City of Hopewell.

Space

2,094 people to the square mile.

City of Hopewell is the 2nd densest of the 12 Richmond areas we hold both figures for. Things are close together here, which is the trade: less land, less driving.

Scale

23,033 people, as of 2020.

The 4th smallest of the 12 Richmond areas we hold a count for. Fewer houses change hands here in a year, and that cuts both ways — less to choose from, less to compete with.

The line that matters

City of Hopewell answers to no county.

In Virginia an independent city sits outside the county system entirely: it sets its own rate, runs its own schools, maintains its own roads. Comparing a bill here against one across the line is not comparing like with like.

The housing story

A mill town of catalog kit homes.

Built fast for wartime workers, Hopewell kept an unusual stock of Aladdin and Sears catalog houses in the DuPont-planned neighborhoods still called A Village and B Village. The state funded an architectural survey of A Village in 2019 that turned up further kit styles.

The trade

Median home value around $181,600.

Roughly half the Virginia figure, on a median household income near $54,700. Turnover is high too — about one household in six had moved in within the previous year, above both state and national rates.

Where the rivers meet

City Point, and a 1,736-foot boardwalk.

The confluence of the Appomattox and the James is the reason the settlement exists and still the best of it: a riverwalk, a sandy beach and a fishing pier at City Park, with Grant's 1864 headquarters at Appomattox Manor on the point above.