Rent vs buy in Vermont
No Vermont city has 50,000+ residents, so the figures shown cover the state. Enter the rent and price for your own town in the calculator, and it gives you a verdict.
Our take on Vermont
No city in Vermont reaches 50,000+ people, so your choice rests on your own town's numbers. Statewide, a typical home goes for $392k, and the median rent each month is $1,234. That figure is well below the US median of $1,413 a month. A wide gap separates the low monthly rent from the high price of buying. You can go to the calculator for rent vs buy and enter the rent and price for your town. Just 27% of households here rent, or 73,337 renter households in all. That's under the 35% US share.
Yearly ownership costs pull in 2 ways, and you'll see it when you run your numbers. Every year, property tax takes 1.59% of what a home is worth. The US rate is 0.94%, so this one is a lot higher. That tax adds up to a heavy bill on a $392k house, and you don't recover it when you sell. You do save money on homeowners insurance. The yearly cost here is $1,013, compared with $1,308 in the US. Even with cheaper insurance, that 1.59% property tax makes it hard to pay off a short stay.
Buying pays off when home prices rise faster than that $392k price tag and the tax bill. Since 1995, prices of homes in the state have grown 4.7% each year. That pace rose to 6.9% a year over the last 10 years. Steady gains help buying catch up sooner and reach break even earlier, provided you stay put. Still, if you rent at about the $1,234 a month median, your monthly cost is much lower. You can put aside money you don't spend on a house.
In our view, a $392k price tag and a 1.59% property tax set the bar high in Vermont, beside rent of $1,234 a month. Buy when the price in your town is fair and you stay put long enough that yearly price growth pays off.