Cairo, West Virginia.
Typical home $106,378 (-7.3% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$214 (+62%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $8,398 -7%
- $114,776$106,378 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $14,356 -12%
- $120,734$106,378 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.
- Cairo$558
- West Virginia$927
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Cairo, WV fell 7.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Cairo, Ritchie County, West Virginia
Cairo is a town of 176 people in Ritchie County. Unemployment in Ritchie County was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Ritchie County work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Cairo is a very small town in Ritchie County, in the hills of northern West Virginia, where nearly everyone is likely to know one another by sight. Homes here are inexpensive, and across Ritchie County household incomes are on the modest side. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm without being extreme. Rain and melted snow add up to a fairly wet year.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in government and in shops. Across Ritchie County, some of the largest workplaces are Ritchie County Schools, Simonton Windows and Hall Drilling. Unemployment in the county is a little lower than a year ago, though the county has slightly fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. North Bend State Park lies in or beside town, and North Bend Lake is a short drive away for time on the water. The Hughes River, also a short drive away, is another place to get outdoors. Bonds Creek runs in or beside town for a quieter walk.
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What people in Ritchie County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ritchie County had 2,968 jobs in 2025, 1.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 40° and lows near 21°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 47 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Harrisville weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ritchie County
- Hall DrillingService well drilling on a contract basis331
- Simonton WindowsAwnings, rigid plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing316
- Ritchie County SchoolsSchool district220FTE
- Simonton WindowsAwnings, rigid plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing193
- Jay-Bee Oil & GasGas, natural, extraction130
- Genesis HealthcareNursing homes53
- Simonton WindowsAwnings, rigid plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing43
- AlfabHeavy trucks assembling on purchased chassis40
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,106 people in all across the county; Cairo 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
- LightningRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Cairo’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 Ritchie County.
Cairo home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cairo$106,378
- 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 Cairo address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cairo — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Cairo
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26362 | Harrisville | 3,270 | — | $136,695 |
| 26337 | Cairo | 806 | — | $111,169 |