Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
Typical home $488,414 (+4.0% in a year), asking rent $1,385 . Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,451 (+130%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,611 +4%
- $469,803$488,414 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $111,047 +29%
- $377,367$488,414 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.
- Shepherdstown$2,564
- West Virginia$927
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Shepherdstown, WV rose 4.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, West Virginia
Shepherdstown is a town of 1,531 people in Jefferson County. Unemployment in Jefferson County was 3.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Jefferson County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Shepherdstown is a small town in Jefferson County with a very young population, far younger than most of the country, which comes from the university at its center. Incomes across Jefferson County are high, and homes in town are priced well above what many people would expect for a place this size. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with professional and business services, shops, and restaurants and hotels also employing a good share. Shepherd University is the largest workplace in town, and federal offices such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are also among the biggest employers. Commutes are short, and more people work from home than in many places.
Things to do. Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, a protected area, is a short drive away, and Antietam National Battlefield, an archaeological site, is also close. Antietam Creek, a river, is a short drive as well, and Washington Monument State Park, a protected area, is a longer drive. Closer in, the Rumsey Monument is a park in or beside town.
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- 6%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 20%work from home
What people in Jefferson County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jefferson County had 17,136 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 41° and lows near 21°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 62°. About 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sharpsburg South weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Shepherdstown
- Shepherd UniversityUniversity or college464
- Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information and TechnologyFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs71
- AramarkFood service contractors64
- U.s. Fish and Wildlife ServiceFederal government · Department of the Interior48
- Office of the Secretary of the InteriorFederal government · Department of the Interior41
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 64 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026). 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 moderate
- Strong windrelatively high in parts of ShepherdstownRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of ShepherdstownRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Shepherdstown’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 Jefferson County and the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metro.
Shepherdstown home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Shepherdstown$488,414
- West Virginia$176,576
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Shepherdstown listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Shepherdstown35.09%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Shepherdstown27
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Shepherdstown10
Zip codes with a Shepherdstown address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Shepherdstown — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.