BLACKSBURG, Va. – It’s well known that Blacksburg has many issues when it comes to housing. Availability, affordability and quality are all concerns among students and locals.
30 years ago, if you wanted to rent one of these apartments behind me, it would cost roughly $500 to $600. But in 2026, the average rent in Blacksburg is almost $2,000.
“You have some nicer, newer, more luxury-catered apartment complexes that will have rent sometimes as high as $1,500 per bedroom,” said James Craighead, a RE/MAX associate broker. “And then you have a lot of older inventory that’s been unupdated, potentially doesn’t even have air conditioning. And you don’t really have anything in between that.”
“Somewhere in that kind of like $500, $600 range, just like there’s not too much,” said John Varlas, a senior at Virginia Tech. “And if there is, it’s nowhere close to campus.”
“A lot of those apartments are super expensive or you get kind of very dirty, cheaper ones,” said Jenna Cameron, a senior at Virginia Tech. “So there are kind of two different extremes that are kind of hard to find it kind of in the middle.”
The low vacancy rate is such an issue that Blacksburg has the highest pre-lease rate in the country.
“Institutional studies showed that we had the strongest pre-lease rate, with 93% of our inventory rented already for fall semester in March of 2025,” Craighead said. “By June, 99% was rented, which is also the strongest nationally.”
“As a freshman, by October, they’re like, you need to have your lease signed,” said Mia Barlotta, a senior at Virginia Tech. “I’m like, I don’t even know who my friends are yet.”
“You have about two to three months to really find who you’re going to live with the next year, where you’re going to live,” Cameron said. “And it kind of just a lot of new information, trying to find someone, find housing.”
The combination of high prices and low availability makes the idea of staying in Blacksburg and homeownership seem like an impossibility.
“I represent a ton of first-time homebuyers, and traditionally somebody will buy something in one of the farther out places,” Craighead said. “And then once they get further into life and their careers, then they can afford something in Blacksburg. But usually when it comes out to start, it’s above their budget and they have to go somewhere a little cheaper.”
“That definitely seems impossible,” Barlotta said. “I’ve never even considered that as an option. I love it here, and I’m sad to leave in the spring. But I’m definitely kind of ready to get out of here. And I don’t really view it as an option because it is very expensive to live here.”
Construction is happening around town, but if inventory does not increase significantly, it may cost more to live here than in some areas of Northern Virginia.
Virginia Tech has also recently announced a plan to update and refurbish much of the on-campus housing over the next decade.