A State for Life’s Lovers.
Love lives in Virginia for a good reason. Beaches, mountain hiking spots, green lodging staycations, a bustling nightlife scene, and the constant promise of a picturesque animated lifestyle is the norm for anyone who decides to live here. The fine life of aged vineyards, exploration of bodies of water, and diversity. It’s one of those places where you can both build a business and retire peacefully. Your move to VA may be one of the best decisions for your family.
The many powerful benefits of living in Northern Virginia far outweigh the negatives. The Virginia Department of Education has created a vibrant system, including the Purple Star program specifically designed to smooth transitions for our Military Community. The robust local jobs market and economy deliver the ability for families to afford the high cost of living, especially housing – right here in Northern Virginia. It’s a richly diverse region with so many recreational options. If you can learn to manage the traffic congestion and find some high quality air conditioning in the peak of summer, then you will love Northern Virginia.
If you’re moving to Virginia, there are a lot of things you’re going to need to know. Luckily, you’ve come to the right place.
Here are a few pros and cons to consider as you make your move to The Old Dominion:
Virginia has a well-balanced economy with diverse income sources, including business, farming, and military, federal, and local government. Virginia has over 4.1 million civilian employees, and 33.3% of them are working in the service sector. The state’s unemployment rate in November 2019 was 2.9% representing 116,096 jobless people. The unemployment rate has declined steadily over the year, and it is expected that the unemployment situation will continue to improve in 2021. At the end of 2021, the unemployment rate in Virginia will hit 5.0%, a percentage point lower than the 2020 year-end rate.
At the end of 2021, employment in Virginia will total 3.96 million jobs, up 2.2% over the 2020 year-end number. However, employment levels will remain below 2019 levels, and it could be well into 2022 before all the jobs lost during the recession are re-gained.
Virginia, especially Northern Virginia, is known for having impressive public transportation systems (metro). Taking into consideration both public and private transportation (gas prices), the state’s average transportation costs come in at 0.6% lower than the national average.
Many folks say that Northern Virginia has some of the worst traffic in the nation. With it hugging D.C., the area can become packed like sardines, quickly. If you’re moving from New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles… this might not be a concern for you. But, if you’re used to being able to jump in a car and get anywhere in less than five minutes, you might want to think twice about moving to Virginia.
The cost of living is housing expense whether it be rent or a mortgage this is also most commonly the largest expense category in anyone’s budget. So in 2020 the median home price in RVA was 280 000 now remember that median means middle number so 50 of homes were more expensive than this the median home price for virginia was 294 000 and the national average was $285,000 so richmond’s housing is cheaper than Virginia on the whole so now let’s look at rent the Richmond, VA median rent was 11.93 per month where as the virginia median rent was 12.34 and this makes sense because rent costs are almost always proportional to the housing market.
How about heating and cooling where you live utilities here in Richmond, VA are actually more expensive than the national average which is ironic given that dominion is headquartered here the average electric bill is 124 per month which ranks 8 in the u.s and almost 16% more expensive than the national average so it seems that we kind of lose on the utilities side but something really cool about richmond and its cost of living where we really benefit here is the grocery cost, this category is actually 12% cheaper than the national average for groceries.
- Family of four estimated monthly costs are 3,134.33$ without rent.
- A single person estimated monthly costs are 886.80$ without rent.
- Richmond is 33.11% less expensive than New York.
- Rent in Richmond is, on average, 60.77% lower than in New York.
Moving is one of the most exciting and overwhelming events in our lives. While there are many moving companies and various different resources to choose from, there is only one Real Movers. If you are in the process of planning a long-distance move, and you are looking for a moving company you can trust, Real Movers is your perfect choice.
