Retired and hoping to relocate in Richmond vs Raleigh/Durham

[Turbogyrl]

We lived in the Richmond area for a while. It was still too cold for me, I have arthritis in my hands... so we headed further south. I like Virginia and EVERYTHING is there for you in RVA. So many fun festivals, great shopping, nice people. Awesome restaurant scene. Gorgeous sunsets...

I would recommend Short Pump area, or possibly Goochland. You can get a nice 1 acre out in goochland or Powhatan. Powhatan can be kind of remote, though. Our Realtor was FABULOUS, customer service second to none. I will send you his name and contact info. He's a lifelong Richmond resident and one of the nicest people on the planet (NO I'm not related...).

[centrifuge41]

I've lived in the Triangle and also Richmond. I prefer Richmond for a few reasons:
Really good restaurant options for the size of the city. Cheaper and tastier choices.
Much less driving around means much less time and gas spent. E.g. if you live 10 miles away from Richmond downtown or the fan, you rarely have to make a 20 mile trip one way. In the Triangle area, if you need to hit up Raleigh, Durham, Cary, and Chapel Hill all in one day for some reason, you could burn 100 miles in one day.

But for these criteria, you may find the Triangle to be a better fit:
3) nearby hiking trails: there's tons of greenways in Raleigh/Cary. In Richmond, there's a small bit of trails in areas like Deep Run Park, Belle Isle, or Pocahontas, but hardly a long continous network.

5) reasonably close to healthcare: There's a lot of Rex, Duke affiliated healthcare centers, and UNC affiliated healthcare centers in the Triangle. In all, there's a lot more than Bon Secours in Richmond.

[joe5]

Originally Posted by Ed Roberts

With all due respect, you should stay where you are. Richmond has become infested with retirees from northern cities who end up banding together to turn Richmond into the kind of hellhole they fled.

With all due respect.....well precious little is due so nm. You're clueless. Check the meds.

That said, this is so easy. I've lived in both. Raleigh. Far (and I can't stress that enough, FAR) better healthcare. Also Richmond has much more of a ghetto element/attitude. For ex. Raleigh downtown is about oh 10 million times nicer...good luck finding a nasty, ghetto-ish area in it. Richmond on the other hand has truckloads of that, and not just downtown. Many many areas are just disgusting looking. People love treating roads (not just highways, but neighborhoods) like their personal trash can. I could go on. Both have pros and cons, but IMO Raleigh is the far easy choice.

[Pruzhany]

Originally Posted by joe5

With all due respect.....well precious little is due so nm. You're clueless. Check the meds.

That said, this is so easy. I've lived in both. Raleigh. Far (and I can't stress that enough, FAR) better healthcare. Also Richmond has much more of a ghetto element/attitude. For ex. Raleigh downtown is about oh 10 million times nicer...good luck finding a nasty, ghetto-ish area in it. Richmond on the other hand has truckloads of that, and not just downtown. Many many areas are just disgusting looking. People love treating roads (not just highways, but neighborhoods) like their personal trash can. I could go on. Both have pros and cons, but IMO Raleigh is the far easy choice.

fwiw; Why call the other poster clueless when your post agrees with theirs that Richmond should be bypassed? Northern transplants over the past decade has made the Richmond metro area harsher to live in than in past decades.

[rebob987]

My wife an I are in the same boat as the OP. We live in Massachusetts. We are thinking about moving either to the Richmond area (maybe Glenn Allen) or the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. It really depends where my wife can get a job. She has a human services background. She did work awhile ago in the bio tech industry as well. We have no kids, and I have an online business, so I can work anywhere. I keep telling her that she might have a better chance in NC. If she didn't like the job in the Richmond area, she might have a better chance of getting another on in the RTP area.