The Cost of Living in Richmond, VA: Housing, Taxes, Utilities and Everyday Spending

Filed under Costs · 4 min read

There is no single official cost-of-living number for a city, and private indexes often disagree. A better approach is to build your own budget from the pieces that are published: what housing costs locally, which taxes apply and what the utilities charge. Richmond publishes most of those pieces, and the Census Bureau fills in the rest.

Housing

Housing is the largest line for almost every household. Census QuickFacts, drawing on the 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey, gives these medians:

Measure	Richmond city	Henrico	Chesterfield	Virginia
Median gross rent	$1,372	$1,541	$1,629	$1,579
Median home value	$353,000	$359,200	$366,000	$383,700
Monthly owner costs with a mortgage	$1,920	$1,862	$1,933	$2,127
Monthly owner costs without a mortgage	$752	$590	$612	$589
Median household income	$64,587	$88,783	$101,931	$93,170

Note that these are five-year medians: they lag the current market, and a newly listed apartment will usually cost more than the median of all existing leases. Use them to compare places, not to predict the rent on a specific unit.

Owners without a mortgage still pay taxes, insurance and upkeep; in the city that median is $752 a month, higher than in either county.

Local taxes

Virginia localities set their own property taxes, and the city’s are among the line items newcomers notice first.

• Real estate: $1.20 per $100 of assessed value, which the city assesses at 100 percent of fair market value. A home assessed at $353,000 owes $4,236 a year, paid in two halves.
• Vehicles: $3.70 per $100 of assessed value on passenger cars and light trucks, due June 5, with partial state relief on the first $20,000 of value.
• Meals: 7.5 percent on meals bought from food establishments, whether eaten there or taken away.
• Utilities: a 7 percent consumer tax on residential phone, cable, electric and gas charges, collected by the provider.
• Plastic bags: 5 cents per disposable bag at grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies.

The details and due dates are in Richmond Real Estate and Car Taxes: Rates, Due Dates, Appeals and the Shrinking Car Tax Relief.

Sales tax

In Richmond the general sales tax rate is 6 percent: 4.3 percent for the Commonwealth, 0.7 percent for state transportation and 1 percent for the city. Food for home consumption, such as groceries, and certain essential personal hygiene items are taxed at a reduced 1 percent. Virginia also holds an annual three-day sales tax holiday; in 2026 it ran from August 7 to 9 and covered qualifying school supplies, clothing, footwear, emergency preparedness items and Energy Star and WaterSense products.

Utilities

The city’s Department of Public Utilities bills water and wastewater monthly. Its own worked example for a home with a standard 5/8-inch meter using 6 Ccf of water a month comes to $132.48: $46.48 for water and $86.00 for wastewater, including the monthly service charges. Stormwater is billed separately by parcel size, from $4.47 to $27.47 a month for single-family lots. Gas comes from the city-run Richmond Gas Works. The full breakdown is in Setting Up Utilities in Richmond: City Water, Sewer, Gas and Stormwater Explained.

City or county: the budget difference

The Census figures cut both ways. City rents are lower, but so are city incomes: the median household income was $64,587 in Richmond city against $88,783 in Henrico and $101,931 in Chesterfield. Owners without a mortgage pay a median of $752 a month in the city, compared with $590 in Henrico and $612 in Chesterfield. When you compare two homes across the line, put the rent or mortgage, the local taxes and the utilities on one page before deciding which is cheaper.

Getting around

Transportation can be the easiest line to cut. GRTC buses, including the Pulse rapid line and the airport routes, are zero fare. If you keep a car, add the vehicle tax, registration, insurance and an annual safety inspection to the budget; Getting Around Richmond: Zero-Fare Buses, the Pulse, LINK Microtransit and the Airport and New to Virginia: Driver’s License in 60 Days, Car Title and Registration in 30 cover both sides.

State income tax

Virginia taxes income at graduated rates topping out at 5.75 percent on taxable income above $17,000. Anyone with taxable income well above $17,000 pays 5.75 percent on most of it. See Virginia Income and Sales Tax for New Residents: Part-Year Returns, Rates and Deductions for a worked example.