Which parts of the Richmond area have actually held their value best over the past year? That question has a real answer, but only at the resolution the data supports. The Richmond Association of REALTORS publishes year-over-year median sale price changes by county and by city through its SortStats reports, pulled from Central Virginia Regional MLS closings. It does not break results down neighborhood by neighborhood. So this post ranks counties and the city of Richmond by that one real, checkable metric – August 2026 closings, one-year median price change – and then points you toward the specific neighborhoods within the stronger-performing counties, without pretending we have appreciation numbers we do not actually have.
Every figure below comes from the same August 2026 SortStats report, current as of September 10, 2026. Where a county’s closing count was too small to trust the percentage on its own, we say so rather than presenting a shaky number as a firm trend.
How Do You Actually Rank “Resale Strength”?
We used one real methodology: one-year median sale price change by county, from the Richmond Association of REALTORS’ SortStats report for single-family homes closed in August 2026. This is not alphabetical and it is not a guess. It is also not neighborhood-level, and we are not going to imply otherwise. Every county below closed at least 24 sales in the month, which is thin but usable; anything with fewer than about 10 closings in a given area, we would flag rather than rank, and one area below hits exactly that threshold.
Which Counties Actually Gained the Most Ground?
Goochland County led the region with a median sale price of $688,702 in August 2026, up 17.7% year over year. That is the strongest number on this list, but it comes from only 33 closed sales, so a handful of larger, higher-end homes closing in a single month can move that percentage substantially. Treat it as a real but volatile signal rather than a locked-in trend.
Henrico County posted a more stable-looking gain: $425,000 median, up 7.9% year over year, on 229 closed sales – a large enough sample that the number carries more weight than Goochland’s. Days on market held steady at 18, unchanged from a year earlier, and months of supply sat at 1.6, meaning inventory is still tight enough to support price growth.
Hanover County came in third at $510,000 median, up 6.3% year over year, on 107 sales. Days on market rose to 24, up 9.1% year over year, which is worth watching – homes are taking a bit longer to sell even as prices climbed, a combination that can signal a market that is still healthy but cooling slightly at the margins.
For context, the entire MLS area posted a $430,000 median, up 5.0% year over year, so Henrico and Hanover both outpaced the regional benchmark while Goochland’s small-sample number sat well above it.
Where Should You Actually Look Within Henrico and Hanover?
Since the data does not go neighborhood by neighborhood, we cannot tell you that one Henrico subdivision appreciated faster than another. What we can tell you is where buyer demand has concentrated within the county’s strongest-performing areas, based on what is actually selling. Within Henrico, Short Pump, Glen Allen, Innsbrook, and Tuckahoe are the county’s highest-volume areas and are where we would point a buyer trying to get exposure to Henrico’s overall 7.9% gain. Within Hanover, most of the county’s activity runs through the areas covered by the Hanover County community page, since Hanover does not have the same density of individually named subdivisions that Henrico does.
Curious what a home in Short Pump, Glen Allen, Innsbrook, Tuckahoe, or greater Hanover County would be worth today given these trends? We can set up a saved search filtered to those specific areas, or run a free home valuation so you can see where your own equity stands. Start a saved search or request a free home valuation.
The Middle of the Pack: Chesterfield and Powhatan
Chesterfield County posted a median of $453,975 in August 2026, up a modest 0.9% year over year, on 372 closed sales – the largest sample size of any county on this list, which makes that small gain fairly reliable rather than noisy. Chesterfield’s higher-growth new-construction communities, Hallsley and Harpers Mill, add fresh, higher-priced inventory into that county-wide figure each month, which can pull the median up even when older resale stock in the county is flatter.
Powhatan County is a harder case. Its median sale price was $551,975, up only 0.2% year over year, essentially flat. Powhatan also closed just 24 sales for the month and saw a 45.5% year-over-year drop in closed sales volume, so both the price figure and the trend behind it deserve some skepticism – a market moving that much slower can produce a misleadingly calm-looking price number simply because fewer, different kinds of homes are closing. We would not present Powhatan’s flat median as evidence of a stable market without that caveat.
The One That Actually Declined: Richmond City
Richmond City’s median sale price fell to $403,500 in August 2026, down 5.3% year over year, on 163 closed sales – the only area on this list with an outright year-over-year decline. Days on market rose sharply to 26, up 44.4% year over year, and months of supply dropped to 1.4, down 33.3%. That combination – fewer months of supply but a falling price and slower days on market – is an unusual pattern that is worth watching rather than a simple “the market is cooling” story; it may reflect a shift in which parts of the city’s housing stock closed that particular month rather than a uniform citywide softening. We do not have data at a finer grain than the whole city to say more than that with confidence. [DATA NEEDED: Richmond City price trends broken out by ZIP code or MLS sub-area to explain the days-on-market and price divergence].
Who Should Actually Care About This Ranking
If you are getting ready to list and want to know how these county-level trends should shape your pricing strategy, our sell with us page walks through how we price against real comparable data rather than a countywide average alone. If you are choosing between counties primarily to protect resale value over a five- to seven-year hold, this ranking is genuinely useful: Henrico and Hanover both show broad-based, large-sample gains above the regional average, while Goochland’s number is real but riskier to lean on given its small sample. If you are buying in Richmond City for lifestyle reasons – walkability, architecture, a specific neighborhood you love – this ranking is the wrong tool for that decision; a citywide median price dip does not mean every city neighborhood underperformed, it just means we cannot tell you which ones did from this data. And if you already own in Powhatan or plan to sell there soon, do not read too much into that 0.2% figure either way given how few sales it is built on.
A Word on Methodology and Its Limits
This ranking is legitimate and checkable – every figure traces back to the Richmond Association of REALTORS’ public SortStats reporting, built on Central Virginia Regional MLS closings. But it has real limits. County-level medians can shift based on which price tiers happened to close in a given month, not just genuine appreciation. Small counties like Goochland and Powhatan are more exposed to that noise than large ones like Chesterfield and Henrico. And none of this accounts for the mortgage rate lock-in effect, where owners with low-rate mortgages from 2020-2021 are reluctant to sell and give up that rate, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has documented as a factor suppressing listing volume nationally (CFPB) – fewer sellers listing can tighten supply and support prices independent of underlying demand strength.
If low-maintenance living matters as much to you as resale strength, cross-reference this with our post on low-maintenance townhome neighborhoods, since several of the stronger-performing areas above also have solid townhome inventory. And if a mature, tree-lined setting is part of what you are protecting resale value for, our piece on Richmond neighborhoods with a mature tree canopy covers that angle in more depth than we can here.
To see actual closed comparables backing up these county-level trends, our recently sold properties page lets you filter by area and see exactly what has closed recently and at what price, rather than relying on a county-wide median alone.
Is this ranking neighborhood-level or county-level?
County-level, plus Richmond City as its own reporting area. The Richmond Association of REALTORS does not publish year-over-year median price changes broken down by individual neighborhood, so any claim that a specific subdivision appreciated a specific percentage would not be backed by real data.
Why does Goochland’s 17.7% gain come with a warning?
Because it is based on only 33 closed sales in a single month. With that few transactions, one or two unusually expensive homes closing can swing the median price and the year-over-year percentage significantly, even if the broader market did not actually move that much.
Why did Richmond City’s median price fall while its months of supply also fell?
That is an unusual combination and the county-level data available to us cannot fully explain it. It may reflect a shift in which parts of the city’s housing stock closed that month rather than a uniform citywide price decline. We flagged this rather than guessing at a cause.
Should I avoid buying in Powhatan based on its flat 0.2% figure?
Not necessarily. Powhatan’s closed sales volume dropped 45.5% year over year to just 24 sales, which is too thin a sample to draw a firm conclusion about the county’s actual price trend in either direction.
Does low inventory always mean prices will keep rising?
Not automatically, but tight months-of-supply figures, like Henrico’s 1.6 months, generally support price stability or growth when paired with steady or falling days on market, which is the pattern Henrico showed in this report.
How often is this data updated?
The Richmond Association of REALTORS publishes SortStats reports monthly. The figures in this post reflect August 2026 closings and were current as of September 10, 2026.
What is the mortgage rate lock-in effect and why does it matter here?
It refers to homeowners who financed at low rates in 2020-2021 choosing not to sell because they would have to take on a higher rate on their next purchase. The CFPB has documented this as a factor that reduces the number of homes listed for sale, which can support prices even in a slower sales market.
If you are weighing where to buy or sell based on resale strength, we can walk through what these county-level trends mean for a specific property or search area. Set up a saved search in Henrico, Hanover, or Goochland, or get a free home valuation to see where your current property stands against these numbers.
Written by the Mission Realty Team, Real Broker LLC, 3701 Cox Rd, Richmond, VA 23233, (804) 601-4960. Meet our team.
