
So I’m from a small suburban city called Williamsburg, which is smack dab between Richmond and Hampton (about an hour each way). It’s kind of pricey mostly because it’s a college town, but there’s cheaper properties farther out into the county. There’s other cheap areas in Gloucester county and Newport News, but it depends on the neighborhood how nice it is. Richmond and Hampton roads have a lot of suburbs, but you’d need to check property prices.
Northern Virginia is known for being very expensive. Hampton roads isn’t cheap to my knowledge, but it’s not like that at least. I know my rent here in south-central Oregon is less than what it would be in Williamsburg, but that’s because Williamsburg apartments are all college students.