Counties / Virginia / Norton city

Norton city, VA

FIPS 51720 · population 3,577 · outside every metro area

$124k
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
$124k
▼ 4.5% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$692
occupied-unit survey; not current asking rent
Census ACS · surveyed
Gross yield
n/a
gross yield cannot be computed without measured market rent
requires both measured price and measured rent
HUD 2-bed standard
$914
the Section 8 payment 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.

One annual series is unavailable
FHFA five-year cumulativen/anot annualized · through n/a
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06−4.5%FHFA HPIperiod n/an/a
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$110k
Surveyed gross rent$692
Rent burden 30%+41.4%
Median year built1973
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
9.0%vacant
1,764estimated housing units
Occupied tenure50.0% renter
owner 50.0%renter 50.0%
Structure mix54.0% single-family
Single-family 54.0%20+ units 7.6%Mobile home 13.3%Other 25.1%
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 jobs3,167▲ 3.4% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments232annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$934▲ 6.3% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorEducation and health services32.2% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+3.4%WEEKLY WAGE+6.3%Education and health services32.2%
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

Norton city’s decision tension is a $124,376 Zillow median home value against incomplete income evidence and a 4.50% year-over-year decline. That decline is a direction signal from Zillow’s county observation, not a transaction-price series. Cash-flow-focused buyers should investigate verified leases, vacancy and property condition before treating the value level as support; buyers reliant on appreciation should be cautious because no FHFA annual repeat-transaction HPI is published to corroborate or challenge Zillow’s direction.

02Housing economics

No median asking market rent is published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s $914 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate, and cannot fill that gap. Carrying costs have some support: the effective property-tax rate is 0.73%, with median annual tax of $800. These tax figures do not cover insurance, repairs, utilities, financing or realized rent; consequently, net operating income and debt coverage cannot be underwritten from this record.

03Demand & competition

Workplace evidence is firmer but mixed. The 2025 QCEW annual average shows covered employment at county workplaces up 3.36%, while covered workers averaged $934 weekly. Education and health services, the largest disclosed private supersector, accounted for 891 covered jobs, or 32.24% of private covered employment. QCEW is neither resident employment nor unemployment. Migration shows 19 more tax-return households moved out than in, while inbound movers’ average income was $8,111 below outbound movers’. Investor purchase mortgages represented 8% of 25 purchases, a small count that limits conclusions about buyer competition.

04Risk & next checks

Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the modeled climate-loss ratio is 0.09% of building value expected lost annually. This is modeled expected loss, not property-specific flood exposure, insurance cost or claims history. No Realtor.com median listing price, active-listing count, days-on-market or price-reduction figures are published for the 2026-06 inventory period, preventing a read on visible asking supply, marketing time and seller concessions. Property-specific flood zones, insurance quotes, lease comps, vacancy, condition and financing terms are also not published; those omissions prevent asset-level cash-flow and hazard pricing.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Norton 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
Norton city3.6K
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
    Norton cityIncorporated place
    3,577

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

0.092% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.73%

$800 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-19

129 in · 148 out

Arriving vs leaving income−$8,111

$36,605 arriving · $44,716 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors8.0%

2 of 25 mortgages

investorother financed
No rent index is published for this county.Zillow’s county rent series does not cover every county, and estimating one from a neighbouring county would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes. Everything above is measured here; no wider market is mapped for it either.
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Target-property rents or vacancy could be insufficient for cash flow because county market rent is not published.
  2. The Zillow county value trend may not reflect the sale price, condition or appreciation path of a specific property.
  3. County-level modeled flood loss may differ materially from a property’s actual flood exposure and insurance cost.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can gross yield be calculated from this record?

No. Median asking market rent is not published, and HUD’s two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard rather than market rent.

How concentrated is the largest disclosed private supersector?

Education and health services has 891 covered jobs and represents 32.24% of private covered employment.

How much investor mortgage activity is shown?

Investor purchase mortgages represent 8% of 25 purchases.