Bon Air, Chesterfield County, Virginia 23235
Bon Air homes, guided by an agent whose office is on McRae Road
Debby Winall has helped buyers and sellers across Greater Richmond since 1986, and both her office and her home are in Bon Air. She knows how 1960s and 1970s houses under a tall hardwood canopy are priced, and why buyers here will trade newer finishes for this location.
Associate Broker · REALTOR® · GRI · SRES® · MRP · Virginia License #0225051442
About Debby
Her office and her home are both in Bon Air
Debby is an Associate Broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty, working from 2737 McRae Road, a short drive from the old Bon Air village crossroads at Rockaway and McRae. She has lived in the City of Richmond, in Henrico County, in Powhatan County for nearly 30 years, and now in Bon Air, so she can tell a buyer honestly how this inner Chesterfield community compares with the rest of the region.
Licensed in Virginia since 1986
An Associate Broker with more than 1,000 closed transactions, plus a decade beside custom builders that taught her how houses are put together.
Three designations, each with a purpose
GRI for her core training, SRES® since 2017 for later-life moves, and MRP since 2023 for military households using their housing benefits.
A resident, not a visitor
Her week runs through Bon Air: the Saturday farmers market on Grove Avenue, The Good Food Grocery a few minutes from home, and Short Pump about 15 minutes away.
Author of four books
There’s No Substitute for Experience, Now, Not Later!, The Hidden Costs of Overpricing and Navigating Transactional Turbulence, each written to help people decide well.
This area
Understanding Bon Air
Bon Air began in 1877, when railroad investors formed the Bon Air Land and Improvement Company and laid out a summer resort on high ground about eight miles west of Richmond, where city families came by train for cleaner air. The grand hotel burned in 1889 and the resort faded, but the village stayed, and in 1988 a 105-acre core along Buford Road became the first national historic district in Chesterfield County. Most of today’s Bon Air grew around that core in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, which is why the median home in ZIP 23235 was built in 1978 and why ranches, split levels and colonials sit on wooded lots with mature hardwoods. Huguenot Road, Powhite Parkway, Chippenham Parkway, Robious Road and Midlothian Turnpike frame the community, and the parkways put downtown Richmond and the West End within easy reach. Buyers who choose Bon Air are usually choosing location, established streets and a quieter residential setting first, and accepting an older house that may need updating as part of that trade.
Most agents work a market. I’ve lived mine.
Debby Winall
Market snapshot
Bon Air by the numbers
Home value, year built and ownership: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates for ZIP code tabulation area 23235, which is larger than the Bon Air census-designated place. Tax rate: Chesterfield County 2026 real estate rate. Figures like these move from month to month, so ask Debby for a current read on a specific Bon Air address.
Local insights
What buyers ask about Bon Air, answered locally
Ten subjects, each opened on its own, covering the market, the history, the land and the details that only show up when you live on these streets.
01Market Fundamentals
- The median owner-estimated home value in ZIP 23235 is $356,000 in the 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey, with a margin of error of about $8,200.
- About 72% of occupied homes in ZIP 23235 are owner-occupied, roughly 10,100 of 14,100 households.
- Single-family detached houses make up about 71% of the housing stock in ZIP 23235, so most listings are freestanding homes on their own lots.
- Attached townhomes are about 9% of homes in ZIP 23235, a smaller slice than in newer Chesterfield corridors.
- Renter households are about 28% of the ZIP, and the median gross rent is $1,744 a month in the same survey.
- Across the Richmond Metro, the Q2 2026 median price for detached single-family homes was $455,000 on 3,362 closings, up 2.2% from Q2 2025 in CVR MLS data.
- Chesterfield County’s median sits near $422,000 in Debby’s market data, below the metro figure, and the county appreciated about 5.4% year over year in early 2026.
- Chesterfield homes averaged about 50 days on market in late 2025 and early 2026, up from roughly 30 days a year earlier, while prices held.
- Active Chesterfield listings rose about 10% year over year in early 2026, which gives Bon Air buyers more to compare without softening well-priced homes.
- In the $350,000 to $600,000 band that covers much of Bon Air, buyers have typically negotiated about 2% to 4% off list price.
02History & Heritage
- The Bon Air Land and Improvement Company was organized in 1877 by railroad and business investors to build a summer resort.
- Before it was Bon Air, the area was known as Brown’s Summit, then Grand Summit; Bon Air is French for good air.
- Colonel Algernon S. Buford, president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, was among the founders, and Buford Road carries his name.
- The Bon Air Hotel opened in 1880 with grounds for croquet, tennis and jousting, and burned in 1889.
- The hotel annex, finished in the early 1880s with layered two-story porches, survives on Buford Road as apartments.
- The resort plan laid out 178 lots on a modified grid of 12 streets.
- The Bon Air Historic District, about 105 acres of Stick style, Queen Anne and late Victorian buildings, joined the National Register on November 15, 1988.
- It was the first community in Chesterfield County designated a national historic district.
- The Hazen Library, built in 1902 by the Bon Air Association, is described as the oldest lending library in Chesterfield County.
- Commuter rail service to Richmond ended in 1957, and the Bon Air station was taken down.
03Environmental & Geographic
- Bon Air sits at about 330 feet of elevation, noticeably higher than much of Richmond, which is the original reason for the good air name.
- The community lies just west of the fall line that divides Virginia’s Tidewater from the Piedmont.
- Both branches of Powhite Creek begin nearby and flow to the James River just upstream of downtown Richmond.
- The Bon Air census-designated place covers about 8.3 square miles, almost all of it land.
- The Bon Air Historical Society describes the original setting as rolling hills and hardwoods, and that canopy still shades most streets.
- Huguenot Park covers 53 acres of pine and hardwood at 10901 Robious Road, with cover for songbirds and small wildlife.
- The James River Park System is a short drive north and east, one of the reasons Debby sees buyers choose Bon Air.
- Across Chesterfield and Henrico, about 10% to 11% of homes carry some level of severe flood risk, so the flood map for each address is worth checking.
- Spring brings dogwoods and redbuds, summers are warm and humid, and winters are mild with occasional ice and snow.
- Large trees near roofs, gutters and driveways are part of owning an older wooded lot here, and they deserve a look during due diligence.
04Lifestyle & Culture
- The Bon Air Historical Society hosts Victorian Day each May, with a festival and an 11 a.m. parade along Buford Road.
- The 2026 Victorian Day was held May 9 at Bon Air Christian Church, with visits to the Hazen Library and the old Bon Air Post Office.
- The parade traditionally starts at Bon Air Baptist Church, 2531 Buford Road, travels about half a mile and turns onto Rockaway Road.
- The Bon Air Library at 9103 Rattlesnake Road has hosted a week of Victorian Days programs leading up to the parade.
- Huguenot Park offers an azalea garden, a fitness trail, tennis and pickleball courts, basketball and soccer fields.
- A Playground for Katie and Friends at Huguenot Park opened in 2003 as an inclusive play space and reopened after renovation in 2025.
- Stony Point Fashion Park opened in 2004 on the eastern edge of the ZIP.
- The Bon Air Shopping Center was built in the mid-1950s at Buford Road and Forest Hill Avenue.
- Several local shopping centers hold independent butchers, coffee shops and restaurants that grew out of Richmond’s restaurant scene.
- Debby’s own week includes Saturday mornings at the farmers market on Grove Avenue and a newer local favorite, the Granite Grill.
05Infrastructure & Access
- Bon Air is bounded by Huguenot Road on the north and west, Powhite and Chippenham Parkways on the east, and Robious Road and Midlothian Turnpike on the south.
- Downtown Richmond is about eight miles east.
- The Powhite Parkway Extension opened across southern Bon Air in 1987, between Chippenham Parkway and Jahnke Road.
- The Willey Bridge opened in 1988 and shortened the trip from Bon Air across the James to Richmond’s West End.
- The Huguenot Memorial Bridge replaced the flood-prone 1911 Westham Bridge in 1950.
- Chippenham Parkway was built through the area in the mid-1960s and cut the old Warwick Road route.
- About 38% of commuting workers in ZIP 23235 reach work in under 20 minutes, and another 34% in 20 to 29 minutes.
- Debby puts Short Pump about 15 minutes from her Bon Air home.
- Chesterfield County has more than 100 transportation projects in planning or construction, including a Powhite Parkway extension in the western county.
- From Greater Richmond, Williamsburg is about an hour away, and the beach, the mountains and Washington, D.C. are each about two hours.
06Schools & Education
- Most of Bon Air is served by Chesterfield County Public Schools.
- Elementary schools serving the area include Bon Air, Crestwood and Greenfield.
- Robious Middle School and James River High School also serve the area.
- Attendance zones are set by address and can change, so confirm the assignment for a specific house with the school division before writing an offer.
- Bon Air Elementary inspired Patricia Reilly Giff’s children’s book series The Kids of the Polk Street School.
- Independent schools located in Bon Air include St. Michael’s Episcopal School, Riverside School, St. Edward-Epiphany Catholic School and Stony Point School.
- Huguenot High School opened on September 6, 1960, on land that later passed to the City of Richmond.
- In the 1970 annexation, Huguenot High, Thompson Middle and J.B. Fisher Elementary went to the City of Richmond with 23 square miles of territory.
- The Bon Air Library is a branch of the Chesterfield County Public Library system.
- The Richmond Japanese School, a weekend supplementary school founded in 1988, meets at Bon Air Baptist Church.
07Land, Development & Zoning
- The Chesterfield Board of Supervisors adopted the Bon Air Special Area Plan in 2015.
- The county encourages owners in the historic district to seek county historic landmark designation to protect its character.
- Bon Air is recognized as a historic district by the federal and state governments and as a historic area by the county.
- Huntly, a property inside the national historic district, has been protected through a land trust easement.
- Only about 17% of homes in ZIP 23235 were built in 2000 or later, so new construction here is mostly infill.
- The mid-1950s boom added subdivisions such as Crestwood Farms, Highland Hills, Brighton Green and Brookwood Estates.
- Highland Hills is largely made up of prefabricated contemporary homes designed by architect Charles M. Goodman for National Homes.
- The Arboretum and The Boulders office parks grew south of Bon Air in the 1990s, and the Shoppes at Bellgrade opened in 1990.
- Part of what was then considered Bon Air was annexed by the City of Richmond in 1970, so some 23235 addresses sit in the city, not the county.
- The old hotel grounds at Rockaway and McRae Roads are now home to the Bon Air Community Association.
08Demographics
- ZIP 23235 has about 33,500 residents in the latest five-year survey, while the Bon Air census-designated place counted 18,022 in 2020.
- The Bon Air CDP held near 16,200 to 16,400 residents from 1980 through 2010, then grew 10.1% by 2020.
- The median age in ZIP 23235 is 44.4 years.
- The Bon Air CDP had 6,982 households in the 2020 census.
- In 2020 the homeowner vacancy rate in the CDP was 0.7% and the rental vacancy rate was 4.2%.
- About 52% of adults 25 and older in ZIP 23235 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.
- The median household income in ZIP 23235 is $96,083, with a margin of error of about $6,500.
- About 20% of Bon Air CDP residents were 65 or older in 2020, which matters for buyers and sellers planning a move later in life.
- About 28% of Bon Air CDP households in 2020 were one person living alone.
- Chesterfield County added roughly 30,000 residents between 2020 and 2024, the largest estimated increase of any county in the region.
09Investment & Value
- Chesterfield’s 2026 real estate tax rate is $0.89 per $100 of assessed value for residential and commercial property alike.
- At that rate, a home assessed at $356,000 carries about $3,168 a year in county real estate tax.
- The county funds real estate tax relief for qualifying elderly and disabled owners and disabled veterans.
- The LEGO Group’s roughly $1 billion Chesterfield manufacturing campus targets completion in early 2027 and about 1,760 direct jobs over ten years.
- Google’s 300-acre Chesterfield data center campus is part of a $9 billion Virginia investment.
- Two homes a few streets apart in Central Virginia can price $75,000 to $150,000 apart on micro-location factors that never show on a listing sheet.
- Bon Air buyers tend to pay for location and setting over newer finishes, so an updated kitchen and baths can separate one sale from the next.
- With a median year built of 1978, roof, HVAC and water heater ages often move value more than square footage does.
- About 41% of homes in ZIP 23235 were built between 1960 and 1979, the largest single era of the housing stock.
- A $1,744 median gross rent gives investors a local benchmark when weighing a Bon Air rental.
10Hyper-Local Detail
- Remnants of the village era still stand near Rockaway and McRae Roads: the 1916 post office, the 1902 Hazen Library and the old hotel grounds.
- Debby’s office at 2737 McRae Road sits on the same road as that historic crossroads.
- The restored Hazen House Library holds Bon Air artifacts and opens by appointment.
- Resort visitors once stepped off the train at The Steps, near today’s Buford Road bridge over the tracks.
- The first Bon Air station building came from Atlanta’s 1881 International Cotton Exposition.
- Gentle grades on Southampton Road and Mohawk Drive trace a 1911 streetcar line to Bon Air that was graded but never built.
- Brown Road and Belleau Drive follow parts of the old Warwick Road from the 18th century.
- Polk Street is named for Polk Miller, a pharmacist and banjo player who founded what became Sergeant’s Pet Care Products.
- Logan Street honors General Thomas M. Logan, one of the railroad officials behind the resort.
- Burroughs Street is named for J.R.F. and Lucy Burroughs, who opened a children’s home on their Bon Air farm in the 1890s.
Five-Star Client Reviews
What clients say about working with Debby
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Why Debby for Bon Air
She works from the old village
Her office on McRae Road shares a street with the 1902 Hazen Library and the old hotel grounds, minutes from any showing in Bon Air.
She prices older homes honestly
Four decades of closings show her where a 1970s house with original systems lands against an updated one, and she says so before you list.
She compares Bon Air with the region
Having lived in Richmond, Henrico, Powhatan and now Bon Air, she can tell you what this location gives you that Midlothian or Short Pump would not.
She plans moves later in life
About one in five Bon Air residents is 65 or older, and her SRES® training covers the later-life decisions behind selling, buying or relocating.
Questions
Bon Air questions, answered
Is every 23235 address in Chesterfield County?
No. The City of Richmond annexed part of what was then considered Bon Air in 1970, so some 23235 addresses are in the city. Jurisdiction decides the tax rate and the school division, so Debby confirms it for every property before an offer.
What kind of homes will I find in Bon Air?
Mostly single-family houses from the 1950s through the 1970s on wooded lots; the median home in ZIP 23235 was built in 1978. The historic district along Buford Road adds Victorian cottages, and Highland Hills adds mid-century modern homes by Charles M. Goodman.
What does the historic district mean for an owner?
National Register listing recognizes the district’s Victorian character, and the county encourages owners to seek local landmark designation to protect it. Before buying inside the district, Debby checks whether a property carries a county landmark designation or an easement, since either can shape exterior changes.
How are property taxes figured in Bon Air?
Chesterfield multiplies the assessed value by the 2026 rate of $0.89 per $100. A home assessed at $356,000 carries about $3,168 a year. Addresses inside the City of Richmond are taxed by the city instead.
How quickly are homes selling?
Chesterfield averaged about 50 days on market in late 2025 and early 2026. Well-presented homes in the $350,000 to $600,000 range have typically gone under contract in about 21 to 35 days.
What should I inspect on a 1960s or 1970s house?
Roof age, HVAC age, the water heater and the plumbing are the items pre-listing inspections surface most often in this region. On wooded lots, look at large trees near the roof and drive as well.
There is more in Debby’s Authority Center
Her Authority Center gathers what she knows across 22 domains of real estate, from pricing and inspections to estate sales and VA buyers, so you can read ahead before your first conversation with her.
The network
Explore Debby’s other communities
Midlothian
The center of Debby’s Chesterfield work, where an old coal-mining village grew into the county’s busiest suburban corridor along Route 288.
Chesterfield County · 23113, 23114
Known for: Mid-Lothian Mines Park, Route 288, Salisbury
What that site answers: Route 288 commutes, HOA rules by subdivision, pricing in her core market
Visit siteMaster-planned HOAsBrandermill and Woodlake
Master-planned communities on Swift Creek Reservoir with trail systems, waterfront access and long-standing HOA governance.
Chesterfield County · 23112
Known for: Swift Creek Reservoir, Pocahontas State Park, Brandermill Country Club
What that site answers: HOA documents and rules, lakefront and trail access, reserve studies
Visit siteHer home for 30 yearsPowhatan
Rural acreage west of Richmond with wells, septic and horse property, where Debby lived on 40 acres for nearly 30 years.
Powhatan County · 23139
Known for: Powhatan State Park, the James River, Fine Creek Mills
What that site answers: Wells and septic, shared road agreements, buying and selling acreage
Visit siteEstate and river landGoochland
Estate and river property along the River Road corridor, where much of the market trades between $600,000 and $1,000,000.
Goochland County · 23063, 23103
Known for: Kinloch Golf Club, Tuckahoe Plantation, West Creek
What that site answers: River and estate property, the River Road corridor, $600K to $1M pricing
Visit siteWhere she startedWest End Henrico
Short Pump and Glen Allen, where Debby’s career began in Far West End new construction and relocation buyers arrive every season.
Henrico County · 23229, 23233, 23059
Known for: Short Pump Town Center, Innsbrook, Wellesley
What that site answers: Relocation into Short Pump and Glen Allen, new construction, I-64 access
Visit sitedebbywinall.comDebby Winall Authority Center
Her full reference across 22 domains of real estate, and the hub linking all six community sites with her four books.
Greater Richmond, Virginia
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