Caret, Virginia.
Typical home $326,606 (+7.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,042 (+155%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $22,794 +8%
- $303,813$326,606 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $86,486 +36%
- $240,120$326,606 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.
- Caret$1,714
- 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 Caret, VA rose 7.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Caret, Essex County, Virginia
The Census does not count Caret on its own, so the figures here are Essex County's. Half the county's households earn more than $56,520 a year and half less; 12% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 72% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 28% are rented. Unemployment in Essex County was 4.0% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Essex County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Caret is a small place in Essex County, in the Northern Neck region of Virginia. Across the county, most homes are lived in by their owners, and the county's residents are on the older side. Household incomes are lower than in many parts of the country, and a fair number of people live below the poverty line.
Work. Schools, hospitals and social care employ many of the county's residents, followed by manufacturing, retail shops and professional and business services. Unemployment has eased over the past year, and the number of jobs has edged up. Relatively few people work from home, and most adults do not hold a college degree.
Things to do. George Washington Birthplace National Monument, a protected area, is a longer drive away and is one of the best known sites in the region. Kings Dominion, an amusement park, is also a longer drive away. Peumansend Creek, a river, is a short drive away and suits a quiet afternoon outdoors.
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- 4,447households
- 47.1median age
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 38 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What people in Essex County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Essex County had 3,570 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 47° and lows near 28°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 68°. About 12 inches of snow and 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Warsaw Northwest weather station, 17 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Essex County
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters218
- VCU Health Tappahannock HospitalGeneral hospital210FTE
- Essex County Public SchoolsSchool district208FTE
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter113
- O'Malley Timber ProductsPallet containers, wood or wood and metal combination, manufacturing75
- Food LionGrocery stores62
- Essex Rehab & Care CenterNursing homes57
- James River Equipment CompanyAgricultural machinery and equipment merchant wholesalers49
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 655 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- DroughtRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Essex County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very low. 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 Essex County.
Caret home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Caret$326,606
- Virginia$412,252
- 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 Caret address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Caret — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.