[momnh]

That's good to know. We're renting for a year (maybe two) while we wait to see what happens in the market. I only want to pay $300k for a decent family home. Right now that's townhouse pricing, which we don't want.

Sorry about declining values for you though. I can relate since I currently have my house listed for the same price I bought it for in 2003, despite investing $60k in expanding it and adding landscaping.

[68vette]

There are some well paying jobs in Vermont, but not compared to other areas. If you get a job that pays the same and your expenses are the same, then you are ahead of the game. Many jobs in the state are low paying when compared to other states and the monthly expenses and home prices are very high compared to say the southeast.
Vermont was a very affordable place about 10+ years ago. I was able to support a family of four on a single middle wage income with a mortgage. The taxes across the board have gone up an insane amount in the last ten years. I'm hoping this trend doesn't continue over the next ten years.

[ex-springfielder]

It doesn't take a lot of reasoning to understand Vermonts high cost of living, it boils down to two things driving the high cost, the long winters and the tax and spend liberal Vermont legislature. Large welfare populations, a teacher to student rate of 10:1 and the same number of government employees as NH has with twice the population are prime examples. Add to that the cost of heating a house for 7 months per year, some of the highest electrical prices, along with high taxes on gas, fuel oil, sales tax, income tax, repairing winter damage to roads and bridges as well as your house all add up to an expensive place to live. Burlington has high home values because of the colleges and hospital which pay well, look at the values of property in Springfield, Windsor, Bellows Falls, Rutland and St. Johnsbury to get an idea of how depressed the majority of the state is with houses selling for under $100,000. Tourism is a low paying industry and Vermont has lost much of it's better paying manufacturing jobs and is constantly losing more. The smart young people move out to find their fortunes in areas offering more opportunity so Vermont is left with an aging population and young with little ambition who go on welfare. Vermonts economy has been in decline since the days of Madeline Kunen was governor and all of the anti business laws enacted to keep the entire state of Vermont looking like a park. Too many rich out of staters found Vermont an easy place to get elected to office like Dean and Sanders with their socialist ideas of spreading the wealth, as long as it's your wealth not theirs. Vermont is pretty and hard, at one time it was filled with smart, innovative, hard working people with a reputation for being conservative, now it's the most liberal state filled with politicians who want to take your money to spend it as they think is right. That's why Vermont is the highest taxed state in the country which makes me wonder how every other state can do the same job for less, in many cases much less?

[momnh]

IBM is hiring

IBM Hiring - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

[Dockside]

Originally Posted by ex-springfielder

Vermont is pretty and hard

Well said, like your whole posting. My wife and I fell in love with Vermont years ago and seriously considered moving to the Burlington area, but when confronted with the combination of surprisingly high property taxes and low salaries (if you can find a job), we finally resigned ourselves to visiting once or twice a year.

I've told this story before...one summer several years ago my family visited Ben and Jerry's and took the factory tour. At the beginning of the tour we sat in a small screening room where a man introduced himself as our host and gave a brief history of Ben and Jerry's. At the end, he asked if anyone had any questions. A child raised their hand and asked if he made ice cream. He laughed and said no, he was a tenured professor at the University of Vermont during the year, and this was his summer job.

And that to me is Vermont. It's beautiful, but it's hard. To make ends meet you have to work two or three jobs.

[patti mastrangelo]

if you think the cost of living is high in vermont,try living in new jersey.housing alone in n.j.is outrageous . a 1bd.apt will cost(at the very least)1,100$.we have the most expensive auto insurance in the nation and they stick it to you in taxes.we have big industry,and poor wages.the only thing we have cheeper than anyone else is gas prices and thats only because its refined here.when i go to vermont,i feel like i'm in a whole different country.it's alot cheeper here,and the people are awsome.vermont rocks.

[arel]

I'm from Brooklyn.

You are right. Vermont is a whole other world and it rocks.

The people rock, but the economy does not.

I live in Vermont now. I really like it, but it is not without its tradeoffs.

[Dockside]

Originally Posted by arel

I'm from Brooklyn.
I live in Vermont now.

Talk about two different worlds! Congrats on your move.

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by Flashback

And the town listers keep raising values!!!!

I grieved my taxes last year after the listers performed the latest town wide appraisal. I won a reduction. This year I received a letter and they were reversing last year's decision as well as increasing the square footage of my home. (My home hasn't been added to or improved upon since the last grievance!) I phoned up, pled my case and once again, my reduction has been enacted, and my house is being taxed on the correct square footage.

It was laughable to read that my house was worth more this year, in light of the financial woes and housing bubble burst impacting the nation!

[68vette]

Originally Posted by patti mastrangelo

if you think the cost of living is high in vermont,try living in new jersey.housing alone in n.j.is outrageous . a 1bd.apt will cost(at the very least)1,100$.we have the most expensive auto insurance in the nation and they stick it to you in taxes.we have big industry,and poor wages.the only thing we have cheeper than anyone else is gas prices and thats only because its refined here.when i go to vermont,i feel like i'm in a whole different country.it's alot cheeper here,and the people are awsome.vermont rocks.

You will pay the same rent in Burlington as you would in NJ. My sister sublets an apartment in Manhattan and pays a cheaper rent than here. I agree, it is expensive to live in NJ, but the wages are double in many cases for the same job you would have in Vermont. That is why it is so expensive to live here. I lived in the tri-state area and the cost of living is about the same. During the winter I would have to say it's a little more expensive in Vermont.