Editor’s Note: This is not investment advice, and we are not financial advisers.
Suppose real estate is the most significant investment a majority of people make in their lifetime. In that case, it’s best to understand the places in West Virginia with best potential return on investment.
After working in real estate adjacent roles for over a decade, I had the hypothesis that the best place to buy for a return on investment would be up-and-coming cities. Smaller cities where crime might be high now, but people still move to.
To test my hypothesis, we are going to look at places in West Virginia that are growing faster than average, but where home prices are below average, and crime rates are higher than average.
In everyday terms, these might be “deals”. The best deal in West Virginia at the moment according to Saturday Night Science? That would be New Martinsville.
-0.8% population growth · 1.6% home price growth
New Martinsville is a city in Wetzel County, West Virginia, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 5,366 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Wetzel County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-0.5% population growth · -2.0% home price growth
Located in
Upshur County, West Virginia
Buckhannon is the only incorporated city in, and the county seat of, Upshur County, West Virginia, United States, and is located along the Buckhannon River. The population was 5,639 at the 2010 census. Buckhannon is home to West Virginia Wesleyan College and the West Virginia Strawberry Festival, held annually on the third week of May. The city is located 115 miles northeast from the capital city of Charleston and 140 miles south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-0.8% population growth · 1.7% home price growth
Located in
Mercer County, West Virginia
Princeton, often referred to as the “Jewel of the South,” is a city in and the county seat of Mercer County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 6,432 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Bluefield, WV-VA micropolitan area which has a population of 107,342. The town hosts the Princeton Rays baseball club of the Appalachian League.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
7.0% population growth · 0.4% home price growth
Charles Town, officially the City of Charles Town, is a city in Jefferson County, West Virginia, and is also the county seat. The population was 5,259 at the 2010 United States Census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-0.5% population growth · 1.1% home price growth
Located in
Putnam County, West Virginia
Hurricane is a city in Putnam County, West Virginia, in the United States. The population was 6,284 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-1.3% population growth · 0.4% home price growth
Located in
Putnam County, West Virginia
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-0.9% population growth · -1.4% home price growth
Located in
Randolph County, West Virginia
Elkins is a city in Randolph County, West Virginia, USA. The community was incorporated in 1890 and named in honor of Stephen Benton Elkins, a U.S. Senator from West Virginia. The population was 7,094 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Randolph County. Elkins is home to Davis and Elkins College and to the Mountain State Forest Festival, held in early October every year.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-1.2% population growth · 1.0% home price growth
Located in
Kanawha County, West Virginia
Dunbar is a city in Kanawha County, West Virginia, along the Kanawha River. The population was 7,907 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-1.5% population growth · 4.0% home price growth
Located in
Fayette County, West Virginia
Oak Hill is a city in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States and is the primary city within the Oak Hill, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area. The micropolitan area is also included in the Beckley-Oak Hill, WV Combined Statistical Area. The population was 7,730 at the 2010 census. Country singer Hank Williams was discovered to be dead while the car in which he was a passenger was stopped in Oak Hill, and Oak Hill is generally accepted to be his place of death.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-0.8% population growth · -2.4% home price growth
Located in
Marshall County, West Virginia
Moundsville is a city in Marshall County, West Virginia, along the Ohio River. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia metropolitan area. The population was 9,318 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Marshall County. The city was named for the nearby ancient Grave Creek Mound, constructed 250 to 100 BC by indigenous people of the Adena culture.
Moundsville was settled in 1771 by English colonists Samuel and James Tomlinson. Fostoria Glass Company was headquartered in Moundsville from 1891 to 1986. The retired West Virginia State Penitentiary operated in Moundsville from 1867 to 1995.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is West Virginia’s statewide median.
West Virginia statewide median: $174,412
On the map
Where West Virginia’s best buys are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How do you determine the best places to buy a home in West Virginia for 2026?
We were in real estate for almost five years and have worked on this site for over a decade. Suffice it to say we’ve put a lot of thought into finding an excellent place to buy a home.
So all that thinking has come to this moment where we get to spell out how we’d approach finding an up-and-coming place to live in West Virginia. Put differently, the analysis will try to find places in West Virginia with undervalued homes relative to pent-up demand using Saturday Night Science.
To do that, we looked at the most recent American Community Survey Census data for 2020-2024 and compared it to the previous vintage. Specifically, we used the following criteria:
- Y-o-Y Change In Population (People want to live here)
- Y-o-Y Change In Median Home Prices (People are willing to pay for it)
- Home Prices Relative To The State Average (It’s still kinda cheap)
We want places that are growing, have seen home prices increase in recent years, and are still “cheap” for West Virginia, with these caveats: home prices had to be within 20% of the state average, home prices increased in the last year, and the city had above 5,000 people.
So of the 399 cities and towns in West Virginia, only 25 places made it through our initial filters to even be considered.
We then ranked each place from 1 to 25 for the above criteria, with 1 being the best. We averaged the rankings to create a “best place to buy” index, with the place having the lowest index being the best.
Turns out that New Martinsville is the best potential gem in the not-so-rough in the Mountain State.
The full plate
Best Places To Buy A Home In West Virginia
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Median Home Price | Population Change | Home Price Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Martinsville | 5,133 | $136,698 | -0.8% | 1.6% |
| 3 | Buckhannon | 5,116 | $156,489 | -0.5% | -2.0% |
| 4 | Princeton | 5,736 | $166,770 | -0.8% | 1.7% |
| 5 | Charles Town | 7,337 | $400,663 | 7.0% | 0.4% |
| 6 | Hurricane | 6,855 | $269,184 | -0.5% | 1.1% |
| 7 | Nitro | 6,853 | $140,563 | -1.3% | 0.4% |
| 8 | Elkins | 6,811 | $166,143 | -0.9% | -1.4% |
| 9 | Dunbar | 7,254 | $123,693 | -1.2% | 1.0% |
| 10 | Oak Hill | 7,937 | $150,326 | -1.5% | 4.0% |
| 11 | Moundsville | 7,869 | $124,991 | -0.8% | -2.4% |
| 12 | Bridgeport | 9,252 | $297,307 | -0.4% | -1.1% |
| 13 | Bluefield | 9,387 | $105,765 | -1.3% | -0.6% |
| 14 | St. Albans | 10,522 | $148,169 | -1.1% | -1.4% |
| 15 | Vienna | 10,518 | $183,598 | -0.5% | 1.4% |
| 16 | South Charleston | 13,457 | $167,047 | -1.0% | 1.8% |
| 17 | Clarksburg | 15,549 | $114,207 | -1.8% | -1.5% |
| 18 | Beckley | 16,818 | $146,483 | -0.9% | 2.1% |
| 19 | Martinsburg | 18,904 | $307,800 | 0.5% | 1.5% |
| 20 | Fairmont | 18,221 | $185,554 | -0.4% | 0.8% |
| 21 | Weirton | 18,647 | $147,088 | -0.7% | 3.0% |
| 22 | Wheeling | 26,350 | $148,167 | -1.2% | 1.6% |
| 23 | Parkersburg | 29,240 | $147,802 | -0.8% | 1.5% |
| 24 | Morgantown | 30,236 | $280,205 | -0.1% | 2.4% |
| 25 | Huntington | 45,787 | $139,631 | -0.9% | 0.3% |
| 26 | Charleston | 47,421 | $163,657 | -1.0% | 2.3% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024 via Saturday Night Science. 25 West Virginia cities cleared the filters.
Summary
Summary: The Best Places To Purchase A House In West Virginia for 2026
There’s our analysis of the best places to buy a house in West Virginia. And, to be clear, we aren’t necessarily saying these places are the best places to live, just that it looks like they might be in a couple of years based on the data.
In fact, every place in the following table meets our criteria, so even though it may not look super long, remember we started off with all 399 places in the state.
The best cities to buy a house in West Virginia are New Martinsville, Buckhannon, Princeton, Charles Town, Hurricane, Nitro, Elkins, Dunbar, Oak Hill, and Moundsville.
So if we could rent or buy in these cities, we’d definitely buy.
