VA City Among Money's 50 Best Places To Live

RICHMOND, VA — Richmond is one of Money’s 50 Best Places to Live in the U.S. for 2024.

“This year’s Best Places to Live list celebrates cities and towns where a thriving economy meets affordability, diversity and an exceptional quality of life,” according to the publication. “Backed by rigorous research and data-driven analysis, these 50 places are the blueprint for the future.”

For Richmond — which has a population of about 229,395, a median listing price of $350,000 and an unemployment rate of 2.80 percent — the publication noted the city is known as the backdrop to some of the most significant events in American history — like revolutionary Patrick Henry (“Give me liberty, or give me death!”) — but it's also forward looking.

Money noted that on the first Friday of every month, galleries on and near Broad Street in Richmond’s Arts District welcome visitors who fill the streets, dining on local cuisine and shopping at local pop-ups. The city is also a go-to spot for those who love the performing arts thanks to its focus on theater, dance and music.

"There’s the Richmond Triangle Players, an LGBTQ+ troupe that puts on creative shows and cabarets that celebrate the queer experience, and the Virginia Repertory Theatre, which brings in 550,000 audience members a year. Richmond also hosts an annual Shakespeare festival in the outdoor courtyard of Agecroft Hall, plus an array of jazz, funk and blues shows peppered around the city. And don’t sleep on the city’s food scene: Mama J’s soul food in the historically Black quarter of Jackson Ward, and India K' Raja, with its large selection of Indian beers, are worth the hype," the publication reported.

Richmond notes its history — which includes serving as the Confederate capital during the Civil War — with around 30 museums that "tackle the good, the bad and the in-between," the publication said.

Those include the American Civil War Museum — whose mission is to explore the war through the lens of Union, Confederate and African American perspectives — and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Richmond is the only Virginia city that made the list.

To view the full list of Money’s 50 Best Places to Live, visit money.com/best-places-to-live.