Lexington, Virginia.
Typical home $364,750 (+3.5% in a year), asking rent $1,647 .
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,025 (+115%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,416 +4%
- $352,334$364,750 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $71,425 +24%
- $293,325$364,750 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.
- Lexington$1,914
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Lexington, VA rose 3.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Lexington, Rockbridge County, Virginia
Lexington is a city of 7,320 people in Rockbridge County. Half its households earn more than $84,517 a year and half less, against $65,469 across Rockbridge County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 54% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 46% are rented. Unemployment in Lexington was 6.3% in August 2026, and Rockbridge County had 2.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Lexington is a small college town in the Shenandoah Valley, and the people who live there are much younger than in most of the country. Household incomes run well above the county's, though more people live below the poverty line than you might expect alongside that. Fewer homes are lived in by their owners than across much of the country, and a large share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold with some snow, summers are warm, and the year brings a fair amount of rain.
Work. Schools, hospitals and social care employ more residents than anything else, followed by professional and business services, restaurants and hotels, and shops. Washington and Lee University is the largest workplace in town, with Carilion Rockbridge Community Hospital and Lexington City Public Schools close behind. Unemployment is a little higher than in much of the country, and across Rockbridge County the number of jobs grew last year. Commutes are short, and a fair number of people work from home.
Things to do. The Chessie Nature Trail is a protected area in or beside town, handy for a walk without getting in the car. South River and Buffalo Creek are rivers a short drive away. For a longer outing, Douthat State Park is a protected area a longer drive away.
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- 2,187households
- 51%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 13 mintypical commute
- 14%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Rockbridge County had 6,230 jobs in 2025, 2.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 45° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 64°. About 14 inches of snow and 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lexington weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lexington
- Washington and Lee UniversityUniversity or college1,041
- Carilion Rockbridge Community HospCritical access hospital223FTE
- Lexington City Public SchoolsSchool district86FTE
- Kroger Mid-Atlantic KMASupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores82
- American HealthCareNursing care facilities65
- LexingtonMail and parcel delivery29
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 778 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (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
- LightningVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Lexington’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 Rockbridge County.
Lexington home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lexington$364,750
- Virginia$412,252
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Lexington listings — 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.
- Lexington21.66%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Lexington72
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Lexington16
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Lexington$350,672
- United States$371,553
Zip codes with a Lexington address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lexington — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.