Chester Gap, Virginia.
Typical home $389,581 (+4.3% in a year). Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,143 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $16,106 +4%
- $373,474$389,581 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $92,475 +31%
- $297,106$389,581 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.
- Chester Gap$2,045
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Chester Gap, VA rose 4.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Chester Gap, Rappahannock County, Virginia
Chester Gap, in Rappahannock County, had 894 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Rappahannock County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 2.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Rappahannock County work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Chester Gap is a small community in Rappahannock County, Virginia, with fewer people than most towns on this site. Homes here cost more than a typical home across the country, and household incomes in the county are somewhat above what many places see. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a fair amount of snow, while summers turn warm, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow are steady through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by professional and business services, the building trades and local shops. Across Rappahannock County, the largest workplace is Rappahannock County Public Schools. Unemployment in the county is low and unchanged from a year earlier, and the county has added jobs over the past year. The usual trip to work is a fairly long one, and only a small number of people work from home.
Things to do. The Shenandoah River is a short drive away, and so is the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, a zoo and research center. Skyline Caverns, a tourist attraction, is also a short drive off. For a longer outing, Shenandoah National Park lies a longer drive away, with Skyline Drive running through the mountains nearby.
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- 11%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What people in Rappahannock County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Rappahannock County had 1,570 jobs in 2025, 2.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 64°. About 21 inches of snow and 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Front Royal weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Rappahannock County
- Rappahannock County Public SchoolsSchool district158FTE
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 windRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Chester Gap’s census tracts, 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 Rappahannock County and the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro.
Chester Gap home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Chester Gap$389,581
- 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 Chester Gap address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Chester Gap — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.