Virginia Beach, VA
Photo: DanRVA · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia

Rental market · Virginia Beach, VA · Incorporated city

Virginia Beach, VA: average rent, home values, and rental yield

South Atlantic · Population 457,066

C50.2
#754 of 1,863 ranked markets
Overall Score 50.2 · stronger than 60% of ranked markets

How Virginia Beach ranks nationally

Each bar places Virginia Beach against all 1,863 ranked U.S. markets: the marker is this city and further right is more favorable to an investor; the tick marks the national median. Inverted measures (crime, vacancy, price-to-income) are already flipped so higher always means better here.

Overall Scorethe flagship rank
50.260th percentile
Cash Flowyield & affordability
6164th percentile
Growthpopulation, jobs, income
3422nd percentile
Stabilitycrime, vacancy, unemployment
6379th percentile
Expense-adjusted yield3.3% net of costs
6767th percentile
Affordabilityprice-to-income 4.7×
52more affordable than 52%
Rental vacancy5.0% vacant
45tighter than 45%
Population growth-0.0%/yr (capped)
2626th percentile
Job growth0.4%/yr (capped)
2828th percentile
← Less favorableMedianMore favorable →

What a deal looks like here

A market-level buy-box for Virginia Beach, built from this market's own numbers: the investor-entry price, its rent, and local carrying costs. An illustrative scenario, not a listing.

Target buy price
$308,673
Expected rent
$2,076 /mo
Rent-to-price
0.67%
Cap rate
4.9%
Cash-on-cash
-3.8% at 25% dn
DSCR
0.82

At 25% down and 7%, this representative scenario runs negative (about −$276/mo); it reaches cash-flow break-even around 38% down.

Buy target = Zillow Bottom-Tier ZHVI (5th–35th percentile) $308,673; typical home value $430,374. Rent = Zillow ZORI typical asking rent. Assumptions: 25% down, 7% / 30-yr, 5% vacancy, 8% management, 5% maintenance, 5% capex, 0.5% insurance, 0.80% property tax. Illustrative market-level scenario: not a listing, appraisal, recommendation, or underwriting decision. As of 2026-07-10.

Market Negotiation Leverage

Some seller leverage (28th percentile among 2,222 cities with Redfin coverage)

Equal-weight composite of three Redfin signals’ national percentiles (days on market 23, months of supply 1.8, sale-to-list 99.9%), direction-adjusted so a higher percentile always means more room for a buyer to negotiate. This is a cross-sectional snapshot against every other tracked city today, not a seasonal or historical baseline for this specific city (no multi-year time series is committed for this data). Not a prediction of what any specific seller will accept. Source: Redfin Data Center. See how this is calculated.

Measured market data

Measured observations for Virginia Beach, shown as context beside the market score (none of it feeds the score), and the model weights are unchanged. These are different measurements from the Census figures in the factor table: the ACS median value is what owners report in a 5-year survey, while ZHVI is a monthly index of typical value; ACS median gross rent is what sitting tenants pay including utilities, while ZORI indexes asking rent on newly listed units. Neither corrects the other. Monthly series, revised in recent months, observed 2026-07, not live.

Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI, mid tier)$430,374
ZHVI bottom tier (5th–35th pct)$308,673
ZHVI top tier (65th–95th pct)$720,029
ZHVI, single-family only$441,168
Zillow asking-rent index (ZORI)$2,076/mo
Measured gross yield (ZORI × 12 ÷ ZHVI)5.79%
Market heat index55
Median days to pending23
Share of listings with a price cut22.0%
Median sale-to-list ratio100.0%
For-sale inventory1,688
New listings685
Median list price$462,783
Median sale price$430,000
Measured 3-yr value growth3.24%/yr
Measured 5-yr value growth4.48%/yr
Measured 3-yr rent growth4.68%/yr
Price–rent divergence (value − rent growth)-1.44%/yr
ZHVI, 1-bedroom$241,850
ZHVI, 2-bedroom$274,918
ZHVI, 3-bedroom$381,542
ZHVI, 4-bedroom$525,505
ZHVI, 5-bedroom$834,190

Source: Zillow Economic Research public research data, observation month 2026-07. Zillow is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, Compounding Estates.

Typical home value $430,374 Median rent $2,076/mo Population 457,066 Region South Atlantic

Price & rent history

Home value $131,432 → $430,374 (2000-01–2026-07) · Asking rent $1,212 → $2,076 (2015-01–2026-07)

Source: Zillow ZHVI (home value) and ZORI (asking rent) - monthly resolution for the last ~10 years (since 2016-08), quarterly before that. Home value uses the left axis, rent the right; toggle either series, change the range, hover to read any point. Gaps in the source series are left as gaps - never interpolated.

ZIP markets in Virginia Beach

12 Census ZIP Codes (ZCTAs) officially overlap Virginia Beach by land area · 8 data-eligible for subscores. Overlap is Census land-area share, not a population or address share. Each ZIP Code's overall Rental Investor ZIP Score, grade and canonical national rank are shown below (the two component signals, affordability and rental market, are separate percentiles). There is no city-scoped ZIP rank: city overlap isn't a ranking universe, so only the national rank is shown. These ZIP rankings sit in the ZIP universe only, never mixed with, and not directly comparable to, Virginia Beach's city ranking. Vintage: the Key metric column below is Census ACS 2020–2024 (5-year), a full survey release newer than the ACS 2019–2023 figures used above for Virginia Beach itself, so the same measure can legitimately show a different number at the city and ZIP level.

ZIP CodeOverallgrade · natl rankTier · overlapAffordabilitysignal · natl rankRental marketsignal · natl rankKey metric
23451Virginia Beach C 43#11,897 nat RankedPrimary 38#14,551 of 20,132 · bottom 28% 58#6,279 of 20,132 · top 31% 3.5%Survey yield
23452Virginia Beach C 49#9,256 nat RankedPrimary 60#5,618 of 20,132 · top 28% 67#2,725 of 20,132 · top 14% 5.7%Survey yield
23453Virginia Beach C 51#7,835 nat RankedPrimary 64#4,406 of 20,132 · top 22% 63#4,414 of 20,132 · top 22% 6.3%Survey yield
23454Virginia Beach C 50#8,703 nat RankedPrimary 49#10,206 of 20,132 · bottom 49% 70#2,082 of 20,132 · top 10% 4.8%Survey yield
23455Virginia Beach C 46#10,497 nat RankedPrimary 51#9,214 of 20,132 · top 46% 61#4,855 of 20,132 · top 24% 4.8%Survey yield
23456Virginia Beach D 42#12,221 nat RankedPrimary 54#7,642 of 20,132 · top 38% 6#19,834 of 20,132 · bottom 1% 5.2%Survey yield
23457Virginia Beach ProfilePrimary 2.3%Survey yield
23459Virginia Beach LimitedPrimary
23460Virginia Beach LimitedPrimary
23461Virginia Beach LimitedPrimary
23464Virginia Beach C 49#8,959 nat RankedPrimary 60#5,618 of 20,132 · top 28% 61#4,855 of 20,132 · top 24% 5.7%Survey yield
23462Virginia Beach C 49#9,055 nat RankedPrimary 70#3,028 of 20,132 · top 15% 60#5,542 of 20,132 · top 28% 7.2%Survey yield
Open these 12 ZIP markets in the explorer →

The honest read

Virginia Beach scores 50/100 overall (grade C): 61 for Cash Flow, 34 for Growth, and 63 for Stability, each a 0–100 score built from the factors in that category. The scenario above shows what a representative investor-entry purchase pencils out to at today's rates. Everything we can measure is in the table below, with its source.

Every factor, shown

The Overall score blends three category scores built from thirteen measured factors: Cash Flow (35%), Growth (35%), and Stability (30%). The table shows every factor; the tag on each percentile marks which category a scored factor feeds. Untagged factors are shown for context but not scored. Every value carries its source and as-of date. How the score works.

FactorValueNational percentileSource · as-ofWhat it means
Expense-adjusted yield3.3%67th percentile · Cash FlowZillow ZORI/ZHVI · 2026-07-31Annual rent divided by price, net of a modeled vacancy, tax, capex, and management allowance: the core of the Cash Flow category and what the score is actually computed from. The unadjusted gross yield is shown elsewhere on this page.
Price to income4.7x52nd percentile · Cash FlowZillow + ACS income · 2026-07-31Home price over local median income. Lower is cheaper relative to what people earn. Part of the Cash Flow category.
Population growth-0.0%/yr26th percentile · GrowthCensus PEP · Census PEP 2020→2024 (vintage 2024) + Census PEP 2014→2024 (vintages 2019+2024)Census population trend for the place, capped at 4.5%/yr before scoring (diminishing returns above that rate): the heaviest factor in the Growth category.
Job growth0.4%/yr28th percentile · GrowthBLS LAUS (county) · BLS LAUS county annual 2019→2023 (pre-COVID anchor) + BLS LAUS county annual 2013→2023County employment trend, capped at 4.0%/yr before scoring (diminishing returns above that rate). A Growth-category factor.
Income growth4.3%/yr23rd percentile · GrowthCensus ACS · ACS 5-yr 2019-2023Local median-income trend. A Growth-category factor.
Rent growth5.1%/yr82nd percentile · GrowthZillow ZORI · 3yr + 10yr to 2026-07-31A 40/60 blend of 3-year and 10-year rent trend (the model's own weighting). A Growth-category factor.
Home-value growth4.2%/yr41st percentile · GrowthZillow ZHVI · 3yr + 10yr to 2026-07-31A 40/60 blend of 3-year and 10-year price trend (the model's own weighting). A small Growth-category factor.
Unemployment2.7%85th percentile · StabilityBLS LAUS (county) · BLS LAUS county annual 2023County unemployment rate. Lower is steadier, a Stability-category factor.
Rental vacancy5.0%45th percentile · StabilityCensus ACS B25004 · ACS 5-yr 2019-2023Share of rentals empty. Lower means more pricing power. A Stability-category factor.
Property tax rate0.8%63rd percentile · StabilityCensus ACS B25103/B25077 · ACS 5-yr 2019-2023Median tax over median value. A direct drag on cash flow, scored in the Stability category as carrying-cost burden.
Months of supply1.8 mo83rd percentile · StabilityRedfin Data Center · 2026-05-01Listings over sales pace. Under about 4 is a seller market, over 6 a buyer market. A Stability-category factor.
Days on market23 days73rd percentileRedfin Data Center · 2026-05-01How fast homes sell. Lower means more liquidity and an easier exit. Shown for context, not scored.
Sale-to-list ratio99.9%61st percentileRedfin Data Center · 2026-05-01Sale price over asking. Above 100% means homes clear over ask. Shown for context, not scored.
Net domestic migration-5.0/1k32nd percentileCensus PEP (county) · PEP vintage 2024Net people moving in or out of the county, per 1,000 residents. Shown for context, not scored.
Building permits3.0/1k93rd percentileCensus BPS (county) · BPS 2023New-construction permits per 1,000 homes. More means more supply coming. Shown for context, not scored.
Rent burden31%44th percentileCensus ACS B25071 · ACS 5-yr 2019-2023Median rent as a share of income. Higher means less headroom for increases. Shown for context, not scored.
Median year built198461st percentileCensus ACS B25035 · ACS 5-yr 2019-2023Age of the housing stock. Older stock carries more capex. Shown for context, not scored.
Max drawdown19%62nd percentileZillow ZHVI · 2026-07-31Worst peak-to-trough home-value decline on record. Shown for context, not scored.
Violent crimenot reported-FBI CDENo agency reported this place to the FBI. We never impute a crime number; where it is missing, the Stability category renormalizes over its remaining factors.

Related cities

Nearby in the Virginia rankings · all Virginia cities

Similar overall grade, elsewhere in the country

Compare Virginia Beach head-to-head

Side by side, the three category scores plus every measured column with sources - the same shown math as this page.

Underwrite a Virginia Beach deal

For learning, not advice. A market screen from public data - not a forecast, not underwriting, not a recommendation to buy anywhere.