Martinsville VA New Construction Homes: Why Supply Is Limited

"People around the world don't wake up thinking about Henry County every day," County Administrator Dale Wagoner told Cardinal News this summer. "So we've got to do these things and make them notice."

The "thing" was a vote in June 2026 by the Henry County Board of Supervisors to waive residential building fees until July 1, 2028, on any construction or renovation of $100,000 or more. On a portal, that reads like a county clearing the way for a wave of new homes. The county's own planning director describes the savings as small. Once you see why, the Martinsville-area market makes more sense, and so does the type of house you're most likely to end up buying here.

A Fee Waiver Worth About a Couple Hundred Dollars

Before the waiver, Henry County charged eight cents per square foot in residential fees. Lee Clark, the county's director of planning, zoning and building inspections, told Cardinal News that came to "a couple hundred dollars" for a homebuilder. He called the waiver a "quick and easy way" to encourage residential construction because it costs the county and taxpayers nothing.

The people closest to construction agree about the scale. In the same report, county officials and local housing leaders said the waiver might not directly increase building, because the fees are small next to the cost of a house. Joy Wood, president of the newly formed South Central Virginia Home Builders Association, called it "more of a gesture to state publicly that Henry County is open for business and open for construction."

A gesture still has a purpose. The county is matching new jobs with a push for housing. Over the past year, Henry County announced three major projects, Rural King, Fokuku Korea and Nathan Trotter, which officials said represent an estimated $123.9 million in investment, with economic development projects bringing in 328 jobs. "When you've got good jobs and … not enough desirable housing for people to live, that's a problem, and it needs to be fixed," Clark said.

The demand is already showing up in commuting data. About 40% of the people who work in Martinsville and Henry County live somewhere else. According to 2023 data, the most recent the county has collected, that is almost 10,000 workers.

Where the Real Cost Sits

The bigger cost is getting raw land ready to build on. A local realty company president told Cardinal News there is plenty of land for homes in Henry County, but it often needs all of its infrastructure installed before a house can go up:

• streets
• curbing
• water
• sewer

"To do all this, you know, you're going to have to find money," he said.

Wagoner made the same point from the developer's side. On a project like an apartment complex of nearly 50 units that needs roads, water and sewer, waived fees add up faster and can make a much bigger difference. Scale is the logic here. A single-lot builder saves a couple hundred dollars. A builder putting utilities into a whole site carries costs large enough for any relief to register.

History explains why so little infrastructure is waiting in the ground. When the textile industry moved overseas, workers followed the jobs out of the area. The same realty president recalled that at one point in the mid-1990s and early 2000s there were 750 to 800 houses on the market. With that much existing supply and a struggling economy, residential construction fell off. "It's made the problem escalate because we haven't been building them all along," Wagoner said.

The county's permit records show how little building is happening now. Henry County issued 40 building permits for new homes between July 2024 and June 2025. In 2026, it had issued 13 through the end of May.

So New Housing Comes From Old Buildings and Small Batches

When building on raw land is expensive, new homes show up wherever infrastructure already exists. In Martinsville, that means old buildings on existing streets and cleared lots in established neighborhoods. The Martinsville-Henry County EDC's housing page lists the recent projects, and the pattern is easy to spot.

Four of these six projects are adaptive reuse by the MHC Historic Collective. The group turned the Fieldale School and the John Redd Smith School into one- and two-bedroom apartments and kept original features like slate chalkboards. The EDC still lists One Ellsworth, which adds one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments above commercial space Uptown, with a third-quarter 2026 completion date. We have not confirmed whether it has opened. All four of those reuse projects plug into streets and utilities that were already there, and all four are rentals.

The for-sale single-family projects are small, and community or nonprofit partners are behind them. The Five Points Neighborhood brought ten two-bedroom modular homes built by Nationwide Homes, now Cavco, with partners including United Way of Henry County & Martinsville, Virginia Housing, The Harvest Foundation, the City of Martinsville and the EDC. In September 2026, the Fuller Center dedicated two affordable modular homes in Martinsville, according to the Henry County Enterprise.

Villa Heights shows what a new house actually costs to build here. Henry County tore down 16 unsafe homes in the area in 2024. In December 2025, officials cut the ribbon on the first four of 13 planned houses on Stultz Road, built by Taylor Construction. Two have two bedrooms and two have three. Cardinal News reported they were priced between $170,000 and $185,000, around what it cost to build them, because the county's goal was improving the housing outlook rather than making a profit. County leaders described the project as a yearslong effort that continues as funds become available. As of the July 2026 report, four houses had been built.

Those prices come from a public program building on cleared lots in an established neighborhood, with no profit built in. A private builder who has to buy land, install utilities and earn a margin starts from a higher number. Thirteen permits in five months fits that math.

What That Means When You're Shopping

Put those pieces together, and buying a home in Martinsville or Henry County mostly means buying an existing house, often an older one. Wagoner put it directly: "We have people moving back here and all we have is older stock of house or no stock at all." The realty president quoted by Cardinal News added that many younger buyers "want new, clean … they don't want to fool with an old home."

An existing home renovated to move-in condition is the closest thing to "new, clean" most buyers will find here. That shapes how owner-occupants and investors should read a listing:

1. Condition matters more than age. When nearly everything for sale is older, the homes that stand out are the ones where the systems have been updated. An inspection tells you which updates are real and which are cosmetic.
2. Utilities belong in the first conversation. The infrastructure that slows new construction also varies from one existing property to the next. Ask early whether a home or lot is on public water and sewer or on its own systems, and how it reaches the road.
3. Land listings need an infrastructure budget. If you're thinking about building, the price of the lot is only the starting point. The streets, water and sewer that local builders describe as the real expense are what turn a parcel into a homesite.
4. Rentals are where the new product is. If you want new construction and owning can wait, nearly all of the recently finished housing in the table above is apartments.

For context, Virginia's statewide median sold price was $449,000 in August 2026, up 4.4% from a year earlier, and active listings statewide were up 13.8%, according to Virginia REALTORS. We could not find a published local breakdown for Martinsville or Henry County for recent months, so local pricing here comes from comparable sales rather than a headline median.

What Could Change, and What Hasn't Yet

The fee waiver was described as a first step. In July, Wagoner said the next housing steps would be planned over the following six to 12 months. Clark said those steps would be more substantial and would require investment and policy decisions by the Board of Supervisors. Ideas under consideration included tax rebates for people who build houses and help for developers with infrastructure. As of mid-October 2026, we have found no record that either one has been adopted.

Of those ideas, infrastructure help goes straight at the cost the fee waiver doesn't touch. If the county ends up sharing the cost of roads, water and sewer, the 40-permits-a-year pace has a real reason to change. Meanwhile, the South Central Virginia Home Builders Association, formed in 2026 to cover Martinsville, Henry County, Danville, Pittsylvania County and Halifax County, gives builders a regional group to push for solutions.

Quick Answers

Does the fee waiver lower the price of a new home in Henry County? The old fee was eight cents per square foot, which the county estimates at a couple hundred dollars per home, so any effect on a home's price is small.

Which projects qualify for the waiver? Construction or renovation of $100,000 or more, through July 1, 2028.

Are any newly built homes for sale? They exist in small numbers, mostly through community programs like Villa Heights, where homes are capped at $200,000. Contact the program directly to check what's currently available.

If you're weighing an older Martinsville home, a renovation project or a piece of land that still needs utilities, Alexandra Taylor can go through the comparable sales, the repair scope and the infrastructure questions with you before you make an offer. Schedule a free consultation, or get your instant home valuation if you already own here and want to know how your house compares.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.