[CatwomanofV]

Not to discourage you but keep in mind if you live on a mountain in winter, it can be pretty hairy driving. Not only dealing with snow but also ice (which IMO is worst that snow). Also, if you chose a dirt road, you have to contend with mud season.

But, there are still a lot of great towns.



Cat

[arctichomesteader]

I've got property on a mountain in a northeast kingdom town that sends high schoolers to St. Johnsbury Academy. No not for sale. But my point is as suggested above you can live in an affordable town that tuitions their school kids to highly rated schools out of town. But Catwoman hit on an important point: it's dicey as all get out going down my road in the winter. Studded tires, 4x4 and I still have had close calls. A few times a year I need to put tire chains on to make the ice-covered hill. About half a mile of my drive is on a class 4 road but that's often not the bad part of the drive as another property owner plows it well. It's the steep hill where the town plows that's bad but it's the last road they plow so at times it's been noon or later before it was plowed and salted. You can live on a less steep road close to a nice mountain and have a nice hike to a mountain in many places and often have good views too. I like my mountainside cabin but I don't drive in and out on a daily basis in winter.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by vter

Another area I would consider is the Upper Valley - White River Junction/Hanover NH/Lebanon NH area. Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is a large hospital that serves that area.

Commutable from that $600K house in Woodstock.

For a nurse, I'd start with Dartmouth-Hitchcock and UVM Medical/Fletcher-Allen. Chittenden County isn't mountain country but it's very close to it.

It might be worth taking a look at Rutland. It has a lot of medical jobs. You can live a bit up the hill in Mendon and get more of a mountain town experience. The local economy is pretty weak compared to the upper valley and Chittenden County and it suffers from the opiate addiction crisis but living costs are a lot lower.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by CatwomanofV

Not to discourage you but keep in mind if you live on a mountain in winter, it can be pretty hairy driving. Not only dealing with snow but also ice (which IMO is worst that snow). Also, if you chose a dirt road, you have to contend with mud season.

But, there are still a lot of great towns.



Cat

With studded snow tires, the usual problem is mud month, not so much icy roads.

[BLISSLIGHTJOY]

I moved from Asheville to South Royalton to Montpelier, and I work in White River Junction. Feel free to message me if any of those towns are on your list.

[Sporin]

All my comments in your NH thread apply to this as well. Diverse state, lots of options and variance town to town. Tough winters.

Originally Posted by vter

Another area I would consider is the Upper Valley - White River Junction/Hanover NH/Lebanon NH area. Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is a large hospital that serves that area.

This. I really enjoying living here, it's a great place to raise a family. You have easy access to the best that NH & VT has to offer, and each little town is different so you can find the right spot for your family.

Originally Posted by timberline742

Absolutely, my brother lives in Norwich and loves it.

Like Woodstock, another gold town with expensive homes but I'm sure it's great if you can afford it. Norwich kids attend Jr & Sr. High in Hanover NH though, which some think is worth the price. (personally I think that's debatable but that's a conversation for another time)

And on the subject of schools, it's a bit more complicated in VT than NH because VT funds education quite differently. Also Vermont is in a flux state right now with Act 46 forcing many small towns, and particularly the ones with HS Choice, to consolidate. So keep an eye on that so you don't wind up moving to a town with HS choice that might very well lose it in a year.

That said, the schools in Vermont are quite good by national standards, and only a few are genuinely under-performing.

[Pokesmom]

Originally Posted by timberline742

What are the four towns?


Incidently, while VT doesn't get a lot of hurricanes, Hurricane Irene did tremendous damage in VT in 2011. Pretty much destroyed downtown Brattleboro.

Not at home to check my list but I think one was Morristown (?or Morrisville). I think I checked our Brattleboro already but the real estate was a little pricey. Thank you for the response.

[Pokesmom]

Originally Posted by cgregor

I'm an incorrigible Springfield booster and advise you to check us out. A lot of Vermont small towns have the well-off retired enjoying their Horatian years while the rest of the population lives by the dictates of the state song, "Moonlight in Vermont (or Starve)."

Springfield, having little to attract well-off retirees and having lost a huge chunk of its capital base in the 1980's, is finally coming to terms with the fact that the industrialists who used to run the town really aren't going to come back and tell us what to do next. So, we're starting to work on it ourselves.

So, if for example, you want a town with an excellent school system, all you have to do is move to a place like Woodstock and plunk down $600,000 for a home-- or you can help make an excellent school system from the ground up in Springfield, where recently the average asking price for a home was $170,000 and the selling price was $113,000.

In short, you can be part of the audience in a Vermont town or you can be part of the show. Good luck in finding what you want!

Thank you so much for your response! This is exactly the kind of suggestions I am looking for. Although if I am being honest, loads of retirees don’t scare off nurses, it means plenty of work and job security for me. Healthy people don’t usually need a lot of medical care.

[Pokesmom]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Or you can live in Bridgewater which tuitions out all their middle/high school students to Woodstock. GreatSchools.com has Springfield's middle school rated as a 2 and the high school rated as a 4. Why on earth would anyone send their children to a failed school system if they had other options?

I’ll look into Bridgewater too. Thanks!

[Pokesmom]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

The iguanas only started making real inroads into greater Ft Lauderdale sometime after 2001. They did add to the change of character.

I know what you are feeling with missing mountains and REAL rocks, not that foamy weak coral. Unfortunately the economics and my intolerance for the lack of sunlight midwinter ruled out coming back home. The Champlain valley around Burlington and down to Charlotte seem to get the most consistent winter sun. Coming from Florida, especially if you do so now, it will feel like moving into a cold dark closet in some places.

I will mention that you might adjust fine, but it is going to be a shock to that 16 YO, and the 19 YO will skeedaddle out within a year or two at most out of boredom and lack of work.

Also recognize that even those map distances seem short, commuting time can be long due to road conditions, tourists, and the inevitable slowpoke.

In your shoes, I would concentrate from Stowe to Waitsfield, Burlington to Barre. Truthfully though, I would only go back to live in late spring and summer. Where I live now in north Alabama is more like the Vermont I grew up in than Vermont.

Thanks for the suggestions. My 16 year old is remarkably adaptable. The 19 year old is free to do whatever he likes...but for a variety of reasons he will be at home for a bit longer.