Living in Glen Allen, VA

Henrico County (unincorporated CDP; no independent municipal government)

Glen Allen's identity in the Richmond region runs through two genuinely distinct anchors: a real, substantial corporate-employment base at Innsbrook Corporate Center, and a real, award-winning retirement-housing community at Chickahominy Falls. Innsbrook -- an 800-acre master-planned business park founded in 1979 at the confluence of I-64 and I-295 -- hosts over 7 million square feet of office space, more than 400 companies, and roughly 22,000 employees, making it the Richmond region's second-largest employment center. Chickahominy Falls, a 400-home active-adult (55+) community built on former farmland with a working farm, farmhouse, and farmer's market alongside a full amenity clubhouse, was named Virginia's Community of the Year in 2020 and won NAHB's 2022 Silver Award for Community of the Year -- a genuine, dated, substantial retirement-housing anchor. Like Short Pump in the same batch, Glen Allen is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) within Henrico County with no municipal government of its own, and it inherits the county's tax structure directly: a 6.0% combined sales tax rate and a $0.85-per-$100 real estate tax rate for 2026, both meaningfully below Richmond city's $1.20 rate. Schools run genuinely strong: Deep Run High School (which carries a Glen Allen, VA 23059 mailing address even though it also serves large parts of the neighboring Short Pump CDP) is Niche-ranked #1 in Henrico County with an A+ grade, and Glen Allen High School is separately ranked #2 in the county. Housing carries a real, disclosed measurement tension this pass: Redfin's median sale price ($391,798, April 2026) was down a substantial 17.1% year over year, while Zillow's separate average-home-value estimate ($520,345, June 2026) was actually up 0.5% -- two different methodologies pointing in different directions, disclosed rather than reconciled to one number. Population figures carry their own real, disclosed cross-source tension: Census QuickFacts cites 16,187 for 2020, while World Population Review's own growth-rate math uses a lower 14,842 base to reach its 2025 estimate of 17,270. Glen Allen's median age (40.1) and 65-plus population share (13.2%-18% depending on source, with Niche's own figure at 18%) both run meaningfully higher than Short Pump's in this same batch -- directly informing this record's decision to include a full retiring topic page rather than a best-areas one. Glen Allen shares Henrico County's genuinely inland hazard profile -- real, low-frequency tornado risk and remnant-tropical-system flood history -- not hurricane-landfall or storm-surge risk.

Explore Glen Allen in depth

• Moving to Glen Allen: Pros, Cons & What to Know
• Cost of Living in Glen Allen
• Housing in Glen Allen
• Taxes & Insurance in Glen Allen
• Climate in Glen Allen
• Schools & Families in Glen Allen
• Healthcare & Safety in Glen Allen
• Pros and Cons of Living in Glen Allen
• Retiring in Glen Allen

Housing

Taxes

The tradeoffs

Who this fits

Best for: Families and professionals wanting direct access to Innsbrook Corporate Center's roughly 22,000-job corporate-employment base, genuinely top-ranked Henrico County public schools, and Henrico's lower property tax rate than Richmond city -- and retirees specifically drawn to Chickahominy Falls' real, award-winning 55+ agri-community concept rather than a generic assisted-living-only option.

Maybe not for you if: Buyers wanting a single, clean, unambiguous housing-price trend should understand this record's real, disclosed tension between Redfin's declining median sale price and Zillow's separately rising average-value estimate before assuming either figure alone tells the full story; anyone assuming Glen Allen is its own incorporated city with a downtown and city government should understand its real CDP/unincorporated status honestly, the same structural distinction documented for Short Pump and Henrico County in this dataset.