Property Tax & Insurance Comparison? (Burlington, Colchester: homeowners insurance, condo, houses) - Burlington, VT - Vermont (VT) - City-Data Forum

JIer · 03-19-2011, 07:31 PM

I was wondering if someone might be able to help compare the home costs in the Burlington area to ours here in Charleston, SC?

1961 1 Story Brick Ranch, 1161 SF, 3 bed, 2 bath, 0.29 acre lot.
House Cost: $218,000

Yearly Taxes & Insurance
Property Taxes: about $1200
Wind & Hail (Hurricane) Insurance: $1600
Flood Insurance: $380
Homeowners Insurance: $600

Does anyone have any input on what sort of tax and insurance rates would be in the Burlington area?

68vette · 03-19-2011, 08:33 PM

Just going by the Burlington property tax rate of 2.002, a home at the same price would have a property tax bill of $4364.36. You would be challenged to find a decent home at that price in Burlington. You could find a nice condo in that price range. You would not have hurricane insurance, but you could have flood insurance depending on location and of course you would have property insurance. We pay more than your $600, but that could be due to property here being worth more.
The Burlington area (Chittenden County) is the most expensive area in the state. Some towns have higher tax rates while others are slightly better, but the issue is the price of homes. Homes in the county cost more, so you have to pay more. Here in Colchester, homes are more affordable than Burlington, but our tax rate is higher at 2.3904.

JIer · 03-19-2011, 09:22 PM

Thanks for the reply. Our house now is mostly based on just my salary, as my husband is back in school for a second degree (we've only owned it 2 years). Once he finishes, we'd probably be looking in a different price range. What is a typical home price in Colchester?

68vette · 03-19-2011, 09:57 PM

Home prices vary by the area of Colchester you would want to live. We live near the bay in one of the more desirable areas of Colchester. Prices for a better quality home would about 250,000 and up. The difference between Colchester and Burlington is not so much the price of a home, but you get more home as well as a much larger lot.
You may not be looking to move for a while, but start investigating job prospects. If anything you will build a good size resource to start with when the time comes. If you have read the posts in the Vermont forum, you will get an understanding that we don't have a large pool of job opportunities. Prices on items like homes do not seem as high as other regions, but the incomes in Vermont are the lowest in New England and the cost of living is among one of the highest in the country. Any advantage you can give yourself, the better off you will be.

momnh · 03-20-2011, 05:32 AM

Taxes on my $395k home here in Williston are $5700. Williston has a better tax rate than most other towns because we also host the shopping area and big box stores on one corner of our town. My home insurance is $660. Both taxes and insurance are lower than on our former (comparable) house in NH.

I think you'll do alright with jobs in your fields here. There always seems to be a few electrical engineering jobs just in the Williston area, plus some in other towns, due to some smaller startup companies as well as couple larger ones. Check out Craigslist under Arch & Engineering.

jackmccullough · 03-20-2011, 06:55 AM

Once you're ready to start looking for houses in earnest, one good source is NNEREN.com, which aggregates listings from multiple agents.

JIer · 03-20-2011, 03:54 PM

Thanks for the advice. We did a quick search for properties, but we don't have any idea where to look yet. We'll be heading back north to NH in May so I can spend a few days at the office, and after that we're going to head up to VT and take a look around. We probably don't want to live right in Burlington, but somewhere on the outskirts.

What are the home styles around there like? Are there lots of subdivisions popping up? Part of our possible venture back up to the northeast is to try to escape them!

arctichomesteader · 03-20-2011, 05:29 PM

The outskirts of Burlington is just suburban sprawl.

momnh · 03-20-2011, 06:38 PM

It's sprawl for VT but not sprawl like you'd see where you are now. There are a couple of towns with developments but even those towns have large rural areas. For instance, Williston is 6 miles out of Burlington and is known for the big box stores on one side of town but the other 75% is rural in nature, with a small downtown in the village. And Williston's growth restrictions means almost all new construction is clustered in one area, while the rest of the town stays as is. Hinesburg is a good bet for being close to Burlington but in a rural setting. Jericho is a good option too.

joe moving · 03-20-2011, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JIer

I was wondering if someone might be able to help compare the home costs in the Burlington area to ours here in Charleston, SC?

1961 1 Story Brick Ranch, 1161 SF, 3 bed, 2 bath, 0.29 acre lot.
House Cost: $218,000

Yearly Taxes & Insurance
Property Taxes: about $1200
Wind & Hail (Hurricane) Insurance: $1600
Flood Insurance: $380
Homeowners Insurance: $600

Does anyone have any input on what sort of tax and insurance rates would be in the Burlington area?

you dont need wind, hail or flood here unless you buy in a flood plain. homeowners... a little less.