Masontown 26542

Preston County, WV · 1,113 properties · updated 7/26/2026

Should you buy here?buyer-timing lens

70affordability /100

Buyer leverage is balanced; weigh payment burden and the 3-lens valuation before bidding.

Payment burden

18.1%

affordable

Days on market

175

daily

Price cuts

0.0%

of active

Valuation

+121.8%

vs assessor

Look up an address

/100

stable

hot · balanced · prices rising year-over-year.

Verdict grades housing conditions; buyer-timing, investor cash-flow, supply-tightness and county macro scores answer different questions — each in its own section.

Buyer / sellerbuyer-timing lens

Balanced Market

DOM: 81d (stable) · Market Dynamics rolling median · hourly

Score Components

Payment Burden (25%)0

Valuation Gap (25%)100

Supply & Demand (20%)100

Buy vs Rent (15%)25

Cancellation Rate (10%)50

Days on Market (5%)75

Balanced market in 26542. List price is roughly fair — focus on condition and value. Payment burden: 18.3% of median income. Median days on market: 81. Renting is approximately 16% cheaper than buying (price-to-rent ratio: 13.9). Market appears 35% overpriced vs. assessed values.

Balanced market conditions. Prices roughly aligned with fundamentals — similar to stable periods in 2014-2015.

HOTBALANCED

Market is running hot with fast-moving inventory. Conditions are balanced between buyers and sellers. Prices up 4.1% YoY.

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<p style="font:12px system-ui;margin:4px 0 0"><a href="https://lotvox.com/morgantown/zip/26542?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=backlink">Masontown 26542 housing market data</a> by <a href="https://lotvox.com/">Lotvox</a></p>

Market snapshoteach number, once

Median price

$172,415

▴ 4.1% YoY

Days on market

175

daily · zip_data

Median rent

$1,063

ZORI

Investor score

87/100

cash-flow lens

Active listings

90-day

Valuation3 lenses, different anchors

vs assessor

+121.8%

Market vs assessed value — a tax-roll lag, not a deal signal.

Avg assessor$382,500

county CAMA · properties_v

vs income

—

Fair-value model not available for this market.

fair_value_scores · 10-state coverage

vs county comps

+64.8%

County-wide market — the widest, slowest signal.

Preston+64.8%

Monongalia+36.6%

Lotvox comps · mv_valuation_gap

Read together: Above county comps but sustainable on local incomes.

Pricing detail

Price / sqft$106

Price-to-income3.0×

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How 26542 ranks in WV

percentile vs all WV ZIPs

Comparative ranking not available for this ZIP.

Affordability, supply & momentum

12SUPPLY

OversuppliedSupply Tightness

Ample inventory — buyers have time and leverage to negotiate.

Months of Supply30.0 mo

Days on Market175d

Inv vs History+67.2%

Listing Density8.3/1k

Market dynamics

Price cut %0.0%

Momentumhot

LeverageBALANCED

Months of supply30

Sales (90d)0

Investment analysis

Median rent$1,063

Price-to-rent13.9

Est. cap rate4.7%

Buy vs rentfavors buying

Livability

Walk score3

Transit score8

Bike score—

Historical trends

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Price bandsmix-shift

Price Bands — the median behind the median

A single median rises whenever expensive homes become a bigger share of what sells, even if no tier got more expensive. These are the tiers underneath it, computed from recorded arms-length deed transactions in Preston.

Current tiers · 12 months to Invalid Datefloor 10 sales/tier

7 tiers had too few sales at every level and are left blank rather than estimated.

Tier	Median	$/sqft	Sales	Share	Source
Under $250k	—	—	—	—	fewer than 10 sales at zip, county and metro level
$250k–$500k	—	—	—	—	fewer than 10 sales at zip, county and metro level
$500k–$750k	—	—	—	—	fewer than 10 sales at zip, county and metro level
$750k–$1M	—	—	—	—	fewer than 10 sales at zip, county and metro level
$1M–$1.5M	—	—	—	—	fewer than 10 sales at zip, county and metro level
$1.5M–$2M	—	—	—	—	fewer than 10 sales at zip, county and metro level
$2M+	—	—	—	—	fewer than 10 sales at zip, county and metro level

No mix-shift history for this area. no geography from this ZIP up to metro has 8+ quarters of 10+ recorded arms-length sales across at least 4 price tiers. Trends are drawn only from recorded transactions; the last-sale snapshot above cannot carry a time series, because a property that sold twice keeps only its latest sale — which drags the history upward through the tiers and would invent the very mix shift this section exists to test for.

National context — not local

NAR's aggregate existing-home median for the United States and the South census region. This is the figure the tiers above are a check on. It is national/regional and says nothing about 26542.

United States
South

Copyright, National Association of Realtors. Reprinted with permission. Retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRED publishes a rolling 13-month window for these series.

Tiers computed from Lotvox parcel and deed substrate through Aug 25 (10 later months withheld as partially loaded). Sample floor 10 sales per tier; below it a figure is drawn from the county or metro and labelled, or left blank. Multi-parcel bulk deeds and duplicate records are excluded.

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Preston County contextmacro · jobs · debt · migration

ZIP score grades housing; county score adds macro distress (jobs, debt, poverty). They answer different questions.

This ZIP code crosses county lines. Property data shows Preston (92.5%) and Monongalia (7.5%). County metrics below are shown separately for each county.

Preston (92.5%)

Monongalia (7.5%)

ZIP 26542→2 counties

12-Month Direction

+1Stable

Confidence

100%

DeterioratingStableImproving

BuildersLens Market Intelligence

Market Score

54· Fair

Market Score grades housing-market conditions (affordability, valuation, supply). The county Healthy/Moderate/Distressed badge measures economic distress (jobs, debt, poverty) — the two can read differently.

Payment Burden75

14.9%

affordable

Source: Lotvox · Updated 2026-05-15

Valuation19

+64.8%

overvalued

Source: Lotvox comps · Updated 2026-05-15

Supply/Demand51

5.6 mo

buyer

Source: Lotvox MLS · Updated 2026-05-15

Insurance Risk

21/100

low_risk

Source: FEMA/NFIP · Updated 2026-04

County distress indicators

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Economic indicators are mixed relative to comparable U.S. counties.

Unemployment Rate

Near national averages

Source: BLS LAUS · 2026-0667d ago

Poverty Rate

Higher than many comparable counties

Median Household Income

Near national averages

Cost of Living (RPP)

Lower than most U.S. counties

Home Value (ZHVI)$138,660

County data: BLS, Census ACS, CDC, FBI UCR, Federal Reserve, USDA · Coverage derived from property records · Counties with <2% coverage excluded as likely data errors