Relocating To Richmond For CoStar Group
Moving to Richmond for CoStar? You can walk to this one.
What you can walk, bike, or drive to from the riverfront campus, real 30-day prices, rent-first options, and 0.5% of the purchase price back at closing.
Downtown, on the river, in Foundry Park. The one big employer you can walk to.
What that means for housing: you get to choose between two very different Richmonds. Inside the city you can walk or bike to work from a rowhouse in the Fan, a loft in Manchester, or a Craftsman in Church Hill, and never buy a second car. Outside it you get a yard and a garage in Bon Air, Tuckahoe, or Lakeside and a 15 to 20 minute drive against light traffic. Both work. The mistake is defaulting to the suburbs because that is what you did in your last city; the campus is downtown for a reason.
Where you can live, by minutes from the campus
Rings from the Foundry Park campus. The inner two rings are where most CoStar transfers under 40 end up; the outer two are where the ones with kids and dogs do.
Manchester (across the Manchester and Mayo bridges), Oregon Hill, Randolph, the Fan, Museum District, Jackson Ward, Church Hill, Shockoe Bottom and Slip, Scott’s Addition. The Belle Isle footbridge and the Capital Trail start a few blocks away.
City of Richmond 30-day median $402,000; the Fan and Museum District run well above it, Manchester and Church Hill span both sides of it
Byrd Park and the Carillon, Westover Hills, Forest Hill, Stratford Hills, Northside (Bellevue, Ginter Park, Lakeside), Near West End, Tuckahoe, Bon Air. Yards, garages, 1920s to 1960s houses.
Bon Air $400s to $700s; Tuckahoe and the Near West End $400s to $900s; Northside below the city median
Henrico’s West End and Glen Allen, Chesterfield’s Midlothian and Brandermill, Mechanicsville in Hanover, Chester. Newer construction, top-rated county schools, the classic Richmond suburb.
Henrico 30-day median $401,735; Chesterfield $432,030; Hanover $499,950
Short Pump’s newest subdivisions, Goochland acreage, Powhatan, Hanover’s Ashland side. Only if you want land or are already there.
Goochland 30-day median $590,000; Powhatan $551,975
Drive times are typical for normal traffic, rounded to the nearest five minutes; add 10 to 15 minutes at peak on the interstates. Before you commit to a neighborhood, we run your exact address against the office at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. and put it in your brief. Price figures are 30-day medians from the CVR MLS feed for the locality or community named, 30 days ending September 7, 2026.
Six places to look first.
Each opens a guide with current listings and prices. All neighborhood guides, every community, and current builder incentives.
The Fan and Museum District
Rowhouses on tree-lined grids, restaurants on every corner, a 12-minute bike ride to the campus down Cary or Main.
Manchester
Lofts, new townhomes, and the best view of the skyline, across the river and a short walk over the bridge to work.
Church Hill
Richmond’s oldest neighborhood, Craftsman and Italianate rowhouses, 10 minutes to the campus along Main.
Bon Air
Brick colonials under big trees, 15 to 20 minutes over the Huguenot Bridge, the first suburb CoStar transfers with kids ask about.
Tuckahoe
Mid-century neighborhoods inside the Beltline near the University of Richmond, 15 to 20 minutes down Cary Street Road.
New construction, the county rings
Builder incentives change monthly. We track them by community, and the 0.5% credit stacks on top.
Paid from our commission. Applied on your closing statement.
No program fee, nothing to enroll in. It stacks with builder incentives on new construction and with any relocation benefit CoStar Group provides.
| $400,000 home | $2,000 |
| $550,000 home | $2,750 |
| $750,000 home | $3,750 |
Subject to lender approval; some loan programs cap buyer credits, and if yours does we apply the credit to closing costs first. Full terms on the relocation program page and at the bottom of this one.
A lease that ends when you are ready to buy.
Plenty of CoStar transfers rent for a year in Scott’s Addition, Manchester, or the Fan and buy once they know which side of the river they are. Mission Realty Property Management manages rowhouses, condos, and single-family homes across the city and the near West End, and we can put you in a lease that ends when you are ready to buy.
The credit waits for you. Rent through Mission Realty Property Management now, buy with the same agent when the lease ends, and the 0.5% is still on your closing statement.
One agent, the whole move, on the city and the near West End.
- IA written brief: neighborhoods, real closed prices, drive times to the office, school zones
- IISame-day recorded video walk-throughs of any listing you ask about
- IIIA planned in-person tour day, 8 to 12 homes, routed from the office
- IVLenders who pre-approve remotely on a signed offer letter
- VRemote or mobile closing where the lender allows
- VIFirst-year home warranty, movers, and temporary housing lined up
- VII0.5% of the purchase price back at closing, every home, every price point
Can I really live without a car?
In the Fan, Museum District, Manchester, Church Hill, Jackson Ward, and Scott’s Addition, yes: the campus is walkable or bikeable from all of them and the GRTC Pulse runs down Broad Street. Most people keep one car per household for the airport, the river, and Costco.
What about parking downtown?
The campus sits in the downtown garage district, and most employers there provide or subsidize a space. Ask your recruiter what CoStar offers before you decide whether your commute needs a car at all; for many people in the inner ring it does not.
Which schools are near the city neighborhoods?
Richmond Public Schools zones by address, with strong demand for Fox, Munford, and Holton elementaries and the specialty and governor’s schools. Families who want county schools land in Bon Air, Tuckahoe, or Lakeside at 15 to 20 minutes. We confirm the exact zone before you write an offer.
I am coming from Washington, DC. What changes?
Prices are roughly half for the same house, the tax bill is lower, and the commute is measured in minutes not hours. The trade is a smaller airport (RIC, nonstop to most hubs) and a smaller city; Amtrak from Main Street Station gets you to DC in about two and a half hours.
Does the credit apply if CoStar provides a relocation benefit?
Yes. Our credit comes from our commission, so it does not touch whatever the company provides. If your package assigns a third-party brokerage, tell us and we will explain what changes.
Already lined up. Use anyone you like.
Courtney Ficken, First Home MortgageCourtney Efird, Ameris Bank
Remote pre-approval and a straight answer on whether your offer letter can stand in for local pay stubs.
Home Land Title
Mobile and remote closings where the lender allows.
Achosa Home Warranty
First-year coverage on systems and appliances.
Vetted movers, furnished 30 to 90 day options
Dates that work backward from your closing.
Send us your start date and your budget.
A Mission Realty agent replies by email, usually the same business day, with a neighborhood shortlist built around the CoStar commute and the credit terms in writing. No call unless you want one.
The 0.5% closing credit is paid by Mission Realty, brokered by REAL, from its commission on a purchase where Mission Realty represents the buyer under a written buyer representation agreement, and is applied on the closing statement. It is subject to lender approval and any loan program limits on buyer credits, and cannot be paid outside of closing. It is not available on transactions where Mission Realty’s commission is less than 2% of the purchase price, on referral transactions where Mission Realty is paying a referral fee to another brokerage, or where prohibited by law. Terms may change for buyers who have not yet signed a buyer representation agreement. Market figures are from the Central Virginia Regional MLS via the Mission Realty market feed for the period shown and are not guaranteed. Mission Realty is licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Run by the Mission Realty Team, 3701 Cox Rd, Richmond, VA 23233, (804) 601-4960. Updated September 19, 2026.
Mission Realty is an independent real estate brokerage. This page is a resource for people relocating to the Richmond area for work and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by CoStar Group. CoStar and Homes.com are trademarks of CoStar Group. Employer facts are from public announcements and news coverage as of the date above.