Covington, Virginia.
Typical home $171,051 (+4.9% in a year). Roanoke, VA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$531 (+145%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,988 +5%
- $163,063$171,051 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $45,937 +37%
- $125,114$171,051 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.
- Covington$898
- 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 Covington, VA rose 4.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Covington, Alleghany County, Virginia
Covington is a city of 5,737 people in Alleghany County. 70% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 30% are rented. Unemployment in Covington was 4.5% in August 2026, and Alleghany County had 1.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Covington is a small city in Alleghany County, Virginia, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Poverty is more common here than in much of the country, and few adults have a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with some snow, and summers are warm, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in town are the Westrock CP paperboard mill, Walmart and Food Lion. Unemployment has eased slightly over the past year, though the county has fewer jobs than it did a year earlier. Commutes are short, and few people work from home.
Things to do. Dunlap Creek and Potts Creek run in or beside town, and Casey Field, a stadium, is close by as well. A longer drive brings you to Douthat State Park, a protected area, and to Organ Cave, a tourist attraction. The Jackson River is also a longer drive away.
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- 2,576households
- 10%of adults have a degree
- 26%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Alleghany County had 3,240 jobs in 2025, 1.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 61°. About 10 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Covington Fltr Plt weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Covington
- Westrock CPPaperboard mill894
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters209
- Food LionGrocery stores74
- Waco IncBlower or fan, cooling and dry heating, installation43
- Waco Inc - WestrockMechanical contractors38
- CovingtonMail and parcel delivery26
- D. D. Kerns Construction CompanySidewalk construction, residential and commercial24
- Miller - CovingtonElectrical contractors20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,328 people in all. 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
- LightningVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of CovingtonRelatively 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 Covington’s 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 Alleghany County and the Roanoke, VA metro.
Covington home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Covington$171,051
- Virginia$412,252
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Covington listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Covington20.98%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Covington68
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Covington16
Zip codes with a Covington address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Covington — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Covington
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24426 | Covington | 13,872 | — | $171,456 |
| 24457 | Low Moor | 425 | — | $135,091 |
| 24474 | Selma | 146 | — | $115,898 |