Counties / Virginia / Buena Vista city

Buena Vista city, VA

FIPS 51530 · population 6,593 · outside every metro area

$192k
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
$192k
▲ 5.9% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$950
n/a year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
5.9%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,005
market rent is 0.94x 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.

The annual signals disagree
FHFA five-year cumulative+50.5%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+5.9%FHFA HPI2025−6.0%
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$156k
Surveyed gross rent$1,112
Rent burden 30%+49.2%
Median year built1972
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
13.4%vacant
2,949estimated housing units
Occupied tenure43.5% renter
owner 56.5%renter 43.5%
Structure mix84.2% single-family
Single-family 84.2%20+ units 3.4%Mobile home 4.6%Other 7.8%
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 jobs2,302▼ 8.4% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments166annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,095▲ 11.3% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorEducation and health services18.2% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS−8.4%WEEKLY WAGE+11.3%Education and health services18.2%
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

Buena Vista city’s decision tension is a published income return against conflicting valuation evidence and softer visible listing conditions. At Zillow county 2026-06, the $191,764 median home value and $950 monthly median asking rent support a published 5.94% gross yield before operating costs. Zillow’s value measure rose 5.93% year over year, while FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI fell 5.97%. These are different vintages and methods, not rates to average. Income-focused buyers should investigate durable rent and cost coverage; appreciation-dependent underwriting warrants caution.

02Housing economics

The measured asking rent, rather than HUD Fair Market Rent, is the basis for the published yield. The supplied two-bedroom HUD FMR is a payment standard, not an estimate of asking rent and cannot replace market rent in underwriting. Against the price-rent pairing, the 0.91% effective property-tax rate is a carrying-cost input. The modeled annual climate-loss ratio is 0.22%, consistent with inland flood as the dominant hazard; it represents expected building-value loss, not an insurance quote, a property-specific damage estimate, or a net operating expense.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com MLS listing-market evidence at 2026-06 indicates more visible choice and seller concessions, not verified closed-sale demand: active listings rose 90% year over year, median marketing time was 66 days, and 20.41% of listings had price reductions. QCEW annual covered workplace employment fell 8.36%; this is neither resident employment nor unemployment, and Education and health services is only the largest disclosed private supersector. Migration showed a net loss of 25 tax-return households, with average inbound mover income $11,439 below outbound mover income. Investor purchase mortgages represented 10.17% of 59 purchases, a modest but identifiable competitor cohort.

04Risk & next checks

The county record cannot establish net yield, debt coverage, attainable rent by unit type, or a property’s flood exposure. Missing vacancy, lease-concession, collection, insurance-premium, repair, property-condition, and closed-sale evidence prevents a reliable operating-return or exit-value conclusion. Next checks are address-level flood mapping and insurance quotes, current lease and vacancy comps, tax verification, operating statements, and closed-sale comparables. Those checks should determine whether the published gross yield survives costs and whether listing concessions reflect asset-specific pricing or broader market conditions.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Buena Vista city

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
Buena Vista city6.6K
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

1 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Buena Vista cityIncorporated place
    6,593

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

0.217% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.91%

$1,421 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-25

232 in · 257 out

Arriving vs leaving income−$11,439

$34,853 arriving · $46,292 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors10.2%

6 of 59 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 listings29▲ 90.0% year over year
Median days on market66▲ 24.1% year over year
Listings price-reduced20.4%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▲ 2.2% year over year

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

Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Asking rent may not match achievable lease rent after vacancy, concessions, turnover, and collection losses.
  2. Flood exposure and insurance costs can vary materially by address and are not established by the county-level loss ratio.
  3. The listing-market slowdown and decline in covered workplace employment may weaken resale or tenant-depth assumptions.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

What market-rent measure is published?

Median asking rent is published; HUD two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is separately supplied as a payment standard.

What hazard should property diligence focus on?

Inland flood is the dominant hazard.

What does the QCEW employment measure represent?

Annual average covered jobs located at workplaces in the county, not resident employment or unemployment.