[vermont08]

We have been looking into rental home prices for South Burlington, Essex, and also Shelburne. We have noticed that Essex home rentals are somewhat cheaper. Is there a reason for that? Other then it is further away from the lake?

[VTeratheart]

I'm sure that's it. I live in Essex Junction, not to be confused with Essex Town. The town is, in most cases, a bit further out than the Junction, or Village. We love it here, there's a great community feel to it, excellent schools, and is far enough from the "city", yet close enough to all the conveniences you could need.

[vermont08]

Aww..sound just like what we are looking for. We did not get a chance to visit that area on our trip a few weeks ago. With only 3 days there we just looked at parks in Burlington, South Burlington, and a little drive thru Shelburne since we passed it on the way up. We will have to look more into Essex Junction on our next trip. I had seen on the map that Essex Junction looks like it a major road/highway intersection. Do you have any traffic issues? How about crime and graffiti?

[Julie*]

I lived in Essex Town for 6 years though we now live in Colchester. Essex is great-not far from Burlington and good schools. I would not want to live there though and commute into Burlington. The traffic is awful during the standard commuting hours especially during the school year. Otherwise, it's a great community.

Not much crime at all in Essex and no graffiti.

[vermont08]

How about commuting to the airport in South Burlington? My husband is a hotel mgr. and will most likely be working around there.

[VTeratheart]

It's easy to get to the airport from the major route in Essex, (Rt. 15) and you avoid a lot of the traffic, as you avoid the interstate. Little crime and no graffiti that I'm aware of.

[Julie*]

Originally Posted by vermont08

How about commuting to the airport in South Burlington? My husband is a hotel mgr. and will most likely be working around there.

Does your husband have a job yet in the Burlington area? There aren't that many hotels in the area so I was just curious. My husband is also in the hotel industry.

Personally, I think the commute from Essex to South Burlington (in and around the airport) is awful if you are working that standard 8-5pm hours.

Julie

[vermont08]

No he does not have a job there yet. We can not move until spring (we could move between late March to early April) when our lease on our townhouse runs out. Unless the hotel would help pay for relocation. As getting out of our lease early would cost us a good bit. It may not seem like there are that many hotels but there really there is. Between the airport area and along the lake shore. Compared to where we live now anyway. We live pretty far away from the BWI airport so my husband has to drive about 45 min or more to get to work and that is with him bumping his hours up to working going for 7am-4:30pm. It can take well over an hour if he ends up still working at 5 or 5:30 pm. Being that he is the Asst. GM there, he works I would say 50-60 hrs per week. Depends on if he ends up working a shift to cover someone who calls out or not, if there is a major event, etc. From what managers he has talked to up there he should get about the same money for either Asst. Gm or Front Office Mgr. which he did for long time before becoming Asst. GM.

He is actually set up to be the new GM come Nov. but we can not see ourselves staying here. Sitting in endless traffic, air quality/smog, the crime, having our girls end up in bad schools, the lack of green spaces/parks,....the list goes on. We can't wait to get out of here. When we went on our trip the the Burlington area a few weeks ago we drove on purpose into the rush hour traffic on Friday just to see what it was like. I have to say what people there think of as "traffic" there even by the airport and downtown sort of made us giggle. Which makes it hard to judge what people say here. When you say it is "bad" coming from the Essex Junction area to the airport do you mean more or less then an hour? Also you said your husband is in the hotel industry. Which hotel chain family does he work for? Or does he work for a local place?

[VTeratheart]

I would say at worst, going from the farthest place in Essex Jct. to the airport during rush hour would take 30 minutes, and that's with a lot of "traffic". If you live on the West side of the 5 Corners it would only take 15-20 mins MAX! It goes in waves, if you hit the traffic just right (leaving 5-10 mins later or earlier), it could take you much less time. Now, if you're talking Essex Town, you're adding potentially a bit more time, but I can't imagine it'd take an hour even then. And, you're not sitting, idling, you're stopping at lights, seeing different sights....

[vermont08]

Originally Posted by VTeratheart

And, you're not sitting, idling, you're stopping at lights, seeing different sights....

I would say all my husband does is sit, idle, sometimes just turn the car off if he has not moved in over 10 min. It he is moving it is a like 10-15 mph. It is just NUTS. Which you would think is crazy since mapquest says it should only take him 20 min. to get to the hotel. Basically anything you mapquest or figure out based on a map double it and you may get close to how long it takes to get anywhere. Even myself here with the girls at home have to plan all my driving around rush hours. Which only leaves about 4 hrs (if you don't count when the girls are a sleep from 8pm-6am) to do anything. It is so frustrating. Like I said we can't wait to get out of here. I know him or myself do not mind driving a distance to go somewhere. I once lived a hour away from my job before we had the girls. But that was a nice hour of driving where I was going the speed limit most of the time. Sitting in grid lock is not fun. Let alone the fear of road rage here. People get shot and killed over road rage. Which is you ever sit on 695 or 70 here you can see why. You would think with +4 lanes going each way that it would not backup and have these kinds of issues. But there are just SO MANY people living here and even up in PA that have to drive to Baltimore for work.