[seanpecor]

I agree, casualobserver. I think if you're looking into Vermont job prospects then you may already be answering your own question with regard to the suitability of a place like Atlanta or Raleigh After 4 years my skin still crawls when I see a billboard, or a swath of tract houses that are the house equivalents of half baked pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Growing up in New England may have ruined me

I've been in Virginia since 2004. We love it here. HOWEVER. To the surprise of perhaps 99% of the people who know me through this forum, we are planning on a move back to Vermont.

We are three-quarters happy with the Roanoke, VA area. Why look back to Vermont? Why return to a state where the cost of living is 20% higher? Lately, I've begun to realize that maybe most - if not all - of the 20% premium of Vermont living is the cost of doing business when you set a high bar for the protection of your natural environment and your academic institutions while designing economic and fiscal policy.

As for us, we're looking at the Middlebury, VT area. A place with a disproportionately high percentage of quirky working folks and intellectuals like ourselves. We'll be downsizing from a 128 acre equestrian estate w/ a 7,000 square foot house to a +/- 3,000 square foot +/- 20 acre property where we could build also a personal equestrian facility as close as humanly possible to the heart of Middlebury. So if anyone knows of such a home and acreage in Cornwall or Weybridge, that isn't already listed, then feel free to PM me!

Sean

[tkln]

Holy Crap. Sean, I was using you as the poster boy for moving to VA! I'm dead set on moving to VT, because I know it's where I belong in my heart. But for my fiancé's sake, who is not so sure, I have been open to investigating other areas in the country...I had mentioned your story and we looked into VA for a bit...but we both decided that while we're still young (or younger, I should say), we'd like to settle down in VT and enjoy the snow, etc, before it all goes away.

It makes me feel even more secure with my decision about VT to hear that you are considering coming back...though I will remain open to other areas for my fiancé' sake, you better believe I'm emailing him your post.

[seanpecor]

LOL. I don't know if it will warm up THAT much in Vermont.... though the prospect of Vermont warming up _just_ enough to grow a good batch of cantaloupes is shamefully enticing!

Sean

[casualobserver]

Well, I certainly envy your situation, Sean. And here I thought I had it good with just the possibility of more than one job choice.......lol!

People who have the livelihood talents (or in some cases, just the accumulated wealth) to choose their location can certainly love Vermont. There is not a doubt in my mind that Vermont will continue to experience an in-migration of affluent retirees, second and third homeowners for whom the "barrier to entry" will be easily worth it. And Vermont certainly won't suffer for that per se. They will appreciate the green-ness and the rural/quaintness and won't really do damage to it. And they'll pay property taxes without using the school system or a lot of other tax-funded resources. To a degree, they will be a proxy for the "commercial base" that so many other areas otherwise look to for tax control purposes.

It could actually be a relative nirvana location for about 20 years or so. But, Vermont has to ultimately remember the words of that young resident who posted here about 6 months ago......"I can't eat the scenery". There has to be something put in place for them as well....after they finish up with those great schools.

[seanpecor]

True. Even thriving small cities like Roanoke, VA, have trouble retaining their young professionals once they graduate. So much so that a friend of mine works for Roanoke City and his sole mission is to research and set forth initiatives that attract and retain young professionals. I think Vermont could benefit from the hiring of similar evangelists who can interact directly with the existing community of young professionals in Vermont and in partnership with them set forth strategies that will attract more young pups. Another solid example is Virginia Tech, located in the town of Blacksburg. The college developed the corporate research park and not many years later there are 120+ companies who employee about 2,000 white collar workers in the I.T. and bio-tech fields. No small feat for Blacksburg, a town of only 12,000 permanent residents!

Sean

[arel]

Originally Posted by tkln

Holy Crap. Sean...

It makes me feel even more secure with my decision about VT to hear that you are considering coming back...though I will remain open to other areas for my fiancé' sake, you better believe I'm emailing him your post.

My sentiments, exactly. Shock, but also validation of my own drive towards Vermont.

[celchlepp]

Originally Posted by casualobserver

We simply are running out of places to "run to" and/or start things from scratch. We have to become better at remodeling.

Casual, please allow me to take the last part of your post out of context for just a moment and apply it to unchecked, unabashed, and completely unconcerned building of new structures out here in the western U.S. My wife and I moved up here to Bozeman, MT from Colorado. We have always loved the west for a lot of great reasons, but it is getting nearly impossible to make a living worth living in the mountain states anymore. Out here those of us who are not pulling six figures or even close are being driven out by the overall cost of living in every way. So we've been discussing and researching moving to VT or NH, mainly to be closer to her folks in Cape Cod. Plus hopefully the people are nicer there than out here where there are so many transplants trying to make the beautiful mountains into the place where they left that it drives us crazy.

Anyway, to avoid going off on a rant here about capitalism at its worst, she and I are both originally from the east also. Where do I get the idea I can criticize the transplants you ask? Well, let me tell you. Because we're both very concious, careful, and concerned stewards of the land and of good living respecting it provides. We love life and all others that do also. We've always considered ourselves good people and enjoy the quality of life that comes with doing the best you can every day of your life as members of the working class. all that being said, we will only buy existing housing and never rip up more land and build yet another unnecessary house.

She is a Sign Language Interpreter, and I am a computer support specialist. Hopefully we can both find work at a place of higher education, or perhaps she can and I may find some work for a hospital or something.

Even though I didn't ask any questions here yet, but I have many, I very much welcome any feedback, opinions, input, perspectives, and general comments of the helpful nature as we consider moving there. We want to move this summer, preferably in the next two months would be ideal.

Thanks to all in advance for reading and commenting if you do,
CnE

[MRVphotog]

I was interested to read about a week ago that the national foreclosure rate is way up from a year ago...not too suprising. Above 50% is some states. Only 5 states had a decrease in foreclosures and Vermont was one of them...the only state to do so in the NE.

[Sherylcatmom]

Originally Posted by MRVphotog

Only 5 states had a decrease in foreclosures and Vermont was one of them...the only state to do so in the NE.

Someone was telling me that Vermont's lending laws make it difficult for predatory lending practices to get a foothold here. Do you know anything about that?

[flu189]

Vermont has been somewhat insulated from the glaring headlines of national foreclosures, but if you really look at the numbers and locations you will see that it is certain select key markets which are headlined in both the numbers of foreclosures and the steepest losses of home equity. With that said, Vermont has a housing shortage and new construction is limited, hence, combined with perhaps more conservative lending practices there just does not exist the opportunity for a large cluster of homeowners to get themselves into trouble. A look at the property transfer tax fugures shows in fact that in each of the past three years sales have dropped. New construction rates have also plummeted from their albeit low initial rates to begin with. Nonetheless, we may appear to be basking, but foreclosures have risen in Vermont, just not to the level to warrant the sky is falling headlines which we get bombarded with from other national locales where entire neighborhoods are starting to resemble ghost towns. Overall, however, despite the rising costs of fuel and its ripple effect into all consumer goods and commerce, the markets have done fairly well over the last six weeks replenishing losses incurred over the prior five months. This is exactly what Vt needs because the majority of folks who will travel here to spend money and buy homes or maybe even try to start business enterprises develop their means to do so not from $10.00 wages, but from investments. Unfortunately, despite this we will continue to still have to put up with increasing expenses and hear those who rail against evil businesses. Kind of funny that we are finally hearing about the massive tax free endowments the universities and colleges have in the multi billions with investment yields in some cases over 20% all while they still draw in cash from taxpayers. Mass has proposed a 2.5% tax on the annual growth of such funds which when you consider how the average taxpayer sees annual increases on for example their property taxes at twice that level if not more, seems pretty fair to me. In fact, if Vt were to adopt a 2.5% tax (low in comparison to our taxes) I read that just the annual endowment growth from Middlebury College would alone close the projected 25 million budget deficit the state faces.