The Best Places to Retire in Virginia

Virginia gives 55+ buyers an unusually broad menu. In a single state you can settle near Washington, D.C., put down roots in a walkable colonial town, or wake up to the Blue Ridge out your window. The state runs from Atlantic beaches and tidewater across the rolling Piedmont, up through the Shenandoah Valley to the western mountains. That geography is why retirement communities in Virginia feel so different from one region to the next, and it's why WalletHub and Bankrate keep placing Virginia near the top of best-places-to-retire-in-Virginia and best-states-to-retire lists, alongside Florida and the Carolinas.

Virginia is moderately retiree-friendly on taxes, better than its top-line 5.75% rate suggests, but not the tax haven some southern neighbors have become. Social Security benefits are fully exempt: if any portion is taxed federally, you subtract it back out on your Virginia return. There is no state estate or inheritance tax, which matters for higher-net-worth retirees.

Everything else (pensions, 401(k) and traditional IRA withdrawals, private annuities) is taxed as ordinary income, and Virginia's graduated brackets bite fast. The top 5.75% rate kicks in at just $17,000 of taxable income, so virtually all meaningful retirement withdrawals land at the top rate. The main relief for older residents is the Age Deduction: up to $12,000 per qualifying taxpayer age 65 and older, stackable by a married couple. The catch is the phase-out. For taxpayers born after January 1, 1939, the deduction drops dollar-for-dollar as adjusted federal AGI rises above $50,000 (single) or $75,000 (joint), and it disappears entirely at roughly $87,000 and $99,000, respectively. Lower-income retirees benefit; affluent ones typically don't. Military retirees 55 and older get a separate, more generous subtraction, up to $30,000 of military retirement income in 2025.

Property taxes are set locally and average around 0.77-0.87% of assessed value statewide, moderate by national standards but well above zero-income-tax southern competitors. Rates and senior relief vary sharply by locality. Fairfax County runs about $1.15 per $100 of assessed value; rural western counties run a fraction of that. Most localities offer real-estate tax relief or freezes for older, lower-income homeowners, with specific income and asset limits that vary by jurisdiction. The state sales tax is 5.3% in most of Virginia (6% in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads), among the lower combined rates in the region. Groceries are now exempt from the 1.5% state grocery tax after its 2023 repeal.

Virginia has four moderate seasons, with warm-to-hot, humid summers and mild-to-cool winters. It's easier than the Northeast, but with enough seasonal change for a real spring and fall. Spring and autumn are the standouts: long, comfortable, and particularly striking when the Blue Ridge turns color in October.

Geography shapes the details. Along the coast in Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach, winters stay mild and the ocean moderates temperatures, but summers run humid and hurricane season (June through November) is a real, if not annual, consideration. Head inland and upward into the Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley and you trade humidity for crisper winters, cooler nights, and reliable snow at the higher elevations, genuinely four-season country for buyers who want it. Central and eastern Virginia summers can be sticky enough that many retirees plan indoor middays from July into September.

Statewide, Virginia's cost of living sits just above the national average, roughly a 103-104 index against a national baseline of 100, but that number hides an enormous spread by region. The statewide median home price ran about $455,000 in late 2025, a figure that spans a market where Arlington medians clear $770,000 and Roanoke or Lynchburg homes sit under $300,000.