Bowden, West Virginia.
Typical home $173,202 (+4.3% in a year). Elkins, WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$478 (+111%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,166 +4%
- $166,037$173,202 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $31,058 +22%
- $142,144$173,202 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Bowden$909
- West Virginia$927
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Bowden, WV rose 4.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bowden, Randolph County, West Virginia
Bowden is in Randolph County. Unemployment in Randolph County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Randolph County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Bowden is a community in Randolph County, in the mountains of eastern West Virginia, where the land is hilly and forested and rivers run through the valleys. Winters are cold and snowy, with a good deal of snow each year, while summers are warm and the rain is steady, so the seasons are clearly marked. Many residents know one another well, and the pace of life follows the weather and the rhythm of the local schools and workplaces.
Work. Many people here work in schools, hospitals and social care, or in shops and manufacturing. Building trades also employ a good number of residents. Across the county, unemployment has come down over the past year, though the number of jobs dipped a little.
Things to do. Blackwater Falls is a waterfall a longer drive away, and Canaan Valley Resort State Park, a protected area, is also a longer drive off. For something closer, Leading Creek is a river a short drive away. Fishing Hawk Creek, another river, is also a short drive away.
Report a mistake
What people in Randolph County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Randolph County had 10,309 jobs in 2025, 1.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 35° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 78° and lows near 55°. About 103 inches of snow and 55 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Glady North weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Randolph County
- Davis Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital547FTE
- Randolph County SchoolsSchool district540FTE
- AHF ProductsApplicators, wood, manufacturing425
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters319
- Choice Care AT Home - ElkinsActivity centers for disabled persons, the elderly, and persons diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities260
- Davis & Elkins CollegeUniversity or college232
- Elkins Regional Convalescent CenterNursing homes159
- Greenfield CabinetryCabinets, kitchen, stock or custom wood, manufacturing81
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 15 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,700 people in all across the county; Bowden has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Inland floodingVery high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bowden’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Randolph County and the Elkins, WV metro.
Bowden home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bowden$173,202
- West Virginia$176,576
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Zip codes with a Bowden address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bowden — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Bowden
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26270 | Harman | 934 | — | $136,841 |
| 26254 | Bowden | 137 | — | $173,103 |