Rethinking Vermont- Cost of Living? (Burlington, Williston: insurance, job market, purchase)

[jackmccullough]

There are a number of challenges leading to high costs of living in Vermont. Cold winters, causing high heating costs; limited housing supply, especially in Chittenden County; the fact that Vermont is kind of at the end of the supply line for a lot of commodities. There are people who live on your salary even in the Burlington area, but things will be more comfortable once your husband is also employed.

[greenbeanie]

I remember moving here from Orlando Florida and wanting to have a good cry when I saw my renting options and the price they wanted to charge for crapholes. There are not alot of apartment complexes here and rent is beyond ridiculous in certain areas. Winters can be very harsh so you may want to live as close as possible to your jobs. Burlington is ridiculously expensive and most of the surrounding areas are as well. Depending on what you are able to afford, maybe try Waterbury or Middlesex? It is very tricky to find places that will accept pets here but you may be able to find one for the dogs...chickens unlikely. Here are some current places I found on craigslist:

https://vermont.craigslist.org/apa/d...200111968.html

https://vermont.craigslist.org/apa/d...197918696.html

https://vermont.craigslist.org/apa/d...209030620.html

[yoggerman]

It's been a few year since you posted this. How's it all working out?
Yoggerman

[RLCMA]

Originally Posted by Melmo

My husband and I have both accepted jobs in Williston, we are supposed to be moving up there in November. We currently live in the DC/Baltimore area (husband works in DC, I work in B'more). We have young children, and decided we wanted to move to a more laid back, family friendly environment with less crime and more outdoor opportunities. With our new jobs, we will be making almost exactly HALF what we have been making in the DC/Baltimore area.

I thought I was prepared and willing to sacrifice the $$ for the improved quality of life, but now I'm starting to worry. A big part of this is that we are having an IMPOSSIBLE time finding a place to rent. Our house here is on the market, but hasn't sold yet, so we will need to rent until it sells. We also don't know the Burlington area that well, so we'd prefer to rent for a while until we decide where we want to buy. We have 2 children, 2 dogs and 6 chickens (which we'd like to bring, but don't HAVE to bring), and it just seems like any place that would work for us to rent is more than $2500 a month! Our mortgage payment here is a lot less than that, and as I mentioned, we are going to be making HALF the amount of money. I am starting to wonder if we can even AFFORD to move to Vermont?

Does anyone have any suggestions for where to find affordable rentals that allow dogs and possibly other animals? Or does some place like this exist? My husband has said he is fine with living up to an hour from Williston (he currently commutes more than an hour to his job in DC), but I'd like to live closer, as I'm worried about being too far away from daycare (one of our children is in school, the other in daycare, and I've been at my job long enough that if the school or daycare calls me to pick up a kid, I can leave at the drop of a hat and be there in 20 minutes).

Thanks for any suggestions!

I lived in DC for almost 8 years up until October. I've only been in VT for a few weeks now but renting is definitely hard here as there isn't much inventory. Severance Corners and Bayberry Commons are nice. I actually make more money here than in DC so I can't complain. I just needed out of DC (at least for a year) as I was in a rut with the same old, same old. I found pet friendly places are very hard to come by in the area. I can't speak to the quality of life since everything has been closed since I arrived but the drivers are very slow around here and everyone seems to turn their turn signals on the last second. I'm hoping I like it here once everything opens back up. If not, I'll move back to DC or my home state of MA most likely.

[DC Fairwinds]

Originally Posted by Melmo

They are both mixed breeds- one is lab/shepherd of some sort, other is lab/mastiff maybe? I've been scouring Craiglist for rentals, and there just does not seem to be much selection. When we first started looking at the jobs, we searched houses for SALE, since in our area there is a correlation between the sales prices of houses and the rent for similar houses. The housing prices we saw were actually a lot less than in our area, so we figured rents would be a lot less as well. Guess we were really wrong on that front, it definitely seems like it is cheaper to buy than to rent in that area!

Just a word to the wise, if you find a place and the landlord asks you about your dogs, simply say they are a Lab mix. Do not say Sheperd or Mastiff as that will.often be an automatic turndown. You aren't lying, they are Lab mixes. Just a thought...

[EastwardBound]

Sure, there are more affordable places, like Florida or Texas, but then you have to live in Florida or Texas. No contest.

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by EastwardBound

Sure, there are more affordable places, like Florida or Texas, but then you have to live in Florida or Texas. No contest.

That depends on how you look at it.

[EastwardBound]

Originally Posted by bostongymjunkie

That depends on how you look at it.

Certainly. Some love that sort of thing.

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by EastwardBound

Certainly. Some love that sort of thing.

Which sort of thing is that?

[dba07]

Originally Posted by Melmo

My husband and I have both accepted jobs in Williston, we are supposed to be moving up there in November. We currently live in the DC/Baltimore area (husband works in DC, I work in B'more). We have young children, and decided we wanted to move to a more laid back, family friendly environment with less crime and more outdoor opportunities. With our new jobs, we will be making almost exactly HALF what we have been making in the DC/Baltimore area.

I thought I was prepared and willing to sacrifice the $$ for the improved quality of life, but now I'm starting to worry. A big part of this is that we are having an IMPOSSIBLE time finding a place to rent. Our house here is on the market, but hasn't sold yet, so we will need to rent until it sells. We also don't know the Burlington area that well, so we'd prefer to rent for a while until we decide where we want to buy. We have 2 children, 2 dogs and 6 chickens (which we'd like to bring, but don't HAVE to bring), and it just seems like any place that would work for us to rent is more than $2500 a month! Our mortgage payment here is a lot less than that, and as I mentioned, we are going to be making HALF the amount of money. I am starting to wonder if we can even AFFORD to move to Vermont?

Does anyone have any suggestions for where to find affordable rentals that allow dogs and possibly other animals? Or does some place like this exist? My husband has said he is fine with living up to an hour from Williston (he currently commutes more than an hour to his job in DC), but I'd like to live closer, as I'm worried about being too far away from daycare (one of our children is in school, the other in daycare, and I've been at my job long enough that if the school or daycare calls me to pick up a kid, I can leave at the drop of a hat and be there in 20 minutes).

Thanks for any suggestions!

The first thing you need to think about is why Vermont? Is it a place that youre certain you will like? If you’re looking for a safer place with less traffic and such than DC, you have many choices.

The biggest issue is that Renting is horrible in that area. We didn’t have dogs and it was a mess. The few places we found for rent had serious issues, many of which were not listed in the ad. Shared yards, living with the landlord, mold, one had barbed wire all over the back. Again, none of these were evident until we checked the place out. Fenced yards are like hens teeth. I presume you want a fenced yard? You won’t find one under $2500 and likely very few at that. And those overpriced places are high in demand. You won’t have a chance of getting many of them.

Even an hour commute doesn’t get you much quality. Once in awhile Montpelier has rentals come up but that’s 90 minutes away.

Good luck, we tried to make Vermont work, but the weather, rentals, and many of the people suck. (Not all, met some wonderful people but they were the minority for sure)