Wise, Virginia.
Typical home $185,613 (+0.5% in a year). Big Stone Gap, VA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$545 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,005 +1%
- $184,608$185,613 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $42,587 +30%
- $143,026$185,613 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.
- Wise$974
- Virginia$2,164
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Wise, VA rose 0.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wise, Wise County, Virginia
Wise is a town of 2,971 people in Wise County. Unemployment in Wise County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Wise 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wise is a small town in the mountains of far southwest Virginia, the seat of Wise County. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and snow falls often enough that shovels and salt are part of the season. Summers are mild to warm, with July the warmest month, and the year brings a good deal of rain and melted snow. Typical home values in town sit well below what many older homeowners elsewhere would expect, and a noticeable share of residents live below the poverty line.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, or in government. Wise County Public Schools is among the largest workplaces in town, along with Lowe's of Wise County and the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Unemployment across Wise County is a little higher than a year ago, and the county has about the same number of jobs as it did the year before, with slightly fewer. Household incomes across the county are modest.
Things to do. Carl Smith Stadium, a stadium in or beside town, is the nearest gathering place. The Guest River is a short drive away. For a longer outing, Natural Tunnel State Park, a protected area, is a longer drive away, as is Breaks Interstate Park, another protected area.
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- 1,298households
- 12%below the poverty line
What people in Wise County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Wise County had 10,958 jobs in 2025, 0.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 43° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 61°. About 47 inches of snow and 52 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wise 1SE weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Wise
- Wise County Public SchoolsSchool district968FTE
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter137
- LifeCare Ambulance ServiceAmbulance services, air or ground39
- Mine Safety and Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Labor37
- BelkDepartment stores except discount department stores24
- Virginia Department of TransportationAdministration20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 220 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) 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 wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Strong windrelatively high in parts of WiseRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Wise’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 Wise County and the Big Stone Gap, VA metro.
Wise home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wise$185,613
- Virginia$412,252
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Wise listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Wise32.01%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Wise24
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Wise7
Zip codes with a Wise address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wise — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.