Forest, Virginia.
Typical home $414,040 (+1.9% in a year), asking rent $1,574 (+1.8%). Lynchburg, VA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,162 (+115%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,871 +2%
- $406,169$414,040 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $86,550 +26%
- $327,490$414,040 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.
- Forest$2,173
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Forest, VA rose 1.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Forest, VA rose 1.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Forest runs $1,191/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $2,766 a month against $1,574 rent: a $2,173 mortgage payment, plus $149 property tax and $443 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Forest
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$2,766
- Renting$1,574
- Mortgage only$2,173
Property tax · $149/mo 0.43% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Bedford County, VA
Insurance & upkeep · $443/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Forest, Bedford County, Virginia
Forest, in Bedford County, had 11,709 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $81,552 a year and half less, against $78,937 across Bedford County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 76% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 24% are rented. Unemployment in Bedford County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% more 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. Forest is a community in Bedford County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run a little above the county's. Residents tend to hold a four-year degree more often than not, and a typical commute is a short one for many people. Winters are cold but not severe, with some snow, and summers are warm.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in banks, insurance and property, and in manufacturing. Some of the largest workplaces in Forest are Walmart, Kroger Mid-Atlantic and the Centra Distribution Center. Unemployment in Bedford County is unchanged from a year earlier.
Things to do. The Anne Spencer House, a museum, is a short drive away, as is the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. For time outdoors, Smith Mountain Lake State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, and Dreaming Creek, a river, is close by.
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- 5,358households
- 46%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 16%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Bedford County had 18,784 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 46° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 64°. About 12 inches of snow and 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lynchburg #2 weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Forest
- Parkland DirectPrinting, letterpress180
- Kroger Mid-Atlantic KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores164
- WalmartSupermarkets and other grocery stores123
- Intercon103
- Department of Wildlife ResourcesFish and wildlife conservation program administration79
- Centra Distribution CenterGeneral warehousing and storage71
- Coleman-Adams ConstructionAddition, alteration and renovation general contractors, commercial and institutional building62
- RST MarketingAdvertising material preparation services for mailing or other direct distribution55
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,015 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
- LightningRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Forest’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 Bedford County and the Lynchburg, VA metro.
Forest home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Forest$414,040
- Virginia$412,252
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Forest listings, and the typical home goes pending in 24 days — 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.
- Forest25.84%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Forest24
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Forest128
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Forest38
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Forest$399,049
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Forest98.82%
Zip codes with a Forest address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Forest — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.