2025 Compare Cities Cost of Living:
Richmond, VA vs Fairfax, VA

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Highlights
Is it cheaper to live in Fairfax or is it cheaper to live in Richmond?
- Fairfax is 49.6% more expensive than Richmond.

Which city has more affordable housing, Fairfax or Richmond?
- Fairfax housing costs are 131.0% more expensive than Richmond housing costs.

Is Health Care more affordable in Richmond or is Health Care more affordable in Fairfax.
- Health related expenses are 3.5% more in Fairfax.
 Richmond, VAFairfax, VAUnited States
 Overall  Unlock142.4100
 Food & Groceries98.0  Unlock100
 Health  Unlock102.7100
 Housing96.9  Unlock100
 Median Home Cost  Unlock$654,200$338,100
 Utilities99  Unlock100
 Transportation  Unlock127.6100
 Miscellaneous136.2  Unlock100
100 = National Average (Below 100 means cheaper than the US average. Above 100 means more expensive.)
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Reviews for Richmond    109 Reviews

Over 3 years ago

Lived here for a year and it’s not perfect but it’s constantly improving now (areas redevloped, more businesses, job growth). Cost of living is great compared to  More

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Over 4 years ago

We love Richmond so much that when we talk about where we'd like to live if we could live anywhere in the US, we always come back to RVA. We live in the city proper  More

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Over 4 years ago

I'm an out-of-towner but am coming up on 1 year in Richmond. I would summarize it this way: the best thing and the worst thing about Richmond is its location. I'll  More

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Reviews for Fairfax    28 Reviews

I lived in the area for 17 years through high school until I eventually became a truck driver. Having now seen most states extensively, I wanted to fairly review what  More

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Living in Fairfax, or any of the Northern Virginia suburbs of DC, means dealing with highways that are a Gordian knot of converging lanes and overpasses, making long  More

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Over 10 years ago

The Cost of living here is high. Though the standard of living is also high, unless you're making over 50,000/year, it's difficult to both live and build any sort of  More

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