I'm a big fan of living in Oregon Hill. I can walk to the bars and the river in 10 minutes. There are some houses with enough back yard to let dogs run and a central park that is used for dog exercise too. The 2 houses that were for sale are now pending but it's worth keeping an eye out for listings here. Owner occupied is increasing and families are moving in.

I don't really trust anywhere where people walk the street instead of the sidewalk. There's only one reason you walk up the side of driver side doors 😂

Where are you coming from? I think that’s a huge factor in how things are going to feel to you. Coming from NYC, Short Pump makes my teeth itch. Sooooo many cars and all the housing is so strangely new. Just a matter of preference, of course. Obviously some prefer new builds and car infrastructure.

We moved to Northside, which is technically “the city,” but again as someone from NYC, it feels like the suburbs, in a good way. Lawns, backyards, cute houses, safe to walk and run. Not a ton to walk to, but you are a few minutes’ drive from anywhere. I’m genuinely not sure what the negatives are that people are referring to… which again comes back to how what you are used to will affect how you feel in different parts of Richmond.

If I were you, I’d look at real estate listings for houses that meet your criteria and then just drive to them and check out the neighborhoods on your own. That will give you a better idea of what you want to tell your realtor.

You can't compare anywhere in the US to San Francisco. It's a modern humanitarian crisis.

I rented in the city for 15 years, but when it came time to buy, I moved out to Henrico. Lower taxes, more house/yard for your dollar. Someone mentioned the lack of sidewalks, but there are parts getting better (I'm in 23233 and there are finally connecting sidewalks on some main roads). I'm not far off of an exit for 64, so it's about 20 minutes to downtown.

Don't listen to the grumps - I miss the convenience of living in the city, and I feel like the complaints people have are along the lines of most cities (although our public transportation really does suck, that is a real complaint). I never intended to move here permanently, but I'm still here almost 20 years later! Welcome, and congrats to your husband on the dream fellowship!

When we were kids we were taught that if you venture into the letter streets there’s a good chance you’re not coming back in one piece. It’s gotten a little safer and about 100x as expensive since then.

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Wow people actually read all the other moving post and news flash it makes us look like a-holes haha. Honestly Richmond is great! $350k in the city itself is going to be in a interesting area haha. Don’t move to any area around an area with COURT spelled out. But honestly living on either side of the city in the suburbs will give more bang for you buck and most area are less than 30 minute drive in. You can definitely live without a car in the city, but you will enjoy your life more if you have one.

I moved to RVA under similar circumstances in 2019. I moved back to NoVa last year. The city was charming for maybe 1.5-2 years but in the end I didn't think twice about leaving. That should tell you what you need to know.

I grew up in Mechanicsville and live there now, but spent 7 years in my young adult years in the city, mostly Bellevue.

I loved my house in Bellevue and the neighborhood, but I don’t miss the various old house issues I encountered. I think Bellevue and nearby Lakeside would fit the bill from what you described. City wise, the public utilities are super annoying to deal with if you ever have any issues, and many people end up with some sort of issue at some point. Gas and water are more expensive in the city than in the counties as well (though I think Henrico uses Richmond gas also).

I consider housing to be much more affordable for quality in the counties, but you may end up sacrificing some of the other amenities (walkability mainly). Mechanicsville is a good option for accessibility to downtown, though many here will badmouth for political reasons. I have never had trouble up here as a liberal minded person with established friendships, but if you are looking to make likeminded friends from scratch it might be more tricky. Unless of course you are more conservative leaning, then you will fit in fairly easily.

Absolutely. I work in relocations and no matter how well I can describe an area and dial in the specific needs of my clients to match a certain area of Richmond, nothing beats getting shoes to pavement in a neighborhood and seeing how it feels to you.

Indeed. I'd have gone with a bit of "I don't know the answer, but I promise I've seen it in some posts before"

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I’ve lived in 7 different states and Richmond is significantly worse than my other cities in every metric I listed.

I deliberately left out how awful renting is here because OP won’t be renting. Both tenant-landlord laws and workplace protection laws here in Virginia are vastly inferior to every other state I’ve lived in.

After 6 years, I’m ready to exit honestly. I won’t compare RVA to NYC because that’s ridiculous. RVA is inferior to most cities in the 500,000 population or less category. As wonderful as museums, breweries, and parks are, I need quality basics.

Contact Ian Fleck if you need a realtor.
Nevermind I saw you already have one, I like the city, but I prefer the suburbs.

For what you describe, I'd look at the city neighborhoods along the south side of the river. Westover Hills, Stratford Hills, Oxford, Woodland Heights/Park, Southampton, etc.

The wealthy white people of the state used the Dillon rule, the outlawing of annexation, and independent city law unique to Virginia to keep all of the cities needs within city limits but it’s benefits accesable to anyone who can drive in and out.

It has a lot of the needs of larger metros but not the resources to fix them.

There are tons of poor people in town but because the rich people fled across imaginary borders and into the suburbs the money to address these issues is kept out of reach.

So the schools generally suck, utilities don’t work, and our government is populated by openly corrupt locals, resume builders, and naive disinterested weirdos.

I agree. There was one on 32nd and clay that was listed at the peak of the housing market for 700 but was also 4200 sqft and in the nicest part of church hill (IMO) that I would say was expensive but worth it if you had the money.

But the one I’m seeing now is one of those that you mention that were going for 400-500 at the peak of the market, not 700K for a 2400 sqft house behind ocean grocery, with no garage, and interest rates at their current level

It looks like they even sold 2 there in the past couple of months for 600k which is just as insane to me.

I very much enjoy living in church hill and have a vastly different experience living here than it seems the person I replied to does, but if I had the money to afford a 700k house I wouldn’t think it was money well spent.

Medical fellowship almost certainly = VCU

Visiting and seeing with your own eyes will be a huge help. It's quite difficult to visualize and a realtor is going to throw options at you that you're absolutely opposed to.

There are a handful of houses in church hill that I think are well worth 700k, but they all have been renovated in and out, have yards and garages. Those are few and far between in church hill though.

Instead they slap new siding on a house that's tilted to the side and cash out for 400/500k

1. Ignore the Debbie and Daniel Downers. RVA is a pleasant, friendly, and chill area. Welcome!

2. Where you live and what type of neighborhood you’re comfortable living in are personal choices. For our decision, I made a map using felt.com of all the amenities that were important to me and how far they are in different neighborhoods. Here is the map I made of murders in Richmond in 2022.

3. That being said, all the areas you’ve listed are quite fine. Most property crimes are because an opportunity presents itself. Don’t leave your Gucci handbag on the hood of your car and you’ll be fine.

Please DM if you have other questions

Its wild reading the first half of this and then seeing a developer is trying to sell a house on pink for $700k

There's a long, Iong, tradition of people "established" in Richmond hating anything that helps Richmond grow or change. It's just always been that way, and granted theres usually nuanced reasons why theyre probably right on some level. That said, there's a recent history of incredible violence that I feel the city has only in the past few years started to move out of the shadow of (third and first per capita for murder and violent crime in the -country- in the 90s) as well as a long "tradition" of hilariously corrupt local government.

Now all that said, welcome! This is the smallest big city ever, and it's pretty great in a lot of ways! As far as "bad" areas, the various Courts around the city are unfortunately pretty impoverished projects that remain violent. You'll see them on the map, places like Gilpin, Creighton, Mosby court are all projects that as you get closer to relative value of your house falls because they're "bad neighborhoods." I currently live in Manchester right across the Mayo Bridge and it's going through pretty hefty gentrification, with all the good and bad that involves, but it's a lovely area that I honestly hope to stay in unless they keep shitting out hideous apartment buildings no one asked for.

As for 21st-29th streets there's a funny thing that happens because both exist in the city just depending on which side of the river you're on (that's because Manchester and south Richmond back in the 18th and 19th centuries used to be their own cities before getting absorbed by Richmond proper). The south side is vibrant burb that like most of Richmond gets "worse" the closer to the courts/midlothian tnpk/Hull Street i.e. the further south you get. Lots of young families, 20-25 minute commute anywhere, potentially shorter if you take the toll roads. In Richmond proper that would be Churchill, which is much the same as forest hill/south side, except the further north you go the "worse" it gets, the nearer to nine mile road it's really block to block. That goes for Northside/lakeside as well.

One thing I'd say is avoid the fan and the museum district. Those areas are "clout" areas and/or inundated with students thus, vastly overpriced. Id also avoid short pump, its everything bad about the burbs, it -will- be a 30 minute commute to the city during rush hours (which seems to be 8-9am and 3:30 to 6pm these days) and is just telatively lifeless compared to the city proper. Henrico is henrico, its fine but huge, the areas it has in it are very very varied. I hope I helped in some way! I'd love to buy house here too, and the neighborhoods you listed are exactly where I'd look as well, especially forest hill/church hill.

Ps: it takes 10 to 15 minutes to get anywhere in the city just by rule of thumb 😂 Source: born and raised here through all the good bad and ugly.