live.
Schools
Patriot High, US News #38 in Virginia, and two other high schools by street.
Bristow is in Prince William County Public Schools. Depending on the street, a 20136 address can be zoned for Patriot, Brentsville District or Gainesville High, so check the exact address before you fall for the house.3
A
Patriot High School
Opened in 2011, about 2,200 students. Niche grade A, US News #38 in Virginia and #2 in PWCS for 2026-27.
#34
Gainesville High School
US News #34 in Virginia and #1 in PWCS for 2026-27, with a 96% graduation rate and 72% of students taking AP courses. Ask whether your street feeds it.
B
Brentsville District High School
In Nokesville. Niche grade B, US News #198 in Virginia and #10 in PWCS for 2026-27.
STEM
Governor's School @ Innovation Park
On George Mason's campus in Manassas since 2010. 166 students from 15 high schools take STEM classes for college credit in the morning and return to their own high school in the afternoon.
Masjid
Manassas Mosque
On Center Entrance Court in Manassas, founded in 1994 as an open, non-sectarian house of worship.
Masjid
Taqwa, Dar Alnoor and ADAMS
Taqwa Islamic Center on Balls Ford Road and Dar Alnoor on Hoadly Road in Manassas. ADAMS Gainesville serves Gainesville, Haymarket, Bristow and Nokesville and is raising money to build its own masjid.
Halal
Gainesville Halal Market
On Lee Highway in Gainesville, with fresh halal meat, deli cuts and sweets. International Market on Heritage Village Plaza also sells halal meat.
Halal
Manassas halal markets
ZamZam Groceries on Commerce Court hand-slaughters its meat; Ghazaly Halal Food and El Wazeer Market are both on Sudley Road.
The school on a listing is the agent's best guess; the county's boundary map is the answer. Check any address with the PWCS school locator, and ask Ahmed to confirm it before you offer.
Commute
I-66, Route 28 and the VRE train at Broad Run: an hour or more to DC.
Bristow sits south of I-66, and the VRE railroad runs through it. VRE's Broad Run station on Piper Lane, at the end of the Manassas Line, is in Bristow, and the I-66 Express Lanes begin a short drive north in Gainesville.
| To | Drive | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown DC | 60 to 100 min | I-66 east, Express Lanes if you carpool, or the VRE |
| Pentagon | 55 to 85 min | I-66 to the Beltway and I-395, or the VRE to Crystal City |
| Tysons | 45 to 75 min | I-66 east to the Beltway |
| Reston Town Center | 40 to 60 min | Route 28 north to the Dulles Toll Road |
| Dulles Airport | 35 to 50 min | Route 28 north |
The I-66 Express Lanes are free for carpools of three with an E-ZPass Flex; everyone else pays a toll that moves with traffic. VRE's Manassas Line runs weekday trains from Broad Run through Manassas, Burke Centre, Alexandria and Crystal City to Union Station, so a downtown or Pentagon commuter can read instead of drive. OmniRide also runs weekday commuter buses from western Prince William park-and-ride lots; check the current routes before you count on one.5 Ahmed will do the 7:45 drive with you before you offer.
Daily life
A 140-acre battlefield park, a 25,000-seat amphitheater and halal markets 15 minutes away.
Outdoors and sights. Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park, off Bristow Road, keeps 140 acres of the 1863 battlefield and the Confederate camps of 1861 and 1862, with more than 2.7 miles of walking and horse trails. Jiffy Lube Live on Cellar Door Drive is Live Nation's outdoor amphitheater, with 25,262 seats, more than half of them on the lawn. The Victory Lakes lake and the Braemar trails are where neighbors walk.
Food and groceries. Bristow Center off Linton Hall Road and Devlin Road have a few local kitchens, including Peruvian chicken at Mama Llama and Persian-style plates at Chelo Kitchen. For halal meat and Middle Eastern groceries, families drive to Lee Highway in Gainesville or Sudley Road in Manassas.
Taxes.4 Bristow is unincorporated Prince William County, with no town tax. The 2026 real estate rate is $0.865 per $100, down from $0.906, plus the county's fire and rescue levy of $0.07, about $0.935 all in. That is roughly $7,700 a year on an $825,000 house, before HOA dues, and about $1,800 less than the same price would pay in Fairfax County. The vehicle tax rate was $3.50 per $100 in 2025, with state relief on the first $20,000 of a personal car's value.
Where to eat
"Ahmed, where do you go to eat?" The Bristow list.
Up to five picks within about fifteen minutes of Bristow in each cuisine, the one doing best at the top, and halal marked. A few are in Bristow itself, around Bristow Center and Devlin Road; most are on Lee Highway and Linton Hall Road in Gainesville and on Sudley Road and Mathis Avenue in Manassas.7
Closed, so not listed: Urban Tandoor on Linton Hall Road (Pakwaan now has the space) and Kabul Kabob on Somerset Crossing Drive in Gainesville both show as closed on Yelp in 2026. Rankings weigh current Yelp ratings by review count and whether the place is busy; the halal note comes from Zabihah, Yelp or the restaurant itself, and "ask about halal" means it could not be confirmed. Know one that belongs here? Tell Ahmed.
Who buys here
Military families, Manassas and Route 28 workers, and buyers who want more house.
Military and veteran families, 25 of the 149 house buyers used a VA loan; families who want four bedrooms and 3,600 square feet and will drive farther for it; people who work in Manassas and along Route 28; investors after a 6.3% townhome yield; and Muslim families near the Manassas mosques and the halal markets in Gainesville and Manassas.
Buyers choose Bristow over Gainesville for $25,000 less at the median, and over Centreville for $79,500 less and more house per dollar ($304 a foot against $379). They give up time on I-66, which the VRE at Broad Run can win back for a downtown or Pentagon job. If you are torn between Bristow and a closer-in town, decide on the commute and the high school first; the price follows.
Questions
What people ask about Bristow.
How much does a house cost in Bristow, Virginia in 2026?
The median single-family home (3+ bedrooms, 2+ full baths) with a Bristow, VA 20136 address sold for $825,000 in 2026 through October 2, across 149 sales in Bright MLS, at $304 per square foot. The median house had four bedrooms and about 3,610 square feet. Townhouses sold for a median of $570,000 across 78 sales. Condominium-regime homes are not included.
How competitive is the Bristow housing market?
Competitive. In 2026, 54% of Bristow houses sold above the asking price, 56% went under contract within a week, and the median house took 6 days. The median sold-to-list was 100.1%, so most buyers paid the asking price or a little more.
Do Bristow buyers pay cash or use VA loans?
Few pay cash. In 2026, 8 of 149 house buyers paid cash (5.4%), all of them below $825,000, and cash was 4.8% of the dollars. VA loans are common: 25 of 149 house buyers used one, about one in six, and 111 used a conventional loan.
What is rent in Bristow, Virginia?
In 2026 the median single-family house leased for $3,850 a month, from 23 leases ranging from $2,995 to $4,700. The median townhome leased for $3,000, from 57 leases ranging from $2,300 to $3,750.
Is it better to rent or buy in Bristow?
A Bristow house sells for about 17.9 times its yearly rent ($825,000 against $46,200) and a townhouse for 15.8 times ($570,000 against $36,000). Ratios under 20 make buying relatively good value for a family staying five years or more, and they give landlords gross yields of 5.6% on houses and 6.3% on townhomes.
Which high schools serve Bristow, VA?
Bristow is in Prince William County Public Schools. Depending on the street, a 20136 address can be zoned for Patriot High (Niche A, US News #38 in Virginia), Brentsville District High (US News #198 in Virginia) or Gainesville High (US News #34 in Virginia). Check the exact address with the PWCS school locator before you offer.
How long is the commute from Bristow to DC?
At 8 am on a weekday, downtown DC is about 60 to 100 minutes by car from central Bristow on I-66, the Pentagon 55 to 85, Tysons 45 to 75, Reston Town Center 40 to 60 and Dulles Airport 35 to 50. VRE's Manassas Line starts at Broad Run station in Bristow and runs weekday trains to Crystal City and Union Station. These drive times are estimates.
What is the property tax in Bristow, Virginia?
Prince William County's 2026 real estate rate is $0.865 per $100, down from $0.906, plus a fire and rescue levy of $0.07, roughly $7,700 a year on an $825,000 house. Bristow is unincorporated, so there is no town tax. HOA dues are extra, and the vehicle tax rate was $3.50 per $100 in 2025.
Ask Ahmed
Your Trusted Realtor in NOVA.
Tell me what you are looking for in Bristow.
Buying your first townhouse, using a VA loan, or selling where more than half the houses went over asking. Send the situation and get the numbers back, in English or Arabic, not a pitch.
REALTOR®, Douglas Realty of Virginia · VA License #0225242357
Direct 703.957.0060 · Mobile 734.383.6945 · English and Arabic
Ahmed's take
Two or three sentences in Ahmed's own voice go here: who Ahmed sees buying in Bristow, how Ahmed helps a VA buyer win when half the houses go over asking, and the first thing Ahmed checks on a listing (the high school for that street, the HOA package and what is planned on the land nearby).
دليل شمال فرجينيا
السكن في بريستو، فرجينيا.
بريستو منطقة في غرب مقاطعة برنس وليام، ورمزها البريدي 20136. بلغ السعر الوسطي للبيت المستقل 825,000 دولار في 2026، ويضم البيت الوسطي أربع غرف نوم ومساحته نحو 3,610 قدم مربع.
أي أنه بيت كبير، وسعر القدم المربع نحو 304 دولار، وهو أرخص من غينزفيل وهايماركت. بيع أكثر من نصف البيوت بأكثر من السعر المطلوب، وبلغت المدة الوسطية حتى توقيع العقد ستة أيام. الشراء نقداً قليل: 8 فقط من 149 مشترياً دفعوا نقداً، ولم يشترِ أي منهم بيتاً بسعر 825,000 أو أكثر. واشترى مشترٍ واحد من كل ستة بقرض VA. المدارس تابعة لمدارس مقاطعة برنس وليام العامة، والثانوية حسب الشارع: باتريوت هاي أو برنتسفيل دستركت هاي أو غينزفيل هاي. وفي ماناساس يوجد مسجد ماناساس ومركز التقوى ودار النور، وتوجد متاجر اللحم الحلال على شارع لي هايوي في غينزفيل وشارع سدلي رود في ماناساس. وتقع محطة قطار VRE برود رن داخل بريستو. جميع الأرقام من Bright MLS، مبيعات مغلقة من 1 يناير إلى 2 أكتوبر 2026.
قبل أن تقدّم عرضاً، تأكد من الثانوية المخصصة للشارع نفسه ومن رسوم جمعية الملاك (HOA). هل تنوي الشراء بقرض VA أو استئجار تاون هاوس؟ أرسل لي تفاصيل وضعك، وسأحسب معك أرقامك الحقيقية، بالعربية أو بالإنجليزية.
وكيلك العقاري الموثوق في شمال فرجينيا.
Gainesville
Space for the money, $314 a foot.
$850K
Median house, 2026
Haymarket
Half the townhouses brand new.
$992.5K
Median house, 2026
Buying power
Start from the payment.
Tax, insurance and HOA included
Home valuation
Priced on evidence.
A real comparative analysis, not a website estimate
Woodbridge
One house buyer in five on VA.
$610K
Median house, 2026
بالعربية
Every step, in Arabic.
بالعربية أو بالإنجليزية، كما تفضّل