Marion, Virginia.
Typical home $167,381 (+4.4% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$493 (+128%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,991 +4%
- $160,390$167,381 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $41,136 +33%
- $126,244$167,381 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.
- Marion$879
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Marion, VA rose 4.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Marion, Smyth County, Virginia
Marion is a town of 5,751 people in Smyth County. Half its households earn more than $40,896 a year and half less, against $49,883 across Smyth County; 21% of its people live below the poverty line. 54% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 46% are rented. Unemployment in Smyth County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 3.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Marion is a small town in Smyth County, Virginia, with an older population than the typical American town. Incomes here run below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than you might expect in a town this size. More homes are lived in by their owners than rented, and typical home values are modest. Winters are cold and summers are warm, with some snow in winter and a fair amount of rain through the year.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, shops and government. Among the largest workplaces in Marion are Smyth County Public Schools, the Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute and General Dynamics Mission Systems. Smyth County has seen fewer jobs than a year earlier, and unemployment there is slightly lower than it was a year ago. Commutes are short, and some people work from home.
Things to do. The Lincoln Theatre is in or beside town. A short drive away, Hungry Mother State Park is a protected area for time outdoors, and Bear Creek National Scenic Area is another protected area close by. For a longer outing, the New River is a river a longer drive away.
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- 2,431households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 21%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Smyth County had 11,230 jobs in 2025, 3.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 44° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 62°. About 10 inches of snow and 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Saltville 1N weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Marion
- Smyth County Public SchoolsSchool district713FTE
- Southwestern Virginia Mental Health InstituteHospitals, psychiatric convalescent546
- Smyth County Board of SupervisorsCounty supervisors' and executives' offices406
- Virginia Department of CorrectionsCorrectional institutions241
- WalmartDiscount department stores178
- General Dynamics Mission SystemsManufacturer of composites, radomes, and shelters146
- K VA T Food StoresSupermarket111
- Southwestern VA Mental Hlth Inst IPTPsychiatric hospital109FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,793 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Marion’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 Smyth County.
Marion home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Marion$167,381
- 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 4 Marion 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.
- Marion25.28%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Marion66
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Marion15
Zip codes with a Marion address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Marion — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.