This story was reported and written by WHRO media partner Williamsburg Watch.
Barbara Watson, social services director for James City County, said the fastest growing group of people she serves are seniors who can no longer afford to live in the county.
The service workers the county relies on for its tourism and retail services are also struggling to keep up — more than 4,000 families spend more than 35% of their income on rent, according to county figures.
Williamsburg and York County face similar issues.
A survey of York County residents released this month found 70% thought housing was no longer affordable in the county. A 2021 workforce study by the city of Williamsburg concluded one-third of city households were spending too much on their housing.
“We have seniors who were long-term residents here. They don't make a lot of money, they’re living on Social Security and they’re struggling with the cost of housing and food and utilities and medicine,” Watson told us. “Their homes are in disrepair because they can't afford to keep them up. But they also can't afford to go anywhere else.”
At the other end of the spectrum are people who work two to three low-paying service jobs and can’t afford surging rent prices or childcare, she said.
James City County data showed the average rent for a two-bedroom home or apartment was above $1,300 a month in 2024.
The median sales price for a home in James City surged 74% from January 2016 to June 2025, to $485,000, according to the Virginia Association of Realtors. Williamsburg home prices increased 64% to $377,000 in the same time frame, while York County’s increased 75% to $477,500, the Realtors’ monthly survey showed.
Real estate taxes have shot up along with rising home assessments. James City County’s average tax bill has increased 21% over the past two years.
Housing affordability is not a new issue for the Historic Triangle, even before the post-COVID surge in mortgage rates and construction costs.
The area has seen a surge of growth from people attracted to its natural and cultural attractions, good schools and low crime rates. Those same residents want to protect the semi-rural character of the area, making home construction more difficult and costly.
“It’s a supply and demand” issue, said G. Stephen Roane, Jr., the supervisor representing York County’s 4th district.
James City County organized a task force on workforce housing that worked from 2017 to 2019 studying the problems, evaluating the causes and proposing solutions. Six years later, many of those recommendations have not been implemented.
The task force, comprising volunteer citizens from a variety of backgrounds, said more than 8,000 households — a quarter of the county — were spending too much for housing in 2017, warning the county cannot be a diverse community “if our community is segregated by income, race or other factors.”
Task force members also warned that lack of affordable housing will hurt the county’s economy because it will become increasingly difficult for businesses to attract the workforce it needs, including service workers, teachers and police.
Because many of the people who work here don’t live here — only about 10% of Williamsburg workers live there, the city estimated — they are placing extra burdens on highways from their daily commutes.
More than 17,000 people were commuting to James City County from other areas in 2017, the task force found.
In our next installment, we will explore how local opposition to development drives home costs.
