The median price for primary homes that were sold in Vermont has continued to rise through the first half of 2023. It reached the $315,000 mark for homes that were sold during the period, as per the most recent Vermont Property Transfer Tax (PTT) data. This is in line with a pattern in which none of the counties within Vermont had seen any drop in the median home sale value during the period 2019 to.
This was happening while the median time of being available for the sale of houses continued to fall in a pattern that has been ongoing for a number of years and dipped to 56 days as measured by the statewide listings of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in June 2023. These statistics, along with other indicators that provide information about the current and historical market conditions for housing, can be found until June 2023 for each Vermont town and county (town as well as county) on the VHFA’s housingdata.org.
Recent Home Price Trends
The median Vermont home was sold at $315,000 over the beginning of 2023’s first 6 months. Compared to a median $309,000 price for 2022’s sales, The median sale price was up 1.9 percent in the first six months of the year. The median price is for single-unit houses intended for use as primary residences. It includes single-family detached houses as well as condominiums and manufactured/mobile homes that are sold with land. Multi-unit structures, undeveloped land, and manufactured homes with no land do not count in the median cost.
None of the counties in Vermont has experienced a decrease in median annual home sales price prior to the year the year. The majority of counties in Vermont have seen price fluctuations from 2000 onward, with certain counties experiencing prolonged times of declining median sale prices, particularly before 2014. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, this pattern has been altered. Prices for homes increased steadily throughout the state, in every county, beginning in 2019 and continuing until 2022.
Chittenden County continues to have the highest house prices in the state. It also has the most consistent rate of home price increases per year. The median home sold for $450,000, following an increase of 3.5 percent during 2022. Chittenden County has seen price increases in every year of this century, with the exception of 2011 and 2009, which were impacted by the effects caused by the Great Recession. Prior to the outbreak, the biggest annual price increase for homes was seen in and around the Burlington metropolitan region, which acts as the largest statewide job center.
If this trend continues throughout the state, the annual percentage rise in home prices could vary from year to year; however, the median home prices will remain on the rise in all areas of the state in the coming year. The first half of 2023’s numbers show slight decreases in median sales values, suggesting that this trend could change in specific regions of the state. However, additional data is required to confirm if this really is true.
These trends do not take into account the impact of the devastating Flood of 2023, which affected a lot of Vermont. It also destroyed several homes. It could impact the prices of homes that are sold in the hardest-hit communities of Vermont.
Notably, during the first six months of 2023, the median manufactured home sold for $130,000, significantly lower than their “stick-built”/site-built counterparts. This price includes the factory-built home as well as the land it’s built on. Manufactured homes that were sold with no land (in a community that is often called”mobile home park “mobile house park”) featured an average cost of $49,498 by 2022.
The lower cost of selling manufactured homes is not a significant factor in Vermont’s median home price figures since fewer constructed homes (274 houses) were sold as compared to homes built on site (7514 homes sold between 2022 and 2022). Although they were fewer in number, the lower median price is important. It is worth mentioning within the context of larger discussions about the affordability of housing as well as environmental justice that are taking right now in Vermont.
Potential Reasons for Changes in Median Home Sale Price
In the past, specific aspects of the house sales market have a seasonal arc in Vermont. The majority of sales are held during the spring and summer months. It is also the time when we experience the largest price increases for homes. In winter, fewer homes are sold because it’s more difficult and less appealing to sell a property in the harsh winter weather.
This is evident by the data, as the days on the market increase in winter.
The median time for which a Vermont home is available for sale has been decreasing each year since. In 2022, the median home sold in just 64 days. In 2016, homes were being offered for sale for two times as long, and the median was 137 days. This indicates that the state currently continues to have a high demand from home buyers with respect to the supply of homes on the market. The time it takes to sell is also affected by the seasons. Despite a general downward trend, the time on the market was 58 days during June 2022; however, it increased to 82 days by February 20, 2023.
Despite the rise in home prices, the amount of homes that are sold within Vermont is not affected. In fact, the median prices for homes have been rising, and more homes have been sold across the state every year since 2017. This suggests that the constant demand has pushed higher home prices in Vermont as the trend began before the onset of the outbreak. It should be noted that even though the total volume of home sales remained very high, fewer homes were being sold by the year 2022 (7,764 properties) than in the year 2021 (8,408 properties). While this was a decrease, there were more homes offered for sale in 2021 than any other year from 2006 to 2019.
Additional Data on Vermont’s Home Sales
By combining other sources of data other than PTT, housingdata.org site visitors are able to look up data specifically for homes that have been constructed recently. The median cost for new homes has gone up drastically in the state since the beginning of 2019, rising from $365,569 to $555,264 by 2022. It’s an increase of 52% in the price of a brand-new house within just three years.
The soaring price of new homes is especially evident in Vermont because the housing stock in Vermont is among the oldest in the nation. The majority of homes in Vermont were constructed prior to 1939, and more than 58% of houses were constructed prior to 1980. Although, indeed, the age of a house is not a measure of its value, older homes require frequent maintenance and, as a rule, are more likely to become unsafe to live in. This is why it is imperative to ensure regular maintenance and enhancement of Vermont’s housing stock in order to prevent older properties from leaving the housing market in a tight state because of maintenance delays.
Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) Programs are in place to assist people with moderate incomes in becoming homeowners. In addition to its low-cost program for mortgages and help with the down-payment, VHFA has also introduced the Missing middle-income homeownership Development Program to provide subsidies and incentives to builders who want to build or renovate small homes for homebuyers who earn 120% of the area median income or less. For more details and analysis of data on current market conditions in the housing market, take a look at the graphs and charts available on housingdata.org.