>>7054520Cost-wise it's pretty comparable to other mid-sized cities I've lived in. Restaurants/bars all seem to be a bit more expensive though than what I'd expect. Before moving to Richmond I lived in Austin, TX for a few years though so compared to that cost-of-living seems very cheap in Richmond.
Not all parts of the city are beautiful though. Downtown can be kind of grim and there are a few very ghetto areas around. The Fan and Museum districts (and to a lesser extent the Churchill neighborhood) are both great though. It's really nice because it's a fairly high-income family neighborhood, but there are also relatively cheap apartments available too and so there are also plenty of young, (admittedly often overly-hipster) people living there too. There's tiresome controversy and protests with the Confederate monuments at the moment, but I'm hoping that people will get bored with that soon.
Another nice thing is that it's just about 2 hours to D.C. so you can take advantage of all the free museums and events and things that go on there. Plus the beach is 2 hours East and the state parks and mountains are about 2 hours West.
I'm only 27, but I've lived in several different cities and it's definitely the best place I've lived.
