Lots of "should I move to RVA" posts, so thought I'd try to put together a response. I moved to RVA in July 2021, ended up not really liking it, and moved away (to DC) in January, so if you're thinking of moving to RVA -
First, the good points:
It's reasonably affordable, especially compared to NOVA/DC. It's a pretty friendly city. I moved not having many friends, and made a couple solid friend groups and regularly had things to do.
Traffic moves very well for a metro area of 1.3M people, and The Fan/Museum District/VCU/Downtown are reasonably walk- and bike-able.
The older parts of town are very charming, with cute parks nestled among century-old homes, an easy walk from lots of interesting restaurants & bars.
As to why I moved away:
- The city can be a little underwhelming at times. Downtown is pretty dead, you'll be hard-pressed to find big-city energy anywhere. It's one of the biggest metro areas in America without pro sports, and the biggest metro area without a feeder team (The Flying Squirrels just feed up the minor league chain). Sometimes it feels like you're just in a big college town.
- "2 hours from the city, 2 hours from the beach, 2 hours from the mountains". You'll hear this a lot, but in practice I found it just meant "far from everything". If you're passionate about skiing/hiking, you might prefer Charlottesville. If you want a dense, walkable city, you'll prefer DC or NYC. Also, it's closer to 2.5-3 hours to Virginia Beach/DC if you're going at peak times, so day trips can be taxing
- The dating scene is very poor. I had much more success, both online and IRL, in both Charlottesville and DC. I've had 3 RVA friends commute up to DC so far in 2023 just to date. A lot of people move to RVA to settle down with someone they met in a bigger city. The dating scene is probably the #1 reason I hear young, single people move to bigger cities.
Bottom Line:
It's an off-beat town. If you're creative/artsy/quirky, you're probably going to find it easier to find your niche than in most places. On the other hand, the young professional scene, while slowly growing, but is smaller than you might expect for a city this size.
It can be a little provincial. You'll find a lot of people grew up in Central Virginia, went to JMU/VCU/Tech, and are now in Richmond. If they grew up in RVA or its suburbs, that's likely still their core friend group, and you may have trouble truly breaking into a lot of these groups.
Ultimately, if you want a laid-back, off-beat vibe, with people who don't take life too seriously, you might really like it. If you're looking for a more cosmopolitan vibe, where you'll feel big-city energy and meet people from all over the world, you may find it a little lacking.