Notes / Assessments / Construction
Where is Richmond building?
Richmond's total assessed property value rose $14.6B from 2022 to 2026. This page is about the share of that growth that's genuinely new construction — brand-new buildings, not the City reassessing what was already there.
Where the $14.6B of growth came from
Citywide, most of the growth — about 77% — is the market revaluing property that was already there. Roughly 23% is genuinely new building. The two pages below each take one of these questions further.
This page is about new construction — brand-new buildings, by project and by neighborhood. For how existing homes are gaining value, see that page →
Where the construction dollars are, by neighborhood
Dollars of new-construction value in each neighborhood's assessed-value growth since 2022, ranked by total — not by what share of that neighborhood's own growth it represents (a neighborhood can be 100% construction on a tiny base and still contribute little in absolute terms). Percent share is still shown in the table below — see neighborhoods ranked by overall growth →
| Neighborhood | Construction dollars | Share of growth |
|---|---|---|
| Scott's Addition | $444M | 71% |
| Old Town Manchester | $272M | 55% |
| Shockoe Bottom | $176M | 70% |
| Commerce Road Industrial Area | $169M | 70% |
| The Diamond | $167M | 48% |
| Gambles Hill | $140M | 95% |
| Chamberlayne Industrial Center | $126M | 70% |
| Manchester | $115M | 70% |
| Midlothian | $84M | 50% |
| Monroe Ward | $83M | 45% |
| Three Chopt | $82M | 18% |
| Church Hill North | $81M | 47% |
The $3.4B of new construction, by project
The largest contributions to citywide construction value, 2022–2026. Each links to the parcel's assessment history and on to the City Assessor's record.
How this is computed
We take every parcel's total assessed value in 2022 and 2026 and split the change into two buckets. New constructionis a parcel that is either a brand-new parcel carrying a building value, or has a new-building permit on file (a residential or commercial “New” building permit) dated from 2020 onward. Everything else is reassessment — the market revaluing property that was already standing. The buckets reconcile exactly: start value + reassessment + construction = end value.
Why permits, not the assessor's codes.The Richmond Assessor labels a finished new building as “01 - Reassessment,” not new construction. Trusting that label hides almost all real construction — Scott's Addition reads as ~0% construction by the assessor's codes when, by dollars, it is about 71% construction. So we join the City's building-permit data to find the buildings.
What this misses.Construction permitted outside the City's building-permit stream — chiefly state and institutional projects, like the new General Assembly building near Capitol Square — has no city permit to match, so its value lands in “reassessment.” The split is conservative by design: a dollar is only called construction when a permit or a new building parcel backs it. The window also only sees 2022–2026; buildings finished before 2022(much of Scott's 2017–2021 boom) are already in the base value and don't show as new here. New condo and townhome developments, which the City splits into many same-priced unit parcels, are grouped back into one project above.