Pros and Cons of Living in Richmond
Richmond's genuine trade-off is a real, diversified economic base (state government, VCU/VCU Health, and a growing finance/business sector) and meaningfully more affordable housing than several peer metros, against a real, disclosed property-crime concern, the highest real estate tax rate among core Richmond-region jurisdictions, and a genuine, still-unresolved civic conversation about Richmond's Confederate-capital history.
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Learn morePro: A Genuinely Diversified, Real Economic Base
As established in the base record and the jobs-economy topic page in the companion file, Richmond's economy runs on three real, distinct pillars: state government (Virginia's actual capital, 1,000+ state jobs averaging $111,380/year), VCU/VCU Health (a $15.8 billion regional economic impact, roughly 1 in 12 Richmond-metro jobs), and a real, growing finance/business sector (Dominion Energy's actual Richmond HQ, Capital One's large West Creek campus, and CoStar Group's new ~1-million-square-foot Richmond global operations HQ completing spring 2026). This is a genuinely diversified base, not a single-industry economy.
Pro: Meaningfully More Affordable Housing Than Several Peer Metros
Richmond's $387,000-$395,000 median home sale price runs meaningfully below several other metros built in this project -- for instance, Denver's $612,000-$640,000 range -- a real, substantive affordability advantage, alongside real, if genuinely disputed, positioning on cost-of-living index rankings (see cost-of-living topic page for the full disclosed disagreement).
Con: A Real, Meaningful Property-Crime Concern
As detailed on the crime-safety topic page, Richmond's property crime rate ran 80.6% above the national average in 2025 -- a real, disclosed concern that shouldn't be minimized by the more reassuring violent-crime figure (6.2% below the national average). This is a genuine trade-off against the economic and affordability advantages above.
Con: The Highest Real Estate Tax Rate Among Core Richmond-Region Jurisdictions
Richmond's $1.20-per-$100 real estate tax rate runs meaningfully above the surrounding counties often marketed as part of "Greater Richmond" -- Henrico ($0.83), Chesterfield ($0.91), and Hanover ($0.81) -- a real, structural cost specific to living inside the city itself rather than its suburbs.
Con: A Genuine, Still-Unresolved Civic Conversation About Confederate History
Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy and a major historical slave market -- real, weighty history that remains a genuine, current civic conversation rather than a closed chapter. Five Confederate statues came down from Monument Avenue in 2020-2021, and a new Emancipation and Freedom Monument was dedicated in 2021, but the city still had no finalized plan for Monument Avenue's future as of an April 2024 report. This is disclosed here factually, not as an argument for or against relocating -- some movers will find this history and its ongoing reckoning meaningful and important to engage with; others may simply want to know it's a real, live topic before arriving.
Key takeaways
- Pro: a genuinely diversified economic base -- real state-government employment, VCU/VCU Health's $15.8B regional impact, and a growing finance/business sector anchored by Dominion Energy, Capital One's West Creek campus, and CoStar Group's new Richmond HQ.
- Pro: meaningfully more affordable housing than several other metros in this project (e.g., Denver's $612K-$640K vs. Richmond's $387K-$395K).
- Con: a real, meaningful property-crime concern -- 80.6% above the national average in 2025, a genuine trade-off not offset by the more reassuring violent-crime figure alone.
- Con: Richmond's real estate tax rate ($1.20/$100) is the highest among core Richmond-region jurisdictions, meaningfully above Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover counties.
- Con (context, not a value judgment): Richmond's Confederate-capital history and its monument-removal reckoning remain a real, current, unresolved civic conversation -- disclosed factually for anyone weighing a move.
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