Virginia

Evaluating Virginia as a relocation target starts with the statewide BEA Regional Price Parity of 101.1 - where 100 is the national average, so every point above or below translates to percent-level cost of living difference. Housing costs in Virginia index at 106.8, goods at 100.4, and services at 92.2. HUD Fair Market Rents averaged across Virginia counties put a 2-bedroom at $1,369/month, the figure HUD uses to cap Section 8 voucher payments, so it reflects real submarket rents rather than listings bias.

On the income side, BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report a statewide median salary of $73,983 with a mean of $78,161 across 4,039,600 tracked jobs. For safety context, FBI UCR data shows a violent crime rate of 223 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1590 per 100K. These state-level reads let you benchmark Virginia against both your origin state and national medians before zooming into specific metros.

Family and education costs often decide a move. Department of Labor data for Virginia shows center-based infant care running $10,407/year, preschool at $7,975/year, and toddler care at $8,169/year. Virginia contains 9 metropolitan statistical areas in our dataset - Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg and more - each with its own rent, wage and crime profile that can diverge sharply from the statewide average. The composite Life Score of 50.6/100 (D) folds all seven federal sources into one number for quick comparison.