Put Down Roots While You Take Your Business to New Heights.
Welcoming and vibrant, Roanoke offers something for everyone. Step out your front door into an outdoor mountain adventure, load up your kayaks to explore our plentiful blueways, or immerse yourself in the flourishing downtown arts & culture. And with a cost of living that’s lower than the national average, you can do it all without breaking the bank!
A Housing Market Unlike Any Other
Find your modern downtown loft, family-friendly cul-de-sac, or a secluded nature retreat, all within our city limits. Roanoke offers a diverse and affordable housing market and options for every taste and budget.
Median home prices sit approximately 49% lower than the national average making it possible to find your dream home and a dream price too.
The Great Outdoors in Your Backyard
In Roanoke, you can’t help but notice our iconic profile where city skylines mingle with mountain ridgelines. Here you’ll find that outdoor adventures are as limitless as our innovation. It’s all at your fingertips: enjoy the 2nd largest municipal park in the United States without ever leaving the city. Carvins Cove offers more than 12,000 acres of forest, 60 miles of trails, and a 630-acre reservoir for boating and paddling. And that’s just for starters!
Mill Mountain
Featuring the Star City’s famous landmark, the Mill Mountain Star, Mill Mountain Zoo and 10 miles of multi-use trails all 10 minutes from downtown.
Roanoke City Park and Greenway System
Explore over 70+ parks and 30 miles of trails that wind throughout the city. Perfect for outdoor recreation with friends, family and pets!
Roanoke River Blueway
Access over 45 miles of waterway for paddling, fishing, tubing, wading, or just plain getting outside!
GO Fest
A collaboration between Roanoke Outside Foundation and Roanoke Parks and Recreation, GO Fest is an annual celebration of everything Roanoke outdoors.
Limitless Creativity to Fuel Your Life
Spend an evening at the symphony, catch the holiday spirit with a Nutcracker ballet, get inspired by live theatre, or wander through an art museum or gallery. It’s all here in Roanoke. What’s more, these performers, painters, writers, and makers could be your neighbors. Creativity is baked into the culture and the economy with thousands of artists calling Roanoke home.
In other words, you’ll never run out of inspiration here. From dance recitals, to history & science museums, to music venues, and pop-up events, you can be sure to find something to spark your creativity and engage your imagination.
The Classroom-to-Laboratory Pipeline
The Roanoke region his home to more than 100K students in 25 institutions of higher education. And that’s just post-high school. Our award-winning Roanoke City Public School district regularly earns local, state, and national recognition for educational excellence. Not only that, high school seniors can attend Virginia Western Community College tuition-free for up to three years.
In Roanoke, you’ll never have a shortage of highly-educated STEM talent. At Virginia Western Community College, students in the biotechnology program are training to become lab-ready in just two years. The 19-credit hour certificate can be applied to an A.S. of Science, or used to transfer into a 4-year institution.
Not only that, the Roanoke Higher Education Center connects working professionals to high-level educational opportunities at nearby universities. That way, they can expand their skills while continuing to contribute at their workplaces.
Get In Touch
Want to learn more about opportunities in Roanoke’s Innovation Corridor? Reach out to Bradley Boettcher, Innovation Administrator of Roanoke’s Economic Development Office for more information.
