Lindsey Newton has spent the past five years coaching Vermonters through the grueling house-buying process.
Her clients come from all walks of life, but Newton said there's one trait that ties everyone together.
They're frustrated with the cost of homes.
"They can afford the mortgage, but they don't have anything saved," Newton, a housing counselor at NeighborWorks of Western Vermont, said in an interview. "That's the case for a lot of people. They're living paycheck to paycheck."
Buying a home in the Green Mountain State has become even more expensive in recent years as Vermont prices have soared. Price increases have hit Vermont at a time when the state is experiencing a massive housing shortage and more remote workers are flocking to the area.
Newton and other housing market watchers say there are few housing options for Vermonters, but it's particularly dire for those with low- to-middle incomes.
"People are being pushed out of their rentals because the prices are rising there, and they're feeling like they have this big rush to get into a home," Newton said. "But there's nothing out there really to meet their needs."
The pandemic influx exacerbated the shortage
Housing affordability isn't a new issue in Vermont, but the problem kicked into high gear during the pandemic, said Nancy Gilman, Newton's co-worker at NeighborWorks. That's when high-income New Englanders moved to Vermont and bought homes in cash for more than the appraised value, said Gilman, NeighborWorks' homeownership director.
New Englanders came to Vermont en masse because, at that time, the state had the nation's lowest COVID-19 infection rates and companies allowed their employees to work remotely, Gilman added.
In 2023, Vermont saw a net migration of 7,592 people, according to the Office of the State Treasurer. Per U.S. Census Bureau tabulations, Vermont had an estimated population of 648,493 as of July 2024, up from 625,741 in 2010.
The wave of new residents was a gift and a curse, Gilman said.
The migration brought bundles of people of color to a state that had been historically all white, Gilman said, but as the newcomers bought homes, that pushed up prices across the state — a trend that rages on today.
Vermont's median sales price for single-family homes grew from $275,306 in April 2020 to $450,000 in April 2025 — a nearly 64% jump, according to data from the Vermont Association of Realtors.
In Montpelier, the state's capital, median prices jumped to $445,000 last month, up from $402,000 a year prior, according to Homes.com data. In Brattleboro, median prices rose 6% to $345,250 in April. Combining the city of Rutland and Rutland Town, you get a median home price of $332,500 in April, an 8.6% jump.
Burlington, the state's largest city, is experiencing the steepest increases, Gilman and Newton said. Median prices there grew from $500,000 in April 2024 to $564,000 a month ago, according to Homes.com data.
The increase means a large swath of homebuyers will have to wait longer to find their ideal home in Burlington or risk being priced out of the city altogether, said Kathy Sweeten, CEO of the Vermont Association of Realtors.
“People have to be willing to move out of the metropolitan area to find their homes,” Sweeten said in an interview. “I hear it all the time when people go 45 minutes or an hour out, they find something that better fits their budget.”
State's median income grows, but not enough
Buying a home in Vermont has become a tall task for many because residents aren't making the income needed to afford a mortgage down payment, Gilman said. Traditionally, a mortgage down payment asks a buyer to fork over anywhere from 3% to 20% of the price of the home.
"Most people in Vermont don't have that amount of money just lying around," Newton said.
Vermont's median household income grew from $67,260 in 2020 to $85,190 in 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
A recent ranking from U.S. News & World Report labeled Vermont as the top state in the nation for opportunity, based on several economic factors including job market, cost of living, poverty rate, and housing affordability. But many homebuyers today were able to purchase their homes only because they scored a government grant that helped cover the down payment, Gilman and Newton added.
Adding insult to injury, Vermont's housing stock is filled with aging homes that predate the 1920s and 1940s, Gilman said. That means today's buyers are purchasing a property that needs considerable renovations on top of the mortgage.
"If you already have a high mortgage and something happens with the house, like the roof or the hot water heater, that's another problem," Newton said. "Then it kind of just puts them underwater."
State needs to build 7,000 homes a year
An influx of New England residents is just one issue weighing on Vermont's housing market. Vermont is also experiencing an intense shortage that state officials say needs immediate action.
Vermont needs to build 7,000 new homes every year until 2050 to meet the increased demand, according to a state study. That's a particularly daunting task considering the state only generated 4,800 new building permits at its peak in 1988.
“We have got to pick up the pace,” Alex Farrell, commissioner for the state's Department of Housing and Community Development, said in a statement when the study was released in January. “These targets reinforce what we already know: We are not adding new homes fast enough to meet current demand, let alone even modest growth."
Vermont has a housing shortage for two main reasons, according to the state study. First, the pace of new home construction slowed between 2010 and 2020, leaving homebuyers in that decade with very few options to purchase. Vermont is also home to the nation's third-oldest population, according to the Burlington Free Press, and many aging residents have opted not to move in retirement, thus still occupying homes that could have gone on the market.
Despite the housing woes, Americans are still moving to Vermont — particularly from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, the state study concluded. More homes are needed to accommodate today's newcomers and the ones expected to arrive in the coming years, state officials said.
"People are still choosing to come to Vermont for other reasons," Sweeten said. "It's a slower pace. We have incredible outdoor activities and a very strong sense of local community here where people feel like they can really know their neighbors."