[ansible90]

Originally Posted by northernborn

Taxes and Utilities. to put it in a nutshell.

I have a house sitting there empty that I leased out to a niece and her family, the taxes are over $5,000 ( because it is owned by a non resident taxes are higher) and utilities are 10X what they are in wyoming.

so just those factors alone i would need a higher rent than in wy where taxes are a fraction ( my house in WY is valued at more than 5 times what the house in VT is and yet the taxes in VT are 4x what I pay in WY!!)

and utilites are nothing in our budget whereas they are many thousands of dollars in VT, plus extra costs of keeping a rental property in Vermont, Police charges ( they charge $75 to drive by in Bennington not pull in, just drive by if the alarm goes off .) and the cost of just having the meter on the house with everything turned off is $50+dollars a month, I don't pay that in WY for ALL of my utilities combined! $125 a month in electric was normal for my niece and mother when she was alive. Water cost, sewer cost, these are costs not found in many places ...$2500 a year for water service and sewer hook up...$7,100 a year NOT counting fuel oil costs and mortgage...so it's very easy to see why rents are higher obviously they are going to be higher than the mortgage and cost of keeping the house open plus phone cable etc...very expensive there.

these costs get passed on to the renter . hence it costs more to rent a house in Vermont than it does some other places in the world.

the cost of being in a sort of rural, pretty place that isn't too far back from the cookie jar as Thoreau said it.

I live in White River Junction, in a 20 year old, small house in a developed neighborhood. I don't pay nearly that much. Electric averages $55/month. Propane for heat and hot water has never gone above $285 a month in winter. Water is $50 a month. Taxes if I had to pay the full amount would be $5000 a year (there is a sliding scale "discount" for residents based on income). HOA fee is $330 a month which covers snow removal, landscapers, street maintenance in the neighborhood.

To the OP: Look in Quechee VT for summer rentals. There are some very nice properties there, back in the woods, for more reasonable rates than you seeing in your search. If you want more expensive, try Woodstock or any of the ski areas (Stowe, Killington).

Added: also remember that most of Vermont properties are old. Some have been modernized but more of them are just old.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Phorlan

Ski is irrelevant in the summer.
I'm looking at both daily rates and what it'd cost to rent for a month.

You can rent a condo at a ski resort for cheap money in the summer. There are a ton of units sitting empty. A few places like Stowe don’t have that math but most do.

[VTsnowbird]

Don't forget Connecticut. Drive up 91 on a Friday afternoon, the road is full of CT'ers coming up for the weekend.

[VTsnowbird]

Originally Posted by ansible90

I live in White River Junction, in a 20 year old, small house in a developed neighborhood. I don't pay nearly that much. Electric averages $55/month. Propane for heat and hot water has never gone above $285 a month in winter. Water is $50 a month. Taxes if I had to pay the full amount would be $5000 a year (there is a sliding scale "discount" for residents based on income). HOA fee is $330 a month which covers snow removal, landscapers, street maintenance in the neighborhood.

To the OP: Look in Quechee VT for summer rentals. There are some very nice properties there, back in the woods, for more reasonable rates than you seeing in your search. If you want more expensive, try Woodstock or any of the ski areas (Stowe, Killington).

Added: also remember that most of Vermont properties are old. Some have been modernized but more of them are just old.

The problem with Quechee is that it is a four season resort. No off season.

[Phorlan]

Thanks for all your input, I'll check Quechee and other places.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Phorlan

You're also saying that if a house is own by a non resident the taxes are higher?

Lots of places are like that. My RI place is too. Homesteader exemption.

[Biker53]

Vermont property taxes are high because we lavishly fund the schools. VT has the lowest student-teacher ratio in the nation and we were the 5th highest per student spending State in the nation as of a few years ago when we were spending about $18,000 per kid per year. VT correspondingly had the 5th highest ranked schools academically in the nation. For most communities schools are 75 - 80% of the town budgets.

[ansible90]

Originally Posted by VTsnowbird

The problem with Quechee is that it is a four season resort. No off season.

There are a lot of empty houses in Quechee and a lot of rentals. The place was built as a resort community. The monthly HOA fee has gotten so high that people can't sell them... so they rent them out for less than you would expect.

[Riley.]

Originally Posted by Biker53

Vermont property taxes are high because we lavishly fund the schools. VT has the lowest student-teacher ratio in the nation and we were the 5th highest per student spending State in the nation as of a few years ago when we were spending about $18,000 per kid per year. VT correspondingly had the 5th highest ranked schools academically in the nation. For most communities schools are 75 - 80% of the town budgets.

Hmmmm...that may be true....but you can go to Harvard for $18K a year. And most of the locally educated youngsters I encounter are in no way Harvard material. Sad, but just an observation.
It's become ridiculous here, northernborn. Just be aware.

[ansible90]

Harvard Tuition and Fees... far more than $18,000 a year.


2018-2019 2017-2018
Tuition $46,340 $44,990
Fees $4,080 $3,959
Room $10,609 $10,300
Board $6,551 $6,360
Subtotal - billed costs
$67,580 $65,609
Estimated personal expenses
(including $800-$1,200 for books) $4,070 $3,991
Estimated travel costs $0-$5,000 $0-$4,000
Total billed and unbilled costs $71,650-$76,650 $69,600-$73,600
* In addition, health insurance is required at a cost of $3,364 (for 2018-19) unless you are covered under your family’s health plan.

https://college.harvard.edu/financia...ost-attendance