Cool Ridge, West Virginia.
Typical home $216,038 (+2.2% in a year). Beckley, WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$667 (+143%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,693 +2%
- $211,346$216,038 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $63,999 +42%
- $152,039$216,038 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.
- Cool Ridge$1,134
- West Virginia$927
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Cool Ridge, WV rose 2.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Cool Ridge, Raleigh County, West Virginia
The Census does not count Cool Ridge on its own, so the figures here are Raleigh County's. Half the county's households earn more than $52,150 a year and half less; 23% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 75% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 25% are rented. Unemployment in Raleigh County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Raleigh County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Cool Ridge sits in Raleigh County, in the hills of southern West Virginia. Winters are cold and snowy, summers are warm, and rain falls through much of the year. Across the county, most homes are lived in by their owners, and a larger share of people live below the poverty line than in most of the country.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, or in professional and business services. Fewer people are out of work than a year earlier, though the county had slightly fewer jobs in the most recent year. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than the national average, and most people drive to work, with very few working from home.
Things to do. New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, one of the best known protected areas in the region, lies a longer drive away. Bluestone National Scenic River, a protected area, is a short drive away, and Winterplace Ski Resort, a ski area, is also a short drive away.
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- 29,004households
- 42.9median age
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 23%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What people in Raleigh County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Raleigh County had 32,153 jobs in 2025, 0.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 40° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 62°. About 56 inches of snow and 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Beckley Raleigh County Airport weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Raleigh County
- Raleigh County SchoolsSchool district1,537FTE
- Raleigh General HospitalGeneral hospital887FTE
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs814
- Beckley ARHGeneral hospital556FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters355
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters314
- West Virginia University Institute of TechnologyUniversity or college238
- Pyramid West Virginia ManagementResort hotels without casinos237
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 50 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,446 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Raleigh 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 Raleigh County and the Beckley, WV metro.
Cool Ridge home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cool Ridge$216,038
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Cool Ridge5
Zip codes with a Cool Ridge address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cool Ridge — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.