Buffalo, West Virginia.
Typical home $168,722 (-1.7% in a year). Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$427 (+93%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $2,900 -2%
- $171,623$168,722 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $21,098 +14%
- $147,625$168,722 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.
- Buffalo$886
- West Virginia$927
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 26 years.
Typical home values in Buffalo, WV fell 1.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Buffalo, Putnam County, West Virginia
Buffalo is a town of 1,211 people in Putnam County. 90% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 10% are rented. Unemployment in Putnam County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 5.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Putnam County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Buffalo is a small town in Putnam County, West Virginia, where nearly everyone who lives here owns their home. A typical home is worth less than the Putnam County household income would suggest, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with a modest amount of snow, and summers turn properly warm, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, and in transport, warehouses and utilities. Across Putnam County, the largest workplaces include Toyota Motor Mfg West Virginia, Putnam County Schools and CAMC Teays Valley Hospital. Unemployment in the county is low and a little lower than a year ago, and the county has gained jobs over the past year. A typical commute is a modest drive, and few people work from home.
Things to do. Amherst-Plymouth Wildlife Management Area and Chief Cornstalk Wildlife Management Area, both protected areas, are a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to the Kanawha River, a river, and to Huntington Museum of Art, a museum. Wayne National Forest, a protected area, is also a longer drive from town.
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- 449households
- 13%of adults have a degree
- 24 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What people in Putnam County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Putnam County had 22,322 jobs in 2025, 5.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 44° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 65°. About 11 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Winfield Locks weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Putnam County
- Toyota Motor Mfg West VirginiaVehicle assembly2,390
- Putnam County SchoolsSchool district1,275FTE
- Triton ConstructionBridge construction804
- CAMC Teays Valley HospitalHospitals, general medical and surgical554
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters357
- Diamond ElectricCoils, ignition, internal combustion engines, manufacturing300
- American Electric Power257
- Kanawha Stone CompanyHighway construction244
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 65 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,585 people in all across the county; Buffalo has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (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
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Buffalo’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 Putnam County and the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH metro.
Buffalo home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Buffalo$168,722
- 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 Buffalo address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Buffalo — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.