[Sherylcatmom]

Outside Burlington metro and other expensive areas, there are plenty -- 44 in Rutland alone. Again, though, taxes and cost of living are another matter.

Originally Posted by quickdraw

i haven't seen any

[68vette]

Who is $150,000 reasonable for? When about 50% of the population in Vermont make less than $12/hr, I wouldn't consider that affordable from a mortgage standpoint alone. Then you need to factor in taxes, heating costs and other expenses. It looks affordable to people from other states with higher incomes, but factor in what incomes in Vermont are and more important, if Vermonters can afford a home in their own state, then it's not so affordable.

[FrugalYankee]

Look I am not going to disagree with anyone about the problem of low wages in Vermont. I could even say something about how the state is headed for a housing crisis of its own doing, but there are organizations out there that are trying to alert our government that it is part of the problem and what they should be doing about it. All that info is available online.

Even though there are plenty of houses that are available for what would pass a dirt cheap in most of the US (and if you haven't seen the scores of 2 BR for less than $100k and the 3BR for less than $150k then frankly you haven't looked), working Vermonters have trouble getting a mortgage to buy even these. Believe me I get that. And what makes it worse is that rentals are getting scarce and expensive.

OP said they are a couple with a small child and three dogs. Finding a 2 BR house with a yard for the dogs for less than $100 k is the easy part. Figure taxes of about $3600 / year plus another $1000-$1500 / yr for heating. Then water/sewer for about another $500/yr plus electricity $$50-100/month. Whatever is left over you can spend on food, clothes, auto and luxuries. Those are the numbers I would use. If they can't make it work then they can't. Like a previous poster said, know before you go.

[Shipresa]

Go where the jobs are. This is why folks move to Houston still. Cheaper housing, higher construction builder wages and things being built 24/7 it seems here.

So as one poster said, research more then ask specific questions.

We went on a house hunting trip to Vermont in October. Its like night and day ...we'd been so used to so much development going on down here that I wondered how folks are managing outside the tourist seasons in Vermont.

Housing was more expensive than here in Houston, food prices higher, and taxes higher than here, and then a state income tax to boot. Sadly, we have to reconsider moving to Vermont.

[murphy7845]

its amazing the labor rates in Vermont right now. I pay currently 25.00 per hour for employees here, but in Vermont can get the same for 12.50, no secret why we are packing up and moving home now.

[LisaMc46]

Originally Posted by murphy7845

its amazing the labor rates in Vermont right now. I pay currently 25.00 per hour for employees here, but in Vermont can get the same for 12.50, no secret why we are packing up and moving home now.

Very sad indeed. I work with a woman who has degrees from TWO ivy league schools. And, she was a Rhodes Scholar. Plus, she has six years of professional experience in our field. She makes less than $15 an hour with minimum benefits.

I have no hopes of every making a decent salary in Vermont unless I go into a tech or medical field and even then I'd make less than employees with similar positions in other states.

[co95]

Wow, is it really this bad in Vermont? My family and I are looking at New England as a place to relocate. So far we have looked at Maine and New Hampshire, but we are looking at Vermont as well.

My wife is in the medical field and I'm in IT. Like most people, we don't want to get rich, just be comfortable. What areas of Vermont would be good for this? We are city-oriented people, but not huge cities. We'd be happy in anything over 10,000.

IT is changing for the worse. I've been in this field for over ten years and the wages are dropping like flies. IT has been commoditized to the point where almost anyone can be their own techie. What with businesses and schools moving to the "cloud" there is less and less of a need for on the ground IT staff. It will take a bit of time, but the US IT worker is going away as we know it. The concept of the operating system as we know it is going away. We are rapidly moving to the paradigm of the walled in garden with tablet devices like the iPad and Kindle Fire. IT wages, as a consequence, are dropping. The 100K IT jobs are long gone except for a very few blessed people. You are seeing a rapid constriction of IT companies. And now there is a bill being introduced to limit overtime pay for IT workers.

I wish I was an accountant, or forestry worker, or about anything else. I'm looking to reinvent myself in the not-to-distant future, but am still working on that.

[68vette]

Northern New England has a high cost of living. That is what you have to look at. There are states where you make only 12.50 an hour, but the cost to live in those states is very low. The problem you may run into is the location of the jobs you and your wife are looking for. The only area of the state that may have jobs that pay the best in your fields also happens to be in the most expensive part of the state, Chittenden County. It's also the area of the state with the highest % of the population.

[co95]

68vette,

Good info, thanks. We are really torn between Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. I'm leaning more VT and NH, so it might come down to between the two. Maine looks beautiful, but a little remote in terms of fairly quick access to Boston, NYC, and the like.

What would you consider a comfortable combined family income up in NE? We would be renting for a couple of years before we bought to ensure we liked the area.

So far in VT we like the looks of Burlington and Montpelier/Barre.

In NH, we like the looks of Portsmouth and maybe Manchester/Concord.

Maine would be Portland.

What are your thoughts. We like outdoorsy stuff, but we have to live in a city with amenities. We don't need malls and super chain stores.

[co95]

OK, guys/girls, it's crunch time for me to make a decision. We would like to move in the spring. My family has decided that between Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, we are dropping NH. It's now between Burlington, VT and Portland, ME.

Assuming we have jobs waiting before we come up, why Vermont over Maine? Both places have high taxes, state tax, both are beautiful. Taking into account the above, because the benefits/drawbacks seems so close in both places, why one over another? The reason for the question is because I have never lived in either, and I may have missed or overlooked some aspect that I've yet seen mentioned on the boards. Thanks.