Norton, Virginia.
Typical home $124,449 (-3.6% in a year). Big Stone Gap, VA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$354 (+118%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $4,587 -4%
- $129,036$124,449 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $19,756 +19%
- $104,693$124,449 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.
- Norton$653
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 20 years.
Typical home values in Norton, VA fell 3.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Norton, Wise County, Virginia
Norton is a city of 3,687 people in Wise County. Half its households earn more than $41,495 a year and half less, against $52,943 across Wise County; 26% of its people live below the poverty line. 50% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 50% are rented. Unemployment in Norton was 4.5% in August 2026, and Wise County had 0.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Wise 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Norton is a small city in Wise County, in the coalfield hills of far southwest Virginia. Residents are a little older than in many places, and more homes are rented than across much of the country. Incomes run well below the county's, and more households live in poverty than is typical, though homes cost less here than in many parts of the country. Winters are cold and snowy, with colder days in January than most of the country, and summers are warm without turning hot. Rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and government. Among the largest workplaces in Norton are Walmart, Norton Community Hospital and Norton City Public Schools. A four-year degree is held by fewer adults than in most places, and a good number of people work from home. Jobs across Wise County have held about level over the past year, and unemployment in Norton is a little higher than it was a year ago.
Things to do. Close to town, Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park is a short drive away, as are the Guest River and Carl Smith Stadium. For a longer outing, Natural Tunnel State Park is a longer drive away and is one of the best known protected areas in the region. The Holston River is also a longer drive away, for time on the water.
Report a mistake
- 1,605households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 26%below the poverty line
- 18%work from home
What people in Wise County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Wise County had 10,958 jobs in 2025, 0.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 61°. About 47 inches of snow and 52 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wise 1SE weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Norton
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters363
- Ballad Health/Hospitals, general medical and surgical361
- Norton City Public SchoolsSchool district127FTE
- Pepsi Cola Bottling Co., Inc. ofBaby foods, canned, merchant wholesalers65
- NorrisBuilt Fabrication & Mobile WeldingBins, fabricated metal plate work, manufacturing58
- RK HoldingsFarm supply store48
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 895 people in all. 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Norton’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 Wise County and the Big Stone Gap, VA metro.
Norton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Norton$124,449
- Virginia$412,252
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Norton 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.
- Norton24.84%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Norton30
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Norton6
Zip codes with a Norton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Norton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.