Valley Head, West Virginia.
Typical home $136,184 (+0.8% in a year). Elkins, WV metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$414 (+137%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,141 +1%
- $135,043$136,184 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $33,013 +32%
- $103,171$136,184 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.
- Valley Head$715
- 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 Valley Head, WV rose 0.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Valley Head, Randolph County, West Virginia
Valley Head, in Randolph County, had 207 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Randolph County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Randolph 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Valley Head is a very small community in Randolph County, West Virginia, with far fewer residents than most towns. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are mild, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow add up to a good deal over the year. Homes here are typically valued below what is common across much of the country, and very few adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in manufacturing and in the building trades. Across Randolph County, some of the largest workplaces are Davis Memorial Hospital, Randolph County Schools and AHF Products. Unemployment in the county is a little lower than a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Much of the appeal here is the outdoors. Monongahela National Forest, a protected area, is a short drive away, as is Snowshoe Mountain, a ski area, and Kumbrabow State Forest, another protected area. For a longer trip, the Gauley River is a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 2%of adults have a degree
- 0%below the poverty line
What people in Randolph County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Randolph County had 10,309 jobs in 2025, 1.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 34° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 75° and lows near 56°. About 63 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kumbrabow weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Randolph County
- Davis Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital547FTE
- Randolph County SchoolsSchool district540FTE
- AHF ProductsApplicators, wood, manufacturing425
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters319
- Choice Care AT Home - ElkinsActivity centers for disabled persons, the elderly, and persons diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities260
- Davis & Elkins CollegeUniversity or college232
- Elkins Regional Convalescent CenterNursing homes159
- Greenfield CabinetryCabinets, kitchen, stock or custom wood, manufacturing81
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 15 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,700 people in all across the county; Valley Head has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- Inland floodingVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Valley Head’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Randolph County and the Elkins, WV metro.
Valley Head home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Valley Head$136,184
- 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Valley Head address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Valley Head — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.