Monterey, Virginia.
Typical home $280,715 (+4.4% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$835 (+131%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,930 +4%
- $268,786$280,715 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $66,546 +31%
- $214,169$280,715 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.
- Monterey$1,473
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Monterey, VA rose 4.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Monterey, Highland County, Virginia
Monterey is a town of 165 people in Highland County. Unemployment in Highland County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Highland County work in schools and health care, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Monterey is a very small town, one of the smallest places a person could choose to live, and it is the seat of Highland County in the mountains of western Virginia. Winters are cold, with a good deal of snow, and summers are mild and warm rather than hot. Homes here cost less than many Americans would expect to pay, and household incomes across Highland County sit below the state's. Some residents live below the poverty line, a reminder that a quiet mountain setting does not make life easy for everyone.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in the building trades, and in government, along with a range of other services. Across Highland County, the largest workplaces are Highland County Public Schools and the Virginia Department of Transportation. Unemployment across the county is a little higher than a year ago, and the number of jobs slipped slightly in the most recent year, so work here tends to be steady but not fast-growing.
Things to do. The nearest outdoor spot is Highland Wildlife Management Area, a protected area only a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to Monongahela National Forest, a large protected area, and to Snowshoe Mountain, a ski area that suits the snowy winters. For a different kind of outing, Fort Edward Johnson is a historic fort a longer drive off.
Report a mistake
- 10%below the poverty line
What people in Highland County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Highland County had 613 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 39° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 57°. About 39 inches of snow and 47 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mustoe Southwest weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Highland County
- Highland County Public SchoolsSchool district60FTE
- Virginia Department of TransportationHighway repair maintenance21
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 21 people in all across the county; Monterey has none of its own. School districts come 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
- DroughtRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Monterey’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 Highland County.
Monterey home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Monterey$280,715
- Virginia$412,252
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Monterey14
Zip codes with a Monterey address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Monterey — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.