Counties / West Virginia / Jefferson County

Jefferson County, WV

FIPS 54037 · population 59,260 · part of Washington, DC

$404k
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
$404k
▲ 3.7% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$1,940
▲ 2.2% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
5.8%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,251
market rent is 1.55x 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+52.0%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+3.7%FHFA HPI2025+1.0%
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$351k
Surveyed gross rent$1,108
Rent burden 30%+41.3%
Median year built1991
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
8.0%vacant
24,774estimated housing units
Occupied tenure19.7% renter
owner 80.3%renter 19.7%
Structure mix84.9% single-family
Single-family 84.9%20+ units 0.8%Mobile home 7.0%Other 7.3%
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 jobs17,111▲ 0.1% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments2,457annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,218▲ 2.4% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorLeisure and hospitality28.1% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+0.1%WEEKLY WAGE+2.4%Leisure and hospitality28.1%
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

Jefferson County has a screening tension: June 2026 Zillow median home value of $403,969 is paired with median asking rent of $1,940 per month and the supplied 5.76% gross yield before expenses. This may merit investigation for investors able to verify costs and flood exposure, but caution for anyone needing a confirmed net return or sale comparables. The effective property-tax rate is 0.53%; insurance, financing, maintenance, vacancy and capital expenditure data are not published.

02Housing economics

Housing price evidence is positive but cannot be collapsed into a single appreciation measure. Zillow’s county value measure rose 3.66% year over year at Zillow’s county observation, while asking rent also rose. Separately, FHFA’s repeat-transaction HPI increased 1.02% in its 2025 annual reading and 52.01% cumulatively over five years. The HPI is not a dollar home value, and its different vintage and method preclude averaging it with Zillow. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate, and cannot replace measured market rent in the yield screen.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com’s June 2026 MLS listing evidence shows 273 active listings and a 136.81% pending-to-active ratio; listings also carry price reductions. These are visible supply, pipeline and seller-concession indicators—not closed prices or standalone proof of buyer demand. Net tax-return migration was 488 households, with inbound movers’ average income $6,693 above outbound movers’. Investor buyers were 9.3% of 1,463 purchases, so participation is measurable but its effect on a specific asset is not.

04Risk & next checks

Inland flood is dominant, and modeled annual climate loss is 0.10% of building value; that is modeled loss, not a parcel insurance quote. QCEW figures describe covered employment at county workplaces, not resident employment, unemployment or a forecast; leisure and hospitality is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. Next checks are parcel flood zone and insurance quotes, property condition and expense history, lease and vacancy records, and closed-sale comparables. Without them, net yield, asset-specific hazard cost and acquisition-value support cannot be determined.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Jefferson 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
Charles Town city7.3KRanson corporation5.7KShannondale CDP3.5KShepherdstown town1.5KBolivar town1.2KShenandoah Junction CDP1.1KMiddleway CDP479Harpers Ferry town350
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

8 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Charles Town cityIncorporated place
    7,337
  2. 02
    Ranson corporationCensus place
    5,729
  3. 03
    Shannondale CDPCensus-designated place
    3,465
  4. 04
    Shepherdstown townIncorporated place
    1,460
  5. 05
    Bolivar townIncorporated place
    1,215
  6. 06
    Shenandoah Junction CDPCensus-designated place
    1,141
  7. 07
    Middleway CDPCensus-designated place
    479
  8. 08
    Harpers Ferry townIncorporated place
    350

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

0.103% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.53%

$1,857 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+488

2,215 in · 1,727 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$6,693

$75,868 arriving · $69,175 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors9.3%

136 of 1,463 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 listings273▲ 1.5% year over year
Median days on market35▼ 13.1% year over year
Listings price-reduced10.2%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▼ 0.0% 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 Washington, DC

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
Jefferson County59,260$404k$1,9405.8%inland flooding
Fairfax County1,147,837$779k$2,5423.9%inland flooding
Montgomery County1,065,949$627k$2,3464.5%inland flooding
Prince George's County959,754$434k$1,9515.4%inland flooding
District of Columbia681,294$579k$2,5325.2%inland flooding
Prince William County488,880$592k$2,2824.6%inland flooding
Loudoun County432,998$810k$2,9174.3%inland flooding
Frederick County287,048$509k$2,2175.2%inland flooding
Arlington County236,254$824k$2,7224.0%inland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Property-level flood insurance, mitigation and repair costs could undermine the pre-expense yield screen.
  2. MLS pending and price-reduction measures may not translate into closed-sale value or leasing performance.
  3. County migration, covered-workplace employment and investor-share data may not describe a target neighborhood or property.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can HUD Fair Market Rent be used as the county asking-rent estimate?

No. The record identifies FMR as a payment standard and separately provides measured median asking rent.

Does FHFA HPI provide a current dollar home value?

No. It is a repeat-transaction appreciation index, not a dollar home-value estimate.

Does the record establish a net property yield?

No. It provides gross yield before expenses, while operating costs and property-specific expense history are not published.