[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Buitenzorg

You didn’t do well with that property, sorry to hear it, though I am sure you enjoyed it in other ways. Many other long term Vermont owners sold their places in 2022 for unexpectedly large profits, many are continuing to do so today. My parents sold their home in the Boston suburbs in the early 1980s, missing a rise in prices in the mid 1980s that has continued nearly non-stop since that time (meaning of course, the inner suburbs, not beyond 128). We could say they didn’t do that well with that property either, given what followed it’s sale. Structural changes can indeed happen in real estate markers but they cannot be predicted with any real accuracy. Risk is involved in real estate, just as with any other investment. But real estate is not only for those looking for solely for a quality of life improvement.

Prices shot up in the last couple of years I owned it. Still, if you look at what I paid for it in 1993, feed it into the BLS calculator, and back out the Vermont state income tax & Federal capital gain tax, i didn’t quite break even. That’s ignoring the improvements I did to the place.

My point is you buy a vacation home to improve your quality of life, not as a long term investment. Until prices shot up, the after inflation numbers were lousy and I paid the least anyone ever paid for a unit back in 1993. I got an enormous amount of use from the place. Of the 26 years I owned it, I wintered there for half of it.

I’m at Beaver Creek now. My stepdaughter lives in the condo full time and we use the other bedroom during high season. The ownership costs are much lower there. No Vermont Act 68 so the property taxes are very low. Energy costs are much lower because it’s local natural gas. The only thing that is more expensive there is the fire insurance the condo association pays. Not something you would think about in Vermont.

Anyways, if I were retiring in a mountain town, I’d want to be a reasonable distance from UVM Medical, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, or Albany. If I had family in New Jersey I wanted to visit me, I’d pick striking distance from Albany. Bennington is an hour and it’s not great road. That’s a bit farther than I’d want. The southern Berkshires where you can use the Mass Pike would be more attractive to me.

[RobinG60]

Hey there.
Havent been on here for awhile, so u might have found what you're looking for by now. But, this NJ person settled in Newfane, sweet little hamlet southern Vt. Our go to "city" lol, is Brattleboro. A 15 minute ride. Like so many rural towns, Bboro has had drug/poverty issues last few years. But it's still a great town. We live in middle of woods. Quiet. Lovely. Just what we were looking for when we left the farmlands of NJ, 6 years ago.

[NYLIER]

This OP hasn't been to the outskirts of Saratoga or Lake George, NY. It is much nicer and affordable to live there than VT. The people are more acceptable of downstaters also. Vermont is not as welcoming of outsiders. Forget the taxes in VT. You better have a lot of money or it will be very difficult.