Greater Richmond · Relocation
Moving to Richmond without touring blind.
Eighteen zones, seven localities, and seven different tax rates. Most relocation content skips all of that and shows you a photo of the Fan. This is the version that tells you what each part of the metro costs and what it asks you to give up.
Reviewed 2026-09-06 · By Miles Agee, Realtor®
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Richmond is seven localities, not one city
People say Richmond and mean the metro. The metro is the independent City of Richmond plus Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover, Goochland, Powhatan, and New Kent counties, and in Virginia an independent city is not part of any county. That is not trivia. It sets your tax rate, your school district, your trash pickup, and your car tax, and it changes on the far side of a street.
The practical version: two homes you like at the same price can carry meaningfully different monthly costs, and the difference is a line on the assessment, not the listing.
The Number Nobody Shows You
What the locality does to your payment
Real estate tax is charged per $100 of assessed value. Richmond City is the highest rate in the metro and Goochland is the lowest, and the spread between them is more than double.
Run it on a $450,000 assessment. Richmond City is roughly $5,400 a year. Henrico is roughly $3,735. That gap is about $139 a month before you have compared a single kitchen.
None of that makes the city wrong. It buys you a walk score the counties cannot match. It means the comparison you were making was never apples to apples.
- Localities reset these rates annually. Confirm the current year with the locality assessor before you rely on any of them.
- Assessed value and sale price are different numbers. A recent sale often triggers a reassessment.
- Virginia also charges a personal property tax on vehicles, and that rate is set by locality too.
| Locality | Rate per $100 assessed | On a $450,000 assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Richmond City | $1.20 | $5,400 / yr |
| Chesterfield County | $0.89 | $4,005 / yr |
| Henrico County | $0.83 | $3,735 / yr |
| Hanover County | $0.81 | $3,645 / yr |
| Powhatan County | $0.78 | $3,510 / yr |
| New Kent County | $0.72 | $3,240 / yr |
| Goochland County | $0.53 | $2,385 / yr |
How To Read The Metro
Four bands, working outward
Urban core: the Fan, Museum District, Church Hill, Scott's Addition, Jackson Ward, Manchester. Walkable, older housing stock, city tax rate, street parking.
Near suburbs: Lakeside, Bon Air, Tuckahoe, the Northside edge. Yards and county tax rates while staying inside a fifteen minute drive of downtown.
Outer suburbs: Short Pump, Glen Allen, Midlothian, Mechanicsville. Newer construction, county services, commutes that start at twenty minutes and go up.
Land: Goochland, Powhatan, New Kent, western Hanover. Acreage and the lowest rates in the metro, paid for in drive time and in fewer places to eat on a Tuesday.
The Tour Trip
What out-of-state buyers get wrong
Almost every relocating buyer books one weekend, tours nine houses, and picks a house instead of picking a place. Six months later the house is fine and the commute is not.
Reverse it. Spend the first day driving zones with no showings on the calendar. Park in Lakeside and walk to Roy's Big Burger. Sit in Sub Rosa in Church Hill on a Saturday morning. Drive Broad Street west at 5:30pm and feel what Short Pump traffic actually is. Then spend day two touring inside the two zones that survived.
The listings will still be there. The read on the neighborhood is the part you cannot get from a phone.
Schools
How to check schools without taking anyone's word for it
Public school assignment in Greater Richmond changes by address and by grade level, and it changes when the district redraws boundaries. An agent telling you a neighborhood has good schools is giving you an opinion that is not theirs to give.
Pull the data yourself. Niche and GreatSchools publish ratings and parent reviews. The Virginia Department of Education publishes SOL pass rates by school. Then confirm the actual assigned school for the exact address through the district, because a zoning map from last year can be wrong this year.
Common Questions
Questions people actually ask
What is the property tax rate in Richmond, Virginia?
The City of Richmond levies real estate tax at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value, the highest rate in the metro. Surrounding counties are lower: Chesterfield $0.89, Henrico $0.83, Hanover $0.81, Powhatan $0.78, New Kent $0.72, and Goochland $0.53. Localities reset these rates annually, so confirm the current year rate with the locality assessor before relying on it.
Is Richmond, Virginia part of a county?
No. Richmond is an independent city, which in Virginia means it is not part of any county. That is why a home inside the city line and a home a block outside it can sit in different school districts, pay different tax rates, and receive different services.
How long is the commute from Short Pump to downtown Richmond?
Roughly 25 minutes in normal conditions on I-64 or Broad Street, and longer during afternoon peak. Glen Allen runs about 20 minutes, Midlothian about 20, Mechanicsville about 20, and the urban core neighborhoods are 5 to 10. These are representative zone averages rather than address-level drive times.
Which part of Greater Richmond is most affordable?
On price per home, the outer counties. New Kent and Charles City carry the lowest median range in the metro along with a $0.72 tax rate, and Powhatan and Goochland trade acreage at rates well under the city. The cost shows up as drive time and fewer amenities within ten minutes. Inside the city, the Northside and Southside zones carry the lowest entry points.
Do I need to visit Richmond before buying?
You do not legally need to, and plenty of relocating buyers close on video tours. What is worth protecting is the zone decision rather than the house decision. If you can only make one trip, spend the first day driving neighborhoods without showings booked and the second day touring inside whichever two zones survived that drive.
How do I check which schools serve a Richmond address?
Look up ratings and parent reviews on Niche (https://www.niche.com/) and GreatSchools (https://www.greatschools.org/), pull SOL pass rates from the Virginia Department of Education, then confirm the assigned school for the exact address with the school district directly. Assignment changes by address and grade level and districts redraw boundaries.
Keep Reading
The rest of the shelf
Want the long version, in print?
The full Richmond Relocation Guide runs 75 pages: every zone, the school-checking workflow, the moving timeline, and the neighborhood callouts that did not fit here. It is free and it comes to your inbox.
This guide is general information, not legal, tax, or lending advice. Tax rates, loan program terms, and market figures are current as of 2026-09-06 and change regularly. Verify locality tax rates with the assessor, loan terms with your lender and virginiahousing.com, and market data with current MLS records before making decisions. School information should be verified through Niche, GreatSchools, or the official school district. Real estate commissions are negotiable and are not set by law. Miles Agee is a licensed Virginia Realtor, license 0225249973, on the OneSouth Realty team at Samson Properties. MAMS does not steer clients by race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, disability, or any other protected class.