After a year of surging rents, prices are starting to dip — if only just a little.

Why it matters: The average rent in Richmond was up around 12% earlier this year and a whopping 24% since the start of the pandemic — and showed no signs of slowing down.

• Some locals were getting hit hard at lease renewal time with landlords jacking monthly rates by hundreds of dollars just for tenants to stay put.

What's happening: Asking rent in Richmond declined by about 1.5% since the beginning of October, Michael Cobb, director of market analytics for CoStar Group, tells Axios.

• Zillow puts the monthly drop at .60%.
• Month-over-month prices are falling fastest in Raleigh (-1.3%), Austin (-1.2%), and Seattle (-1.1%), according to Zillow.

Yes, but: Rents aren't falling in every part of town. The West End saw a 2.4% increase since October, Cobb said, possibly due to "spillover pressure" from renter-magnet Scott's Addition.

Meanwhile, the biggest declines in the region were in eastern Henrico, where rent fell by 4.2%, and in Petersburg, where it dropped by 2.8%.

• Cobb said those figures are likely connected to a rise in evictions, creating more inventory.

Zoom out: Nationwide, November saw the largest month-over-month drop in rent prices — 0.4% — since Zillow started tracking this data in 2015, Axios' Emily Peck reports.

The big picture: Rent prices have gotten crazy, jumping nationwide by an average of 36.9% in the past five years while hourly earnings only went up by 23%, per Zillow.

• The result: More people are "doubling up with roommates or family," instead of striking out on their own, Zillow reports.
• Rents are still higher than before the pandemic, at an average of $1,567 in Richmond, 8.2% higher than last year.

It's showdown day for Virginia Democrats.

What's happening: The party is holding a primary to pick its nominee to replace the late Rep. Don McEachin in Congress.

Why it matters: The contest is pitting basically the entire Democratic establishment, lined up behind state Sen. Jenn McClellan, against state Sen. Joe Morrissey.

Here's what to know about this unusual election day …

The primary is being organized and run entirely by the state's Democratic Party.

• That's because state-run primaries aren't an option outside the typical election calendar.

Voting is open to anyone registered in the district, but participants are required to sign a loyalty pledge promising to support the eventual nominee.

Voting won't take place at typical polling locations: Participants must travel to one of seven voting locations, four of which are in the Richmond area.

Worth noting: In addition to frontrunners McClellan and Morrissey, two other candidates will appear on the ballot:

• Joe Preston, a Petersburg attorney and former state delegate.
• Tavorise K. Marks, an insurance agent who previously served as vice president of the Chesterfield NAACP.

🗳 What's next: Ballots won't be counted until Wednesday morning and results aren't expected until early afternoon.

💸 Starbucks agreed to rehire and back pay $7,000 in wages to a shift supervisor at its Arthur Ashe Boulevard store who alleged he was fired for supporting a unionization effort. (WRIC)

⚖️ A jury awarded $4 million in damages to the family of a state prisoner who died of heart failure after being denied medical care. (Times-Dispatch)

• It's one of the largest verdicts of its kind in Virginia.

🧪 VCU for the first time made the National Science Foundation's list of the 50 largest public colleges for research. (Times-Dispatch)

🥃 Virginia ABC plans to remodel its last three counter-service stores in the state, where customers interact with clerks through bulletproof glass. (Virginia Mercury)

• Two of the stores are in Richmond and one is in Petersburg — both in predominantly Black neighborhoods.

Carvana, the online used-car dealership known for multistory, transparent car "vending machines," is struggling, Axios' Michael Mooney reports.

Driving the news: After laying off 1,500 employees recently, the company is preparing for a potential restructuring.

Of note: After a nearly two-year delay, the company opened its Chesterfield inspection center in August with 240 employees and plans to have 400 by the end of the year.

• A company spokesperson tells Axios that plan is unchanged, but declined to provide updated employment numbers.

The big picture: This got us thinking — if Carvana goes under, what could we do with those vending machine buildings?

• We have some incredibly realistic suggestions.

🍸 A multilevel bar, where the drinks get fancier as you go up.

🪂 Skydiving; it'll save us the trip to Virginia Beach.

🛝 An amazing waterslide.

🎰 A casino where the stakes go up the higher you get; perhaps the one location we can all agree on.

🧑‍🌾 A vertical garden.

🚲 A vending machine for e-bikes and scooters.

🏢 A workspace where every office is a corner office; take that, bosses.

🦜 An incredible aviary.

🖼️ A rotating art installation.

😬 Confederate statue storage.

💼 Check out who’s hiring on our Job Board.

1. Senior Manager, Performance Marketing at Loom.
2. General Manager at Advance Auto Parts.
3. Director, MC SAP S/4 HANA Supply Chain (MM/PP/SD) at KPMG.

Want more opportunities? Check out our Job Board.

Hiring? Post a Job.

In a certain era in Richmond's history, Christmas meant hitting Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads department stores on Broad Street.

This circa-1965 shot is from The Valentine museum's photo archives.