Free Union, Virginia.
Typical home $579,705 (+3.8% in a year). Charlottesville, VA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,597 (+110%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $21,282 +4%
- $558,423$579,705 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $125,786 +28%
- $453,920$579,705 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.
- Free Union$3,043
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Free Union, VA rose 3.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Free Union, Albemarle County, Virginia
Free Union, in Albemarle County, had 187 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Albemarle County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Albemarle County work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Free Union is a very small rural community in Albemarle County, Virginia, with far fewer people living there than in most towns. Homes here cost more than the typical American home, and household incomes across the county run well above those in much of the country. Winters are cold but not severe, summers are warm, and the year brings a modest amount of snow and a fair amount of rain.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in shops, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Albemarle County, some of the largest workplaces are Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, Northrop Grumman Systems and Faulconer Construction Company. Unemployment across the county is low and has held steady over the past year, and the county has added a few more jobs than it had the year before.
Things to do. The Moormans River runs in or beside the community, and the Doyles River is a short drive away for time by the water. Shenandoah National Park is a longer drive, and the road through it, Skyline Drive, is one of the best known scenic routes in the region. For something indoors, the Fralin Museum of Art is a short drive away.
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What people in Albemarle County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Albemarle County had 65,494 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 45° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 64°. About 11 inches of snow and 47 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Free Union weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Albemarle County
- Sentara Martha Jefferson HospitalGeneral hospital1,130FTE
- Albemarle CountyFire and rescue service917
- Region Ten Community Services BoardSocial workers' , mental health, offices595
- Faulconer Construction CompanyUtility line, construction559
- Northrop Grumman SystemsSearch detection navigation guidance aeronautical and nautical system and instrument manufacturing450
- Piedmont Virginia Community CollegeTwo-year college443
- Wegmans Food MarketsRetail supermarkets423
- Albemarle High SchoolSchools, secondary344
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 114 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 15,300 people in all across the county; Free Union has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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
- LightningRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Free Union’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 Albemarle County and the Charlottesville, VA metro.
Free Union home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Free Union$579,705
- Virginia$412,252
- 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.
- Free Union7
Zip codes with a Free Union address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Free Union — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.