5 Poorest counties in Virginia

Written by Ricky Nave in Real Estate

These are the 5 Virginia counties with the lowest median net worth.

#5 Radford City

Radford, VA

Radford is an independent city (which means it is also a county), but it’s not a very wealthy one. The poverty rate is about four times higher than it is for Virginia as a whole, and the median income is only about $35,000.

#4 Buchanan County

Buchanan County, VA

Like its neighboring counties Pike County, Kentucky and McDowell, West Virginia, Buchanan County, Virginia has an economy that was built around coal mining. These are some of the most productive coal mining counties in the country, but their coal economies have been in decline for several decades now.

#3 Norton City

Norton, VA

Norton isn’t just a computer antivirus. It’s also an independent city which happens to be the least populous of any city in Virginia. Median household income is barely over $30,000.

#2 Dickenson County

Dickenson County, VA

Dickenson borders Buchanan and is also a declining coal industry county.

#1 Emporia City

Emporia, VA

That’s right — 3 out of the 5 poorest counties in Virginia are actually independent cities. As the second least populated city in the commonwealth, Emporia is basically just an intersection of highways and old railroad tracks.

If you’re looking for tax-privileged real estate investment opportunities that are undervalued but also supported by strong demographics in the area, email me. We consult with investors all the time to help them find investment properties that fit their criteria anywhere in the U.S. We can even help you find and implement opportunity zone investments, local-government-subsidized real estate investments, and more.

Ricky Nave

In college, Ricky studied physics & math, won a prestigious research competition hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, started several small businesses including an energy chewing gum business and a computer repair business, and graduated with a thesis in algebraic topology. After graduating, Ricky attended grad school at Duke University in the mathematics PhD program where he worked on quantum algorithms & non-Euclidean geometry models for flexible proteins. He also worked in cybersecurity at Los Alamos during this time before eventually dropping out of grad school to join a startup working on formal semantic modeling for legal documents. Finally, he left that startup to start his own in the finance & crypto space. Now, he helps entrepreneurs pay less capital gains tax.

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