Fact Checked
Average Mortgage Payment in Virginia in 2026: The Numbers Behind Your Monthly Cost
Virginia doesn’t have one mortgage market: it has five distinct lending zones, each defined by HUD’s county-level loan limits, county property tax rates that swing from 0.40% to 1.01%, and a set of state-specific closing cost taxes that appear nowhere else in the country. Understanding those inputs is the difference between a payment estimate that fits and one that surprises you at closing.
Key Takeaways
- Virginia's statewide median sale price reached $452,060, with Northern Virginia's median nearly double Hampton Roads at $664,000 versus $345,000.
- FHA loan limits span five tiers in Virginia, from a $541,287 rural floor to a $1,249,125 NoVA ceiling, setting different borrowing power by county.
- Property tax rates range from a 0.40% floor in Prince Edward County to 1.01% in Roanoke City, a spread worth hundreds of dollars per month in escrow.
- Virginia charges two state recordation taxes that are unique to the state: a deed recordation tax and a deed of trust recordation tax, each at $0.25 per $100.
- Virginia Housing’s DPA Grant is a true grant (2.5% on FHA loans, never repaid) for first-time home buyers on properties at $500,000 or below.
- FirstHome Dream cuts the Virginia Housing posted rate by two full points for first-generation buyers, saving several hundred dollars per month.
- A complete PITI payment in Virginia must account for state-specific homeowners insurance averaging $2,135 to $2,738 per year, depending on coverage level.
What Virginia Homeowners Actually Pay: The Statewide Picture
The mortgage market is not one number: it's a range set by price, rate, location, and program. Virginia makes that range exceptionally wide.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey puts Virginia’s statewide median home value at $403,500, against a median household income of $92,090. That produces a price-to-income ratio of 4.3x, up from 3.8x in 2012, according to Virginia REALTORS®, a compression that has tightened borrowing room for the median household even as incomes have grown. Virginia REALTORS® data also shows that home prices have risen 23% in inflation-adjusted terms since 2012, while income growth tracked at only 9%.
As of May, Virginia REALTORS® reported a statewide median sale price of $452,060, up 2.7% year over year. But the regional story diverges sharply. Northern Virginia's median sits at $664,000. Richmond's is $389,975. Hampton Roads comes in at $345,000. Roanoke is lower still at $293,475, and Charlottesville runs higher at $479,001.
Those regional gaps matter more than any statewide average, because your monthly payment is built from your county’s price, your county’s tax rate, and your county’s loan limit tier, not the commonwealth average. A buyer in Fairfax County and a buyer in Bath County aren't operating in the same market by any metric that affects what they owe each month.
Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week of July 9 shows the 30-year fixed rate at 6.49% and the 15-year fixed at 5.82%. Those are the benchmark inputs for any current payment calculation. The rate itself is not set by a lender choosing a number. It flows from what investors in the secondary market are willing to pay to take on the risk of mortgage-backed securities, and what lenders need to stay solvent through the life of the loan. Understanding that origin matters when you compare quotes: the same rate from two lenders carries different total costs if their fee structures diverge.
Virginia's Five FHA Loan Limit Tiers
Most states have one or two FHA loan limit tiers. Virginia has five, and the difference between the floor and ceiling is more than $700,000.
HUD's current FHA limits divide Virginia into these tiers:
Roughly 65 rural and lower-cost counties (including Bath, Bland, Buchanan, and Carroll) carry the national floor of $541,287. That's the maximum FHA loan amount available in those areas.
The Charlottesville metro (Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, and Nelson counties) sits at a mid-tier of $598,000.
Richmond's 17-jurisdiction metro area, covering Chesterfield, Henrico, Richmond City, Powhatan, and surrounding localities, has a limit of $707,250.
Hampton Roads’ 15 jurisdictions (Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Newport News, Norfolk, and others) carry a limit of $757,850.
Northern Virginia's 17 jurisdictions, including Fairfax County, Arlington, Loudoun, Prince William, Spotsylvania, and Stafford, reach the national FHA ceiling of $1,249,125. That matches the FHFA conforming high-cost ceiling applicable to the same counties.
The baseline FHFA conforming limit is $832,750. In the 17 Northern Virginia counties that qualify as high-cost areas, that ceiling extends to $1,249,125, which means a buyer in Loudoun County can finance a much larger loan with conventional terms before crossing into jumbo pricing, compared to a buyer in a floor-tier county.
What does that gap mean in practice? A buyer in a floor-tier county with a property priced above $541,287 either needs to bring more cash down to stay within FHA terms, structure a conventional loan with private mortgage insurance, or accept a jumbo product with different underwriting requirements. A buyer in Northern Virginia can finance an FHA loan up to $1,249,125, and the 3.5% minimum down payment still applies. That's a structurally different set of choices.
To put a number on the difference: at an illustrative 6.50% rate on a 30-year fixed, a $541,000 loan carries a principal-and-interest payment of about $3,418 per month. The same rate on an $832,000 loan, a step up to the conforming baseline, produces a monthly P&I of about $5,261. The tier you fall into determines which math applies.
Property Taxes by County: Building Your Escrow
Property taxes in Virginia are set at the local level, and the spread across the state's 133 jurisdictions is among the widest of any state. The statewide effective rate is 0.70%, but that average is nearly meaningless for any individual buyer.
Fairfax County applies a statutory rate of $1.12 per $100 of assessed value, the current figure from the Fairfax County Tax Administration. On a $950,000 home, that produces an annual tax bill of approximately $9,520, or about $793 per month in escrow. Effectively, Fairfax's rate runs around 1.01% of market value.
Arlington County’s effective rate is 0.90%, and Loudoun’s statutory rate runs $0.805 per $100, producing an effective rate around 0.88%. Prince William County carries a 0.98% effective rate. These are all Northern Virginia jurisdictions where both home values and tax rates are elevated simultaneously, a double multiplier on the monthly escrow burden.
Move south and the picture changes. Chesterfield County’s effective rate is 0.78%, Henrico’s is 0.72%, and Virginia Beach’s is 0.80%. Roanoke City runs 1.01%, high by percentage, but applied against a much lower assessed value than Fairfax.
The most striking end of the range is Prince Edward County, at an effective rate of 0.40%. That's the lowest in the state.
Here is what that spread does to a monthly escrow payment when you hold home value constant. On a $300,000 home:
In Fairfax County at 1.01%: $300,000 × 1.01% / 12 = $252.50 per month in property tax escrow.
In Prince Edward County at 0.40%: $300,000 × 0.40% / 12 = $100.00 per month.
The spread ($152.50 per month on the same home value) covers a meaningful portion of a car payment and compounds with every difference in home price and coverage requirement.
Virginia's Closing Cost Taxes: Grantor Tax and Recordation Tax
Virginia imposes two state-level transaction taxes that buyers and sellers encounter at closing. Neither appears in most national mortgage guides, but both show up on the settlement statement.
The state deed recordation tax, under Virginia Code §58.1-801, is $0.25 per $100 of purchase price, paid by the buyer. On a $452,000 purchase (near the statewide median) that's $1,130 at closing.
The deed of trust recordation tax, under §58.1-803, is an additional $0.25 per $100 of loan amount, also paid by the buyer. On a $360,000 loan (20% down on a $450,000 purchase), that's another $900.
The grantor's tax, under §58.1-802, runs $0.50 per $500 of sale price, or the equivalent of $0.10 per $100. It's technically paid by the seller but may be negotiated. On a $450,000 sale, the grantor's tax runs $900.
Local jurisdictions can add a surcharge of up to one-third of the state recordation tax. Northern Virginia adds a further layer: the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority district charges sellers an additional $0.15 per $100 of sale price, bringing total seller costs to $0.25 per $100 in those counties.
At the Northern Virginia median of $664,000 (using an illustrative 80% loan-to-value of $531,200) here is how the buyer’s tax tab stacks up:
Deed recordation: $664,000 × $0.25/$100 = $1,660
Deed of trust recordation: $531,200 × $0.25/$100 = $1,328
Total state taxes on this illustrative transaction: roughly $2,988, before lender fees, title work, or prepaid items.
In a non-NoVA county at the same price, the math is structurally identical but without the NVTA seller surcharge. The taxes themselves are uniform statewide; the difference is that NoVA sellers absorb an additional layer that can affect net proceeds and, in competitive markets, influence how sellers respond to offers.
These are closing costs, not monthly costs, but they matter to your payment calculation because they affect how much cash you bring to closing, which in turn affects your loan size and your P&I.
Virginia Housing Programs That Lower Your Effective Payment
Virginia Housing operates a set of state-level programs that can meaningfully reduce either the upfront cost of buying or the monthly payment burden. Two are particularly significant for the monthly payment calculation.
The DPA Grant is a true grant: it doesn't need to be repaid. On an FHA loan, the grant equals 2.5% of the purchase price; on a conventional loan, it's 2.0%. The program requires first-time buyer status (no homeownership in the preceding three years), a minimum credit score of 620, at least 1% borrower contribution, and a purchase price at or below $500,000. Income limits are set by region: in the Washington and Arlington areas, the DPA income limit is $148,000 for households of two or fewer and $174,000 for households of three or more. Standard Bond income limits in that same region run $186,000 and $217,000 respectively, with a sales price cap of $800,000.
What does the grant do to a monthly payment? On an illustrative $250,000 FHA purchase, a 2.5% DPA Grant reduces the loan amount by $6,250, from $241,250 (at 3.5% down) to roughly $235,000. At 6.50% on a 30-year fixed, that reduction saves approximately $40 per month in principal and interest, every month for the life of the loan. No repayment obligation. That's a permanent reduction, not a deferred one.
The FirstHome Dream program takes a different approach. Rather than reducing the loan amount, it cuts the Virginia Housing posted interest rate by two full percentage points. The qualification standard is stricter: both the borrower and their parents must have never owned a home, or must not have owned within the preceding three years. The program launched statewide in January and requires completion of HUD-approved housing counseling.
Two percentage points of rate reduction is substantial. On a $250,000 30-year fixed loan, moving from a 6.50% illustrative rate to 4.50% reduces the monthly P&I from roughly $1,580 to approximately $1,267, a difference of $313 per month, or more than $112,000 over the loan term. Buyers who qualify for FirstHome Dream should treat that rate advantage as one of the most powerful tools in the state’s assistance portfolio.
For buyers in more rural areas, USDA Section 502 Guaranteed Loans offer a no-down-payment path. The baseline income limit for 1-4 person households in standard Virginia counties is $112,450, set at 115% of area median income. Urban jurisdictions (Northern Virginia, Richmond City, Norfolk City, and Virginia Beach City) are generally ineligible for rural designation, so this path is specific to buyers in qualifying smaller communities and counties.
The Department of Housing and Community Development's HOMEownership DPA program provides additional assistance of up to $40,000 for qualifying buyers in the Richmond metro and other targeted areas. Layered with a Virginia Housing first mortgage, this can substantially reduce the effective loan amount and the resulting monthly payment. AmeriSave is approved to originate Virginia Housing loan products, which means Certified Approval borrowers can layer these assistance programs directly into the underwriting process rather than navigating them separately after loan approval.
PMI, Insurance, and the Complete PITI Payment
Principal and interest are only two of the four components that make up a full mortgage payment. The other two (insurance and taxes) are Virginia-specific numbers that national payment calculators routinely undercount.
Virginia homeowners insurance averages $2,135 per year for a $300,000 dwelling and $2,738 per year for $400,000 in coverage, according to Insure.com's analysis of over 20.7 million quotes using Quadrant Information Services data, updated in July. That translates to roughly $178 per month at the lower dwelling value and $228 per month at the higher. These figures are state-level averages; coastal Hampton Roads areas and mountainous western counties may see wider variation.
Private mortgage insurance applies to conventional loans with less than 20% down. For FHA loans, the annual mortgage insurance premium runs 0.55% of the loan balance for most standard loan scenarios. On a $200,000 FHA loan, that's approximately $92 per month added to the P&I.
Now the full picture comes together through two illustrative worked examples.
Example A: Northern Virginia Buyer in Fairfax County
Purchase price: $950,000 (illustrative round figure). Down payment: 20%, or $190,000. Loan amount: $760,000. Rate: 6.50% (illustrative), 30-year fixed.
Principal and interest: approximately $4,803 per month.
Property tax escrow: $950,000 × 1.01% / 12 = approximately $799 per month.
Homeowners insurance escrow: approximately $228 per month ($2,738 per year on $400,000 dwelling coverage from Insure.com data).
PMI: none (20% down).
Total estimated PITI: approximately $5,830 per month.
At 20% down, no FHA ceiling constraint applies here: this is a conventional loan within the $1,249,125 FHFA high-cost conforming limit for Fairfax County. An FHA buyer at 3.5% down on the same purchase price remains well under that ceiling.
Example B: Rural Floor-County FHA Buyer in Bath County
Purchase price: $180,000 (illustrative round figure). Down payment: 3.5% FHA minimum, or $6,300. Loan amount: $173,700. Rate: 6.50% (illustrative), 30-year fixed.
Principal and interest: approximately $1,097 per month.
FHA annual MIP at 0.55%: $173,700 × 0.55% / 12 = approximately $80 per month.
Property tax escrow: $180,000 × 0.40% / 12 = approximately $60 per month (Bath County's effective rate).
Homeowners insurance escrow: approximately $178 per month ($2,135 per year, Insure.com data).
Total estimated PITI: approximately $1,415 per month.
If this buyer qualifies for Virginia Housing’s DPA Grant, the 2.5% grant reduces the loan to approximately $169,335, a $4,365 reduction that saves roughly $28 per month on P&I and eliminates that amount from the MIP base. The payment drops to approximately $1,386 per month with the grant applied. This is the compounding effect of upfront assistance: a grant that reduces principal today reduces both the interest charge and the MIP charge for every month ahead.
The gap between Example A and Example B (roughly $4,415 per month) illustrates what it means to say Virginia doesn't have one mortgage payment. It has five FHA tiers, 133 property tax jurisdictions, and a set of programs that can widen or narrow that gap depending on where you buy and which assistance you qualify for.
The Bottom Line
Virginia’s mortgage payment is not a single number: it's a calculation with state-specific inputs that most national estimates overlook. The five FHA loan limit tiers establish different borrowing ceilings by county. Property tax rates from 0.40% to 1.01% determine your monthly escrow. Virginia’s deed recordation and deed of trust recordation taxes add a closing-cost layer that affects how much cash you need at the table. And programs like the DPA Grant and FirstHome Dream can permanently reduce your monthly obligation before you make a single payment.
The principle that applies here is the same one that should guide any lender comparison: fairness is not just in the rate, it's in the transparency of total cost. A payment quote that excludes escrow, MIP, or state-specific taxes is not a complete quote. Ask for the full PITI. Request itemized closing cost projections that account for Virginia’s recordation taxes. Then compare the total cost of each option across the loan term, not just the monthly number at the top of the sheet.
AmeriSave offers Certified Approval, a full credit-underwritten approval that lets you compare real loan terms (not just rate estimates) so you understand exactly what your payment includes before you sign a purchase contract. AmeriSave operates across all five of Virginia’s FHA loan limit tiers, so whether you’re shopping in a rural floor-tier county or in a Northern Virginia ceiling-tier market, the same underwriting standards and cost transparency apply. That transparency is the right starting point for any Virginia purchase.
Freddie Mac. (2026). Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2025). QuickFacts Virginia / ACS 2024 1-Year Estimates.
Virginia REALTORS. (2026). Key Takeaways, May 2026 Virginia Home Sales Report.
Virginia REALTORS. (2025). Year-to-Date Overview of Home Prices in Virginia.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2025). HUD No. 25-145: 2026 FHA Loan Limits.
Federal Housing Finance Agency. (2025). FHFA Announces Conforming Loan Limit Values for 2026.
Fairfax County Tax Administration. (2026). Real Estate Tax Rates.
Loudoun County. (2025). Taxes in Loudoun County.
Virginia General Assembly. (2026). Virginia Code Title 58.1 Chapter 8: State Recordation Tax.
Virginia Housing. (2025). Lending Limits and Requirements: DPA Grant.
Virginia Housing. (2026). FirstHome Dream Announcement.
USDA Rural Development. (2026). Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program.
Insure.com. (2026). Average Cost of Homeowners Insurance in Virginia.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2025). ACS 1-Year Estimates Press Release.
Casey brings 28 years of comprehensive mortgage industry experience spanning operations, compliance, and capital markets to AmeriSave. She has led teams across disclosure, compliance, processing, underwriting, and post-closing while navigating three market crashes since 1998, and previously served as Managing Partner at Groundwork Consulting LLC. Based in Texas, specializes in risk mitigation, pricing integrity, and translating complex market dynamics into actionable borrower guidance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Virginia’s statewide median home value sits at $403,500, per U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data, and the median sale price as of the most recent Virginia REALTORS® report is $452,060. At a 6.50% illustrative rate with 20% down on the median sale price, the principal-and-interest payment would run roughly $2,353 per month on a $361,648 loan. Adding the statewide effective property tax rate of 0.70% and average insurance of $2,135 per year brings an estimated PITI to roughly $2,793 per month. This statewide average, however, covers a range from approximately $1,415 in rural Bath County up to $5,830 in Fairfax County, so the meaningful number is always the one built from your specific county, price, and program.
HUD’s current FHA limits range from $541,287 in roughly 65 rural Virginia counties up to $1,249,125 in 17 Northern Virginia jurisdictions. The practical effect is that a buyer in a floor-tier county who needs to borrow more than $541,287 must either increase the down payment to stay within FHA terms, move to a conventional loan with private mortgage insurance, or accept jumbo pricing. A buyer in a ceiling-tier county can access FHA’s 3.5% minimum down payment on loans up to $1,249,125. The ceiling also determines when a conventional loan transitions from conforming to jumbo, crossing the FHFA baseline of $832,750 in standard counties or $1,249,125 in high-cost NoVA counties.
Virginia imposes two buyer-side transaction taxes that don't exist in most states. The state deed recordation tax under §58.1-801 is $0.25 per $100 of purchase price. The deed of trust recordation tax under §58.1-803 is $0.25 per $100 of loan amount. Combined, these two taxes add roughly $0.50 per $100 of transaction value on the buyer's side before any local surcharges. The grantor's tax under §58.1-802, nominally the seller's obligation at $0.10 per $100 of sale price, is negotiable in the purchase contract. Northern Virginia's NVTA transportation district adds a further $0.15 per $100 seller cost. Understanding these taxes before making an offer helps avoid closing-day surprises about how much cash is required.
Virginia Housing’s DPA Grant provides 2.5% of the purchase price on FHA loans and 2.0% on conventional loans, and it never requires repayment. To qualify, the buyer must not have owned a home in the preceding three years, must have a credit score of at least 620, must contribute at least 1% of the purchase price, and must purchase a home at $500,000 or below. Income limits vary by region: in the Washington and Arlington areas, the limit is $148,000 for one-to-two-person households and $174,000 for households of three or more. Because the grant reduces the loan amount directly, it produces a permanent monthly payment reduction rather than a deferred or conditional benefit.
FirstHome Dream is a Virginia Housing program that reduces the posted interest rate by two full percentage points for qualifying first-generation buyers. The definition of first-generation is stricter than first-time home buyer status: both the borrower and their parents must have never owned a home, or must not have owned within the preceding three years. Completion of HUD-approved housing counseling is required. The program launched statewide in January and applies to Virginia Housing first mortgage products. At two points below a 6.50% illustrative rate, for example, the effective rate would be 4.50%, a reduction that saves roughly $313 per month on a $250,000 loan compared to the unassisted rate, based on 30-year fixed amortization at each rate. Buyers who meet the eligibility criteria should evaluate this program before assuming that market-rate financing is their only option.
A complete Virginia PITI payment has four components, each requiring state-specific data. Principal and interest: calculated from your loan amount, rate, and term. Property tax escrow: your county’s effective rate times your home value, divided by 12; rates range from 0.40% in Prince Edward County to 1.01% in Fairfax County and Roanoke City. Homeowners insurance escrow: Virginia’s average runs $2,135 to $2,738 per year depending on coverage level. Mortgage insurance: FHA loans carry a 0.55% annual MIP on the loan balance for standard scenarios; conventional loans with less than 20% down carry PMI based on credit and LTV. Summing these four gives your full monthly obligation. Using county tax rates rather than the statewide average, and Virginia-sourced insurance data, produces a calculation that's meaningfully more accurate than any generic national estimate.
USDA Section 502 Guaranteed Loans are available in eligible rural areas of Virginia with no down payment required. The program’s baseline income limit is $112,450 for households of one to four people, set at 115% of area median income. Urban jurisdictions (including Northern Virginia localities, Richmond City, Norfolk City, and Virginia Beach City) are generally not designated as rural-eligible areas, so access to this program depends heavily on location. Buyers in smaller communities, mountain counties, and rural western Virginia are most likely to qualify for both property location eligibility and income qualification. Checking a specific property’s USDA eligibility map is a necessary step before assuming this program applies.