Counties / Virginia / Albemarle County

Albemarle County, VA

FIPS 51003 · population 114,919 · part of Charlottesville, VA

$565k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$565k
▲ 1.5% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$2,041
▲ 0.6% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
4.3%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,824
market rent is 1.12x the standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+49.2%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+1.5%FHFA HPI2025+5.5%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$495k
Surveyed gross rent$1,692
Rent burden 30%+50.0%
Median year built1992
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
6.6%vacant
49,159estimated housing units
Occupied tenure34.1% renter
owner 65.9%renter 34.1%
Structure mix73.3% single-family
Single-family 73.3%20+ units 8.1%Mobile home 2.0%Other 16.6%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs65,458▲ 1.0% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments4,183annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,440▲ 2.8% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorEducation and health services23.5% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+1.0%WEEKLY WAGE+2.8%Education and health services23.5%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Albemarle’s decision tension is a $565,396 Zillow median home value against a 4.33% published gross yield before costs. Yield-focused buyers should be cautious: at 2026-06, Zillow’s value measure was modestly higher year over year, whereas FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI rose 5.52%. The HPI is an appreciation index, not a home value, and these differently dated methods cannot be merged into one growth rate.

02Housing economics

The published market-rent observation is $2,041 per month, a measured asking-rent statistic, while HUD’s two-bedroom FMR is $1,824 per month and is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate. The supplied gross yield is before property tax, insurance, maintenance, vacancy, or debt; the effective property-tax rate is 0.75%. Unit-specific operating costs and rent comparables—not FMR—are needed to judge post-tax carrying economics.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com’s 2026-06 MLS listing evidence shows visible supply up 34% year over year, median asking prices down 7.14%, longer marketing time, and 12.27% of listings reduced. These are active-listing and seller-concession signals, not closed-sale prices or independent proof of buyer demand. Tax-return migration had more households moving in than out and higher inbound average AGI. QCEW’s 2025 county-workplace data reports employment and covered-worker wages increased; education and health services is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the full economy. Investor purchases were 134 of 1,275 total purchases, a minority but a source of competition worth checking by submarket.

04Risk & next checks

Inland flood is the dominant hazard, alongside a modeled annual building-value loss ratio of 0.12%; that countywide model cannot establish a parcel’s flood exposure, insurability, or deductible. Missing closed-sale comps, property-level flood and insurance records, lease-level rent comps, vacancy and operating costs, and financing terms prevent a conclusion on executable price, net yield, or debt coverage. Next checks are parcel flood mapping, insurance quotes, comparable signed leases, and recent closed sales.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Albemarle County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Crozet CDP9.3KUniversity of Virginia CDP9.1KHollymead CDP8.5KPantops CDP4.7KPiney Mountain CDP2.3KRivanna CDP2.2KRio CDP1.3KEarlysville CDP1.2K
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

15 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Crozet CDPCensus-designated place
    9,289
  2. 02
    University of Virginia CDPCensus-designated place
    9,065
  3. 03
    Hollymead CDPCensus-designated place
    8,482
  4. 04
    Pantops CDPCensus-designated place
    4,665
  5. 05
    Piney Mountain CDPCensus-designated place
    2,288
  6. 06
    Rivanna CDPCensus-designated place
    2,211
  7. 07
    Rio CDPCensus-designated place
    1,252
  8. 08
    Earlysville CDPCensus-designated place
    1,222
  9. 09
    Ivy CDPCensus-designated place
    794
  10. 10
    Esmont CDPCensus-designated place
    751
  11. 11
    Scottsville townIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    510
  12. 12
    North Garden CDPCensus-designated place
    475
Show 3 more places
  1. 13
    Keswick CDPCensus-designated place
    402
  2. 14
    Afton CDPCensus-designated place · spans 2 counties
    266
  3. 15
    Free Union CDPCensus-designated place
    124

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.115% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.75%

$3,719 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+312

5,037 in · 4,725 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$3,874

$100,648 arriving · $96,774 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors10.5%

134 of 1,275 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings540▲ 34.0% year over year
Median days on market51▲ 10.3% year over year
Listings price-reduced12.3%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▼ 7.1% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

Same metro

The other counties in Charlottesville, VA

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Albemarle County114,919$565k$2,0414.3%inland flooding
Charlottesville city45,437$500k$2,0444.9%inland flooding
Fluvanna County28,092$383k$1,9946.3%inland flooding
Greene County21,155$386k$2,3317.2%inland flooding
Nelson County14,732$368kn/an/ainland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Flood exposure, insurance pricing, or deductibles may vary sharply by parcel despite the countywide modeled loss.
  2. MLS asking-price softness may not produce comparable closed-sale basis or sustain target-property rents.
  3. Countywide migration and covered-workplace gains may not reach the chosen tenant segment or submarket.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Is the HUD two-bedroom FMR a market rent estimate?

No. The record identifies it as a payment standard, while market rent is separately published as median asking rent.

Can net yield or debt coverage be determined from the record?

No. The record provides gross yield before costs but does not publish property-specific insurance, maintenance, vacancy, operating-cost, or financing inputs.

What do the Realtor.com indicators represent?

They represent MLS listing-market conditions: asking prices, active visible supply, marketing time, and price reductions, rather than completed sale prices.