Jefferson, West Virginia.
Typical home $116,074 (-7.0% in a year). Charleston, WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$297 (+95%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $8,747 -7%
- $124,820$116,074 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $20,091 +21%
- $95,982$116,074 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.
- Jefferson$609
- West Virginia$927
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Jefferson, WV fell 7.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Jefferson, Kanawha County, West Virginia
Jefferson, in Kanawha County, had 527 people in the 2020 census. 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 people in Kanawha County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Jefferson is a very small community in Kanawha County, West Virginia, where everyone is likely to know a good many of their neighbors. Homes here cost far less than the national norm, and very few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and highs staying above freezing, while summers turn warm, with July the hottest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, professional and business services, and government following. Across Kanawha County, the largest workplaces include Charleston Area Medical Center, Kanawha County Schools and Thomas Memorial Hospital. Unemployment across the county is a little lower than a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before, and very few people here work from home.
Things to do. Water is close by: Upton Creek runs in or beside town, and the Coal River and the Elk River are each a short drive away. Criel Mound, an archaeological site, is also a short drive away. Kanawha State Forest, a protected area, is a longer drive for a day outdoors.
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- 2%of adults have a degree
- 4%work from home
What people in Kanawha County 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 65°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Saint Albans weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Kanawha County
- Charleston Area Medical CenterGeneral hospital6,949FTE
- CAMC Memorial DivisionGeneral medical and surgical hospitals3,890
- Kanawha County SchoolsSchool district3,592FTE
- Thomas Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital760FTE
- GestampJob stampings, automotive, metal, manufacturing650
- Niterra North AmericaCoils, ignition, internal combustion engines, manufacturing525
- Charleston WV PDCMail and parcel delivery483
- University of CharlestonUniversity or college436
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 157 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 23,318 people in all across the county; Jefferson has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts 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 floodingRelatively high
- Lightningrelatively high in parts of JeffersonRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Jefferson’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.
Jefferson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Jefferson$116,074
- West Virginia$176,576
- 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.
Zip codes with a Jefferson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Jefferson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.