Dunbar, West Virginia.
Typical home $120,769 (-5.7% in a year), asking rent $1,100 . Charleston, WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$309 (+95%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $7,298 -6%
- $128,066$120,769 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $17,872 +17%
- $102,897$120,769 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.
- Dunbar$634
- West Virginia$927
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 22 years.
Typical home values in Dunbar, WV fell 5.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Dunbar, Kanawha County, West Virginia
Dunbar is a city of 7,480 people in Kanawha County. Half its households earn more than $58,379 a year and half less, against $60,943 across Kanawha County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. 62% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 38% are rented. Unemployment in Kanawha County was 4.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.9% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dunbar is a small city in Kanawha County, with an older population than is typical for the country as a whole. Incomes run a little below the county's, and more households than across the nation live below the poverty line, though most homes are lived in by their owners. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, summers are warm, and a fair amount of rain and melted snow falls over the year.
Work. Residents most often work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, government, and media and telecoms. Among the largest workplaces in Dunbar are Genesis Dunbar Center, a skilled nursing facility, Kroger, and Hamister Group, which runs assisted-living facilities. Across Kanawha County there are slightly fewer jobs than a year earlier, and unemployment there has eased a little over the past year. Many people have a fairly short commute, and only a small number work from home.
Things to do. Kanawha State Forest is a protected area a short drive away, with room to walk and spend time outdoors. The Elk River, also a short drive away, offers a place to be beside the water, and Criel Mound, an archaeological site in or beside town, is one of the oldest reminders of the area's past.
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- 3,688households
- 29%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kanawha County had 95,946 jobs in 2025, 1.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 64°. About 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Charleston Weather Office weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Dunbar
- Genesis Dunbar CenterSkilled nursing facilities98
- Kroger Mid-Atlantic KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores84
- Hamister GroupAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities49
- State Electric Supply Company - DunbarConstruction materials, electrical, merchant wholesalers35
- Charleston SteelFabricated structural metal manufacturing33
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 299 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Dunbar’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 Kanawha County and the Charleston, WV metro.
Dunbar home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dunbar$120,769
- West Virginia$176,576
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Dunbar 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.
- Dunbar24.77%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Dunbar27
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Dunbar8
Zip codes with a Dunbar address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dunbar — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.