West Virginia rental market data

Median rent growth across the 14 measured metros was 3.6%, compared with 1.9% median home-value growth. The supplied difference is 1.6 percentage points. Rent growth ranged from 0.8% at the 10th percentile to 7.3% at the 90th percentile, so the statewide metro distribution does not describe every locality.

Bluefield shows the sharpest split: rent rose 9.3% while its home value declined 0.4%. Weirton recorded 8.3% rent growth against 4.3% value growth, and Huntington recorded 5.2% against 0.9%. These gaps identify markets where rent validation matters most; they do not show occupancy, concessions, operating costs or matched-property cash flow.

Apartment List's separate recent-lease series put West Virginia rent at $993 in July 2026, up 2.8% from $966 a year earlier. The national series fell 1.1%, from $1,403 to $1,388, leaving West Virginia's growth rate 3.9 percentage points higher.

The packet supplies only national Apartment List liquidity measures: vacancy was 7.2% versus 7.1% a year earlier, and time on market was 30 days versus 28. These are separate national series and cannot be applied to West Virginia. Without state vacancy and listing-time observations, rising recent-lease rent does not establish high occupancy or rapid leasing.

Across 14 measured metros, median job growth was -0.7%. The distribution ran from -2.3% at the 10th percentile to 0.4% at the 90th percentile. That weak median is an important counterweight to the rent-growth figures because rent movement alone does not identify the depth of recurring tenant demand.

Migration was positive but limited: the 55 measured counties recorded a net gain of 874 people, equal to 0.5 per 1,000 residents. There are local counter-signals, with job growth of 1.3% in Morgantown, 0.4% in Huntington and 0.3% in Winchester. The IRS migration period and current employment measures are not contemporaneous, so their combination cannot establish a single current demand trend.

Among 13 measured resale markets, the medians were 52 days on market, 3.4 months of supply, a 24.8% price-drop share and a 97.3% sale-to-list ratio. These figures point to meaningful negotiation and marketing time even before examining the slower local markets.

Bluefield had 8.1 months of supply, above the measured 90th-percentile level of 6.0 months, along with 63 days on market, a 24.6% price-drop share and a 94.4% sale-to-list ratio. Clarksburg had the longest named marketing time at 72 days, although its supply was lower at 4.0 months. Acquisition screens should therefore separate rental momentum from resale liquidity rather than assuming they move together.

Across all 55 counties, the median ACS all-housing vacancy rate was 17.5%, with a 10th-to-90th-percentile range of 10.6% to 29.8%. Pocahontas County registered 53.5%, Tucker County 39.0% and Pendleton County 36.6%. This ACS measure is not the Apartment List rental Vacancy Index and cannot be read as the share of rentals available to tenants.

The median housing stock was 74.0% single-family, while large multifamily represented only 1.2%; the median renter share was 21.4%. At the same time, the median share of renters spending at least 30% of income on rent was 47.0%, reaching 67.1% in Clay County, 66.9% in Webster County and 63.6% in Wirt County. Property-type, achievable-rent and tenant-income assumptions therefore require county-level validation.

Inland flood is the mutually exclusive leading-hazard label for all 55 counties. Expected hazard loss ratios still vary: the county median was 0.27% and the 90th percentile was 0.44%. Wetzel County measured 0.55%, Wyoming County 0.49% and Boone County 0.49%.

The median measured property-tax rate was 0.49%, rising to 0.64% at the 90th percentile; Wetzel County and Boone County were both about 0.67%. The county hazard label does not establish exposure for any parcel, so address-level flood and insurance evidence remains necessary rather than treating the counties as uniformly exposed.