Franklin, West Virginia.
Typical home $218,208 (+7.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$681 (+146%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,241 +7%
- $203,966$218,208 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $63,710 +41%
- $154,498$218,208 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.
- Franklin$1,145
- 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 Franklin, WV rose 7.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Franklin, Pendleton County, West Virginia
Franklin is a town of 495 people in Pendleton County. Unemployment in Pendleton County was 2.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Pendleton County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Franklin is a very small town and the seat of Pendleton County, set among the mountains of eastern West Virginia. Winters are cold, with a good deal of snow, and summers are warm without being hot, so the seasons are clearly marked. Homes here cost less than in much of the country, and household incomes across the county are modest.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, the building trades, and farming and forestry also employing many. Across Pendleton County, the largest workplaces are Pendleton County Schools and Future Generations University. Unemployment across the county is low and has edged down over the past year, and the number of jobs has held roughly steady.
Things to do. Seneca Caverns, a tourist attraction, and Thorn Creek Wildlife Management Area, a protected area, are both a short drive away, as is Nelson Rocks, another protected area. A longer drive brings you to the Spruce Knob–Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area, a large protected area for the outdoors.
Report a mistake
- 10%below the poverty line
What people in Pendleton County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Pendleton County had 1,505 jobs in 2025, 0.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 59°. About 27 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Franklin Northeast weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Pendleton County
- Pendleton County SchoolsSchool district181FTE
- Future Generations UniversityUniversity or college28
School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- Inland floodingVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Franklin’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Pendleton County.
Franklin home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Franklin$218,208
- West Virginia$176,576
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Franklin 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.
- Franklin18.05%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Franklin27
Zip codes with a Franklin address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Franklin — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.