Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.
I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.
And while every neighborhood in Richmond might be more expensive than living in rural Virginia, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Richmond neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Richmond are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
84 cost of living index
95 cost of living index
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The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Virginia’s statewide median.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the cheapest Richmond hoods in 2026
To rank the cheapest places to live in Richmond, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.
Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- Overall Cost Of Living
- Rent To Income Ratio
- Median Home Value To Income Ratio
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 122 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Richmond.” We’re lookin’ at you, Upper Shockoe Valley.
We updated this article for 2026. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
The full plate
Detailed list of the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Richmond for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Cost Of Living Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Shockoe Valley | 84 |
| 2 | Cullenwood | 95 |
| 3 | Cherry Gardens | 95 |
| 4 | Edgewood | 96 |
| 5 | Westover Hills | 103 |
| 6 | Broad Rock Industrial Park | 93 |
| 7 | Westover Hills West | 103 |
| 8 | Oakwood Cemetery | 90 |
| 8 | Oakwood | 90 |
| 10 | Deerbourne | 97 |
| 11 | Old Town Manchester | 91 |
| 12 | Blackwell | 94 |
| 13 | Worthington | 99 |
| 14 | McGuire | 98 |
| 15 | Windsor | 87 |
| 16 | Three Chopt | 119 |
| 16 | McGuire Manor | 95 |
| 18 | Parnell Industrial Area | 97 |
| 19 | Swanson | 97 |
| 19 | Warwick | 97 |
| 19 | Pocoshock | 97 |
| 22 | Belt Center | 99 |
| 22 | Creighton | 83 |
| 24 | Woodhaven | 96 |
| 25 | Forest Hill | 119 |
| 25 | Fairfield | 83 |
| 27 | Bellemeade | 92 |
| 28 | Woodville | 89 |
| 28 | Gravel Hill | 108 |
| 28 | Peter Paul | 89 |
| 28 | Davee Gardens | 89 |
| 28 | Willow Oaks | 108 |
| 33 | Swansboro West | 93 |
| 34 | Church Hill North | 99 |
| 35 | Westover | 98 |
| 36 | Virginia Union | 105 |
| 37 | Chamberlayne Industrial Center | 102 |
| 38 | Midlothian | 96 |
| 39 | Bellevue | 109 |
| 40 | Rosedale | 105 |
| 41 | Southern Barton Heights | 101 |
| 42 | Forest Hill Terrace | 116 |
| 42 | Mosby | 84 |
| 44 | Brookland Park | 102 |
| 45 | British Camp Farms | 99 |
| 45 | Forest View | 111 |
| 47 | Woodland Heights | 109 |
| 48 | Monument Avenue Park | 124 |
| 49 | Biotech And MCV District | 102 |
| 50 | Providence Park | 97 |
| 51 | Highland Terrace | 93 |
| 51 | Northern Barton Heights | 105 |
| 53 | Hickory Hill | 98 |
| 54 | Stratford Hills | 117 |
| 55 | Eastview | 84 |
| 56 | Magnolia Industrial Center | 93 |
| 57 | Cedarhurst | 103 |
| 58 | Oak Grove | 92 |
| 58 | Green Park | 92 |
| 60 | Colonial Place | 127 |
| 61 | Swansboro | 102 |
| 62 | Forest Hill Park | 120 |
| 63 | Whitcomb | 86 |
| 64 | North Highland Park | 93 |
| 65 | Malvern Gardens | 124 |
| 66 | Ginter Park Terrace | 108 |
| 67 | Willow Lawn | 127 |
| 68 | Stonewall Court | 150 |
| 69 | Chimborazo | 109 |
| 70 | Hillside Court | 92 |
| 70 | The Diamond | 107 |
| 72 | Highland Park Southern Tip | 96 |
| 73 | Oxford | 119 |
| 74 | Stony Point | 125 |
| 75 | Cottrell Farms | 99 |
| 75 | Randolph | 105 |
| 77 | Carillon | 120 |
| 77 | Stadium | 120 |
| 79 | Sherwood Park | 118 |
| 80 | Hollywood Cemetery | 105 |
| 80 | Maymont | 105 |
| 82 | Piney Knolls | 96 |
| 82 | Huguenot | 117 |
| 84 | Southampton | 127 |
| 85 | Maymont Park | 113 |
| 85 | Byrd Park | 113 |
| 87 | Westlake Hills | 104 |
| 88 | Carytown | 120 |
| 89 | Pine Camp | 92 |
| 89 | Washington Park | 92 |
| 91 | Sauer’s Gardens | 119 |
| 92 | Broad Rock Sports Complex | 95 |
| 93 | Walmsley | 99 |
| 94 | Powhite Park | 109 |
| 95 | South Garden | 96 |
| 96 | Jeff Davis | 93 |
| 97 | Ginter Park | 122 |
| 98 | City Center | 107 |
| 99 | Fulton | 97 |
| 100 | Mary Munford | 131 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 122 Richmond neighborhoods.
Summary
Summary: Lowest cost places to live in Richmond
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Richmond where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Richmond are Upper Shockoe Valley, Cullenwood, Cherry Gardens, Edgewood, Westover Hills, Broad Rock Industrial Park, Westover Hills West, Oakwood Cemetery, Oakwood, and Deerbourne.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Richmond aren’t all cheap. Vcu takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Richmond.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below. Not sold on Virginia? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Cheapest Neighborhoods In Richmond FAQs
What is the cheapest neighborhood in Richmond?
Upper Shockoe Valley is the cheapest neighborhood in Richmond for 2026. It posts the best combination of overall cost of living, rent against income, and home prices against income. Cullenwood and Cherry Gardens are next.
What are the cheapest neighborhoods in Richmond?
The cheapest neighborhoods in Richmond are Upper Shockoe Valley, Cullenwood, Cherry Gardens, Edgewood, Westover Hills, Broad Rock Industrial Park, Westover Hills West, Oakwood Cemetery, Oakwood, and Deerbourne. We ranked all 122 neighborhoods in the city.
How do you decide which neighborhoods are cheapest?
Three measures: an overall cost of living index, rent-to-income, and home-value-to-income, all from Census tract data. Scoring costs against local incomes keeps one luxury tower from skewing the math.
Is a cheap neighborhood a bad neighborhood?
Not necessarily — this ranking measures what things cost relative to income, nothing else. Check our safest neighborhoods in Richmond ranking before you sign a lease, because cheap and safe are separate questions.
What is the most expensive neighborhood in Richmond?
Vcu lands at the expensive end of the 122 neighborhoods we scored. If your budget disagrees with it, the rest of the list runs cheaper.
