Housing

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As a real estate professional, I am well accustomed to the housing market in Vermont.  We have a housing shortage.  We have too many people looking to purchase in a market of too few houses.  Many of our available houses are undesirable or they need significant construction, and financing for these kinds of properties is often hard to obtain.  Other properties disqualify for FHA financing over small issues.  Said plainly, we have an inventory problem.  

Let's pause for a moment.  You've found a property that's in-budget, move-in ready, you have your financing in-hand, and you're ready to put in an offer, but then someone swoops in with an all-cash offer from out-of-state.  Vermonters struggle competing with other Vermonters to purchase a home, and they're competing with buyers from out-of-state too.

Many people are forced to rent in this situation or move away.  This demand causes rental prices to rise, and we are seeing renters paying a third or more of their income on rent alone.  

This situation of rising home prices is not unique to Vermont.  Many states and cities deal with this issue.  New Hampshire for example, has many young people leaving for southern states with wealthier residents moving in, and this is the same for Vermont.  

Both New Hampshire and Vermont are old states with housing stock built 80 or more years ago, and it's costly to keep up with those renovations.  It's often cheaper to sell the property and make it someone else's problem.   

The truth of the matter is that we need a significant number of homes, built quickly, across the state, and not just restricted to urban centers.  Broad development that respects and integrates into our state's heritage and natural landscape.

Regulatory Barriers

Current housing development policy in Vermont incentives large, usually expensive, single-family dwellings and large multi-family condominiums or apartments.  For the average Vermonter looking for a starter home or middle-income home, there are few options available.  Regulatory obstacles have financially disincentivized developers to build cost-effective budget-friendly homes on small lots, including duplexes and single-family dwellings.

The state must reform or repeal regulatory barriers on development and create sound policy that financially incentivizes such development, repairs our dilapidated properties, and maintains the condition of our non-dilapidated properties.  We need to encourage the building of high quality and affordable single-family and multi-family dwellings, and we must allow for a reformed Act 250 to enable exemptions for this development.