Cape Charles, Virginia.
Typical home $407,291 (+5.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,395 (+188%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $19,495 +5%
- $387,797$407,291 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $106,388 +35%
- $300,903$407,291 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.
- Cape Charles$2,138
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Cape Charles, VA rose 5.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Cape Charles, Northampton County, Virginia
Cape Charles is a town of 1,178 people in Northampton County. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Northampton County was 4.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then finance and property.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Cape Charles is a small town on Virginia's Eastern Shore, with a population older than in most American towns. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and a typical home is worth more than the median in many small towns. A large share of adults hold a four-year degree, and the winters are mild while the summers run warm, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by banks, insurance and property, professional and business services, and restaurants and hotels. Across Northampton County, the largest workplaces include Northampton County Public Schools, Ballard Fish & Oyster Company and Sun Outdoors Cape Charles. Commutes are fairly short, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Cape Charles Museum and Welcome Center and the Palace Theatre are close at hand, and the Cape Charles Coastal Habitat Natural Area Preserve lies in or beside town as well. A short drive away, Kiptopeke State Park is a protected area with room to walk and watch wildlife.
Report a mistake
- 684households
- 60%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 16%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Northampton County had 4,492 jobs in 2025, 1.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 47° and lows near 32°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 71°. About 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cape Charles Ene weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Northampton County
- Northampton County Public SchoolsSchool district317FTE
- Ballard Fish & Oyster CompanyClam production, farm raising299
- David's NurseryField nurseries129
- New RavennaCut stone products manufacturing92
- Food LionGrocery stores81
- Sun Outdoors Cape CharlesHotels, seasonal, without casinos75
- Food LionGrocery stores68
- Weeks MarineDredging35
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 823 people in all across the county; Cape Charles 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
- Strong windVery high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively 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 Cape Charles’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Northampton County.
Cape Charles home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cape Charles$407,291
- Virginia$412,252
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Cape Charles listings — the market is cooling.
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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Cape Charles19.67%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Cape Charles80
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Cape Charles12
Zip codes with a Cape Charles address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cape Charles — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.