Gainesville, Virginia.
Typical home $751,016 (+1.8% in a year), asking rent $3,021 (+3.9%). Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,120 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,366 +2%
- $737,650$751,016 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $139,650 +23%
- $611,366$751,016 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.
- Gainesville$3,942
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Gainesville, VA rose 1.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Gainesville, VA rose 3.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Gainesville runs $2,315/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $2,560 in Jan 2025.
That is $5,336 a month against $3,021 rent: a $3,942 mortgage payment, plus $590 property tax and $804 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Gainesville
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$5,336
- Renting$3,021
- Mortgage only$3,942
Property tax · $590/mo 0.94% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Prince William County, VA
Insurance & upkeep · $804/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 Gainesville, Prince William County, Virginia
Gainesville, in Prince William County, had 18,112 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $174,410 a year and half less, against $131,402 across Prince William County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 84% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 16% are rented. Unemployment in Prince William County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then schools and health care.
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. Gainesville is a suburban community in Prince William County, home to a modest-sized population. Households here tend to be well off, with incomes above the county's, and very few residents live below the poverty line. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and a majority of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, while July brings hot summer afternoons.
Work. Residents work mainly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, and in shops. Some of the biggest workplaces in town are Wegmans Food Markets, Target and Lowe S of Gainesville. Commutes are fairly long, and a good number of people work from home. Unemployment in Prince William County is steady, with no change from a year earlier.
Things to do. Lake Manassas, a reservoir in or beside town, is close by for time on the water, and Jiffy Lube Live, a theatre in or beside town, hosts shows nearby. A short drive away, Manassas National Battlefield Park is an archaeological site tied to the Civil War, and the Cold War Museum is another short trip. For a longer outing, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a museum, is a longer drive away.
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- 5,926households
- 58%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 34 mintypical commute
- 25%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Prince William County had 146,171 jobs in 2025, 2.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 69°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Manassas weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Gainesville
- Wegmans Food MarketsRetail supermarkets467
- TargetDiscount department stores303
- Wetland Studies and SolutionsLandscaping services297
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter162
- GiantGrocery stores112
- BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc.Warehouse club and supercenters104
- Heritage Landscape The FarmLandscape care and maintenance services100
- GainesvilleMail and parcel delivery92
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 18 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,054 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
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Gainesville’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 Prince William County and the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro.
Gainesville home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Gainesville$751,016
- 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 3 Gainesville listings, and the typical home goes pending in 26 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Gainesville32.79%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Gainesville26
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Gainesville116
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Gainesville40
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Gainesville$717,805
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Gainesville99.92%
Zip codes with a Gainesville address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Gainesville — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.