I looked at a house in church hill. It was absolutely stunning until we saw one of the neighbors and started chatting and she told us about the dead body they found in the alleyway not too long ago

Welcome to Richmond! There are lots of great neighborhoods to be in for runners. Out of curiosity, I fired up Zillow and here are some promising prospects:

• 501 W 24th St, Richmond, VA 23225 | MLS #2300817 | Zillow - right on 24th and Semmes, easy bike ride to VCU Health campus, blocks from the James River Park System
• 4720 Radford Ave, Richmond, VA 23230 | MLS #2230356 | Zillow - this is a little further out close to Henrico County, but you'll be close to a GRTC Pulse station for a quick bus ride downtown
• Looks like there are plenty of options in Northside around Brookland Park Boulevard - there's a bike trail down Richmond-Henrico Turnpike that will get you nearly all the way to the VCU Health campus
• In Lakeside, you'd be close to Bryan Park for running 2329 Clarke St, Henrico, VA 23228 | MLS #2300583 | Zillow

Yes! This is our game plan. A huge help.

I'm a city mouse and wanted to live near the heart of everything, but we still ended up renting for a year because some areas are different block by block and it's hard to tell until you've got boots on the ground.

Good luck and welcome!

If you're looking at the Church Hill area, make sure to visit first. I have a house a 10 - 15 minute walk from the medical center across the Leigh St. Bridge in Church Hill.

The proximity to the hospital is great, but the area abuts a huge swath of section 8 housing (Mosby Court), and many people tell me they feel unsafe around my house after dark. I hear gunshots occasionally, see porch pirates regularly, and fireworks are late into the night *every night* from ~Memorial Day to ~4th of July.

If you walk 2-3 blocks north or east it gets a even worse, and 2-3 blocks south it's very cozy and much safer, so if you're going to be east of the hospital in the city please visit and get a feel for the block and surrounding area first.

I would highly recommend renting for a year, especially with this crazy market you may actually get a house for lower price AND lower interest in the next year.

Imho, I would live in city and not the burbs. Churchill is NOT the burbs, it is city....maybe it was the burbs version of the 1800s HA!

I love churchill and would recommend it...we almost bought there. Rent first and see before biting bullet blind. Forest hill is great too, just less "RVA city walkable" type but it has many positives.

I love RVA and know a lot about the different areas (in my humble opinion) and I love talking and showing people around when I have time. Feel free to message me with any questions or whatever. I've been here for most of my life, lived in city city for over a decade and owned property in a few different neighborhoods + am actively involved in many things city. I'm really really cool.

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Edit: i am NOT a realtor trying to befriend you to get client lol... i make no money off you except for the soft touch encouraging words to donate to the doggos at RACC :)

This is what happens when top leadership gets to choose their level of accountability.

If the crime situation is a consideration, you can browse the crime map, zoom into the area you're interested in, and filter for the classes of offenses you wish.

Make sure y’all use the physicians loan when getting financing.

Good questions!

As a couple (who are also runners) we spent all of 2022 house hunting and it was about what you'd expect. The closer in to the city you get, it's less space, more money, and more people which (generally) means more crime. That's just any city. And yes, the taxes are higher than Henrico. https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/va/richmond/crime and https://spotcrime.com/VA/Richmond give good representations of that, but just like any city, you can feel super safe on one street and super sketch 3 streets over. Take those maps with a grain of salt. It says University of Richmond has a higher crime rate than Church Hill, but at U of R you're more likely to get run over by a 60 year old retiree in an audi than get mugged. In most of the city, just keep your car locked and don't leave valuables sitting out and you'll be fine.

The runner and dog bit is way harder. The farther you go out from the city, the larger yard you'll have, but the less safe the roads are going to be as a runner, so it's a balance. Are you light runners? Or are you talking about 5, 10, 15 miles, marathon training, etc? If you want "I can run a half mile loop around my suburban neighborhood" then there's a lot of options all over the area. If you want "I have almost an infinite number of places where I can run" and easy access to other running groups, then in our experience this year there's basically a box of good options, south of I-64, east of Parham Rd, north of the river, and west of Montrose. If you don't have strava premium, here's the heatmap for richmond: https://imgur.com/a/5OauHDA (south of the river it's really only runnable east of Westover Hills Blvd and north of Forest Hill Ave).

There are tons of neighborhoods to run in, as you can see, but a lot of them are either not safe because of traffic or because of crime. The #1 recommendation I would give is if you can, visit for a weekend and drive around some of these neighborhoods. Feel free to send a DM as my wife and I just spent way too long in this process and am glad to share more details.

(edit: obvi there's some neighborhoods outside of my recommendations but I was trying to give a general idea)

Not sure why, sorry! I’ll dm you and that should hopefully work. Thanks!

In my experience desirable locations in the city are equally as expensive as Henrico, more expensive than Chesterfield and Mechanicsville.

Moved into Bellevue 2 years ago and absolutely love the neighborhood. Although at this point 300k gets you a 1100sf 2 bedroom 1 bathroom house. 400k for 3 bedroom 2 bathroom 1400sf. Great yards for dogs too. You can go a little north to lakeside and find better deals.

Forest Hill is a great place to live, but probably at the high end of your budget

My wife is currently in medical school at VCU and we live out in Midlothian. It's like a 25-30 minute drive to the hospital for her and we have a large dog and backyard. The neighborhood we live in is safe and I walk my dog and ride my bike here near daily.

DM me and I can give you an idea of the neighborhood we are in. The houses around here are between 250-325k for buying.

Edit: Spelling

Username checks out! 😂🏋️🏥

yeah, I was spending every night wearing earplugs to bed and it was fine...until it wasn't. We lived near Leigh Street and people treat it like a drag strip. I also didn't realize how much noise you get from the airport until we left.

Valid question. I remember I checked that at the time. I'm happy to consider that the restaurant mislabeled it, the cashier was wrong, and I missed a tax on the receipt. Wish I kept the receipt.

You brought up something that is a core reason we are moving this year. It's loud...and you don't really notice it until you go somewhere quiet.

Like loud loud. Between 95, general city sounds, and whatever this new heavy machinery mining thing is I can hear now...it's pretty insane how there's a regular hum and rumble outside at all times.

Also, welcome, we need more doctors/medical staff here, haha.

Church Hill has been pretty gentrified if you stay below M. We lived there for about 5 years and didn't have issues with serious crime, with the exception of one car-jacking down the street. The car break-ins are incredibly annoying and common, though. If you forget to lock your car literally one time it WILL be tossed when you go to leave in the morning.

If you buy in Church Hill you need to be very, VERY careful of not buying a poorly done flip house. We watched someone down the block from us do the worst flip job I have ever seen in my life on a house, then sell it for $500K. Literally they were just patching holes with particle board or spray foam and painting over it. I feel so sorry for the people who got suckered into buying it, they're going to have terrible issues with that place.

We just sold and moved to Bon Air a couple of months ago and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't kind of a relief. I don't miss the noise from other people's cars and houses at all hours, the people walking in the middle of the street, or people coming up to me when I'm outside my house with my toddler to ask for money or a ride to the hospital. It was fine when we were younger but it got exhausting after a few years, tbh.

We're honestly loving Bon Air, and there's a lot of affordable places out here in your price range.

We recently moved to Richmond. Renting for a few months before buying is a great way to get to know the area before buying. We opted to live in the city. For us, the pros outweigh the cons: easy access to cultural amenities (museums, restaurants, live music), walkability, and proximity to the river. Taxes are a definite con. We had expected the real estate taxes, but were surprised by the personal property tax on the cars.

Crime is going to vary greatly depending on the neighborhood in the city. We have never felt unsafe in Richmond, but take the same precautions that we would take in any city.

Work with your real estate agent to find the right balance of affordability, location and safety. If you're not getting what you need from the agent, switch agents.

After a year and a half here, we love Richmond and continue to be happy living in the city.

I think if you guys don’t have kids, the city is perfect. I have been a city dweller for 15 years, primarily Fan, Museum District, and Northside. I have not lived in the areas you mentioned. There are SO many pros to living in the city. Here are some cons as a homeowner.

-My house is very old. We do a lot of work ourselves. But if we have to hire out, there is always some speciality product because it’s old, so. 💰

-Having kids, we want to use the amenities, but they kinda suck. We go over the county line for Parks and Rec and the library. They just aren’t as welcoming and the programming isn’t as expansive.

-There are a pocket of well-funded and supported schools, but many leave after elementary, and even then, people send their kid to 6 different schools, so the community feels fractured and distant.

In your position, I’d definitely live in the city, but I’d rent for a year and then buy.

Whoa, two of the areas you mentioned are extremely block by block (Church Hill 21st to 29th street) and Manchester/Hillside Court. I wouldn't recommend those areas for out-of-town people completely unfamiliar with the area. You might be ok safety wise, or you may end up being in a section where it's barely safe to be inside your house. Those are more advanced choices for people who already live nearby and can sus things out. Honestly, I would aim for a suburb further out - there's a reason the areas you're touring are more affordable, and it is safety reasons. Again, there will some blocks that will be ok in Church Hill or the Manchester area, but it can be hard to figure that out from afar.

That's accurate. Also, to add on the 'desegregation busing' had an effect.. I think here in Richmond busing was approved and started in 1970.

Even now privileged people living in the city self segregate k-12 education, but now on the basis of affluence (the private schools in the near west end of the city).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desegregation_busing

Well said.