Sophia, West Virginia.
Typical home $104,505 (-5.3% in a year). Beckley, WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$309 (+129%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,824 -5%
- $110,329$104,505 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $22,445 +27%
- $82,060$104,505 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.
- Sophia$549
- West Virginia$927
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Sophia, WV fell 5.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sophia, Raleigh County, West Virginia
Sophia is a town of 1,130 people in Raleigh County. Half its households earn more than $36,080 a year and half less, against $52,150 across Raleigh County. Unemployment in Raleigh County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Raleigh 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sophia is a small town in Raleigh County, West Virginia, with a population that has stayed modest in size. Household incomes in town are lower than across the county, and homes here are among the more affordable you will find. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and only a small number of people work from home. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and highs staying near freezing and below, and snow falls regularly through the season. Summers are mild and comfortable, with July the warmest month, and rain and melted snow arrive steadily through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, then restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and professional and business services. Across Raleigh County, some of the largest employers are Raleigh County Schools, Raleigh General Hospital and the Veterans Health Administration. Unemployment across the county has eased a little compared with a year earlier, though the number of jobs there has slipped slightly.
Things to do. Little Beaver State Park, a protected area, is a short drive away, as is the Phillips-Sprague Mine, a museum. Whitestick Creek, a river, also lies a short drive away. For a longer outing, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, a protected area, is a longer drive away.
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- 7%of adults have a degree
- 9%work from home
What people in Raleigh County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Raleigh County had 32,153 jobs in 2025, 0.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 40° and lows near 19°; warmest in July, with highs near 79° and lows near 58°. About 38 inches of snow and 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Beckley Va Hospital weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Raleigh County
- Raleigh County SchoolsSchool district1,537FTE
- Raleigh General HospitalGeneral hospital887FTE
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs814
- Beckley ARHGeneral hospital556FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters355
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters314
- West Virginia University Institute of TechnologyUniversity or college238
- Pyramid West Virginia ManagementResort hotels without casinos237
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 50 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,446 people in all across the county; Sophia has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively 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 Sophia’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 Raleigh County and the Beckley, WV metro.
Sophia home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sophia$104,505
- West Virginia$176,576
- 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.
- Sophia9
Zip codes with a Sophia address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sophia — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Sophia
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25921 | Sophia | 1,989 | — | $105,743 |
| 25827 | Crab Orchard | 1,380 | — | $144,251 |