Welch, West Virginia.
Typical home $49,381 (-9.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$52 (+25%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,285 -10%
- $54,665$49,381 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $28,004 -36%
- $77,385$49,381 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.
- Welch$259
- West Virginia$927
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Welch, WV fell 9.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Welch, McDowell County, West Virginia
Welch is a city of 3,590 people in McDowell County. Unemployment in McDowell County was 10.6% in August 2026, and the county had 5.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in McDowell County work in schools and health care, then government.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Welch is the county seat of McDowell County, a small city in the coalfield hills of southern West Virginia. Its residents are older on average than across the country, and homes here cost far less than in most of the United States. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and incomes in the county run well below the national level. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and highs staying above freezing, while July brings warm days. Snowfall is moderate, and rain and melted snow add up to a fairly wet year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and in government. Others work in farming, forestry and mining, or in transport, warehouses and utilities. The largest workplaces in Welch are McDowell County Schools, Welch Community Hospital and the Bureau of Prisons. Unemployment in the county is high and has risen over the past year, and the county has fewer jobs than it did a year earlier.
Things to do. Tug Fork Wildlife Management Area, a protected area, is a short drive away and the closest of the outdoor places nearby. Anawalt Lake Wildlife Management Area and Berwind Lake Wildlife Management Area are protected areas a longer drive away, and Pinnacle Rock State Park is another protected area a longer drive out. Together they give residents places for walking, fishing and time outdoors in the surrounding hills.
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- 681households
- 5%of adults have a degree
What people in McDowell County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. McDowell County had 3,739 jobs in 2025, 5.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 41° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 64°. About 20 inches of snow and 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Pineville weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Welch
- Mcdowell County SchoolsSchool district383FTE
- Welch Community HospitalGeneral hospital148FTE
- Bureau of Prisons/federal Prison SystemFederal government · Department of Justice134
School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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 wavesVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- Strong windVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Welch’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 McDowell County.
Welch home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Welch$49,381
- 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.
- Welch9
Zip codes with a Welch address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Welch — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.