The Northern Virginia Association of REALTORS® (NVAR) was established in 1921 as the Alexandria-Arlington-Fairfax Real Estate Board. With about 40 members, the association served a population of 60,250. NVAR has grown to about 10,000 REALTORS® who carry out an $11 billion real estate industry in a community of more than 2 million residents. A premier local association, NVAR is one of the hundreds of associations that comprise the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), which boasts more than 1.1 million members.

NVAR serves as The Voice For Real Estate in Northern Virginia and provides a variety of services to its members including educational opportunities, professional standards enforcement, market statistics, legislative reviews, issues lobbying, multiple listing and lockbox services, and more. The mission of promoting "the right to own, transfer and use real property" extends beyond Northern Virginia to serve a national and international community. NVAR assists struggling associations around the world, sharing knowledge about how the industry works in the U.S. with real estate leaders from Poland, China, Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East, and other areas.