Williamsburg, Virginia.
Typical home $468,798 (+2.1% in a year), asking rent $2,094 (+5.9%). Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,297 (+111%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,848 +2%
- $458,950$468,798 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $104,116 +29%
- $364,682$468,798 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.
- Williamsburg$2,461
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Williamsburg, VA rose 2.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Williamsburg, VA rose 5.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Williamsburg runs $1,122/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,236 in Jan 2025.
That is $3,216 a month against $2,094 rent: a $2,461 mortgage payment, plus $253 property tax and $502 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Williamsburg
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$3,216
- Renting$2,094
- Mortgage only$2,461
Property tax · $253/mo 0.65% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for James City County, VA
Insurance & upkeep · $502/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Williamsburg, James City County, Virginia
Williamsburg is a city of 15,425 people in James City County. Half its households earn more than $75,604 a year and half less, against $109,985 across James City County; 19% of its people live below the poverty line. 53% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 47% are rented. Unemployment in Williamsburg was 5.5% in August 2026, and James City County had 1.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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. Williamsburg is a small city in Virginia with a young population for its size, shaped by a long-established college and the historic district at its center. Incomes run well below those across James City County, and more people live below the poverty line than you might expect from the surrounding county's wealth. Homes are split fairly evenly between owners and renters, and typical home values and rents are both high. Winters are cool and mostly mild, with little snow, and summers turn hot, with steady rain through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, or in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, with shops and professional and business services close behind. The largest workplaces in town include Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Aramark. Unemployment is no different from a year ago, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Commutes are fairly short, and some people work from home.
Things to do. Colonial Williamsburg, a museum of the restored colonial town, sits in or beside town, as does the Muscarelle Museum of Art. A short drive away, Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a zoo and amusement park, and the Colonial Parkway is a protected scenic route. For time by the water, the James River is a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 5,020households
- 46%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 18%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. James City County had 30,485 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 49° and lows near 31°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 70°. About 4 inches of snow and 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Williamsburg North weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Williamsburg
- Williamsburg-James City County Public SchoolsSchool district1,992FTE
- Colonial Williamsburg FoundationHistoric education museum901
- AramarkFood service contractors353
- Hills Valley HealthcareSkilled nursing facilities186
- Harris Teeter Supermarkets, Inc.Supermarkets and other grocery stores160
- AramarkFood service contractors122
- Food LionGrocery stores67
- Foundry CommercialAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities63
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 17 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,232 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherrelatively high in parts of WilliamsburgRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Williamsburg’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 James City County and the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC metro.
Williamsburg home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Williamsburg$468,798
- Virginia$412,252
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Williamsburg listings, and the typical home goes pending in 28 days — 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.
- Williamsburg24.64%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Williamsburg28
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Williamsburg509
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Williamsburg166
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Williamsburg$476,421
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Williamsburg98.91%
Zip codes with a Williamsburg address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Williamsburg — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Williamsburg
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23185 | Williamsburg | 55,270 | $2,062 | $462,427 |
| 23188 | Williamsburg | 45,803 | $2,148 | $474,110 |