Princeton, West Virginia.
Typical home $170,114 (+1.4% in a year), asking rent $801 (+5.0%). Bluefield, WV-VA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$509 (+132%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,348 +1%
- $167,767$170,114 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $43,070 +34%
- $127,044$170,114 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.
- Princeton$893
- West Virginia$927
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Princeton, WV rose 1.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Princeton, WV rose 5.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Princeton runs $350/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $408 in May 2025.
That is $1,151 a month against $801 rent: a $893 mortgage payment, plus $76 property tax and $182 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Princeton
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$1,151
- Renting$801
- Mortgage only$893
Property tax · $76/mo 0.54% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Mercer County, WV
Insurance & upkeep · $182/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 Princeton, Mercer County, West Virginia
Princeton is a city of 5,872 people in Mercer County. Half its households earn more than $43,900 a year and half less, against $53,210 across Mercer County; 17% of its people live below the poverty line. 57% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 43% are rented. Unemployment in Mercer County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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. Princeton is a small city in Mercer County, West Virginia, with residents who are older on average than in many American towns. Incomes run below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than most would expect to find in a place this size. Homes cost little compared with much of the country, and a majority of households own the place they live in, while rents stay modest. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm but not hot.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in shops, and in the building trades. Among the largest workplaces in Princeton are Mercer County Schools, Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital and PepsiCo. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many places, and most people have a short trip to work, with only a small share working from home.
Things to do. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park is a short drive away, and Camp Creek State Park, a protected area, is also close by. Brush Creek, a river, runs nearby as well. For a longer outing, Bluestone National Scenic River is a longer drive away and offers a stretch of protected river country.
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- 2,826households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 17%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Mercer County had 19,507 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 60°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Athens weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Princeton
- Mercer County SchoolsSchool district1,255FTE
- Encompass Health Rehabilitation HospRehabilitation hospital129FTE
- PepsiCoOther grocery and related products merchant wholesalers102
- PrincetonMail and parcel delivery50
- Harry ElectricalElectrical contractors41
- HC Southern West VirginiaHome health care agencies26
- Grants Supermarket PrincetonGrocery stores25
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs24
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,743 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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 wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Lightningrelatively high in parts of PrincetonRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively 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 Princeton’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 Mercer County and the Bluefield, WV-VA metro.
Princeton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Princeton$170,114
- West Virginia$176,576
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Princeton 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.
- Princeton28.23%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Princeton96
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Princeton23
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Princeton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Princeton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Princeton
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24740 | Princeton | 16,498 | $865 | $154,150 |
| 24739 | Princeton | 13,981 | — | $192,974 |
| 25922 | Spanishburg | 63 | — | $194,272 |