Ceres, Virginia.
Typical home $192,821 (+14.1% in a year). Bluefield, WV-VA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$476 (+89%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Up $23,851 +14%
- $168,970$192,821 since Sep 2025
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.
- Ceres$1,012
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Ceres, VA rose 14.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ceres, Smyth County, Virginia
The Census does not count Ceres on its own, so the figures here are Smyth County's. Half the county's households earn more than $49,883 a year and half less; 17% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 71% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 29% are rented. Unemployment in Smyth County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 3.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Smyth 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ceres is a small town in Smyth County, in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. Most homes here are lived in by their owners, and fewer people rent than across the country. Incomes run lower than the nation's, and more residents live below the poverty line than across the country as a whole. The population is older than the country's on the whole, and fewer adults hold a degree than across the country. Winters are colder and snowier than in most of the country, and summers are warm.
Work. Jobs in Smyth County fell over the past year, while unemployment has eased slightly. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, in shops, or in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. The commute to work is fairly short, and few people work from home.
Things to do. The Lynn Camp Creek Wilderness Study Area is in or beside town, so it is the closest place to walk or explore. Beartown Wilderness and Big Walker Lookout, a tourist attraction, are both a short drive away. Grayson Highlands State Park is a longer drive, and it is a protected area.
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- 12,659households
- 46.4median age
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 17%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What people in Smyth County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Smyth County had 11,230 jobs in 2025, 3.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 39° and lows near 21°; warmest in July, with highs near 79° and lows near 57°. About 47 inches of snow and 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Burkes Garden weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Smyth County
- Utility Trailer Manufacturing CoAutomobile transporter trailers, multi-car, manufacturing905
- Smyth County Public SchoolsSchool district713FTE
- Southwestern Virginia Mental Health InstituteHospitals, psychiatric convalescent546
- Smyth County Board of SupervisorsCounty supervisors' and executives' offices406
- Westlake Royal Building Products MarionPolyvinyl chloride resins manufacturing368
- SIG Packaging, LLC- ChilhowieBags, plastics film, single wall or multiwall, manufacturing329
- Sig PackagingFood storage bags, plastics film, single wall or multiwall, manufacturing329
- W-L Construction & PavingPavement, highway, road, street, bridge or airport runway, construction250
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 32 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,408 people in all. 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Smyth County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Smyth County and the Bluefield, WV-VA metro.
Ceres home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ceres$192,821
- 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 Ceres address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ceres — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.