Vermont Housing Market Weathers the Storm

The Vermont housing market has bucked a national trend that projects home values will fall 1.7 percent this year, a noted economist said Tuesday.

“Vermont is a little more insulated, especially from the national trends” said S. Lawrence Yun, V.P. of research for the National Association of Realtors.

The Vermont housing market has been spared the decline in values because relatively little “speculative buying and building” occurred, easing the effects of the sputtering housing market.

Rampant speculation - designed to cash in on the booming real estate market - occurred most dramatically in Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, and greater Washington, D.C.. Those areas are now facing the most substantial declines in property value.

The slowing of new home construction is good for home mortgage loan seekers because it keeps the housing supply from expanding and driving prices down.

Vermont’s restrictive building environment also has one beneficial side-effect: fewer projects have been built and that helps support home prices of existing properties when the market sours.

Retiring baby boomers looking for vacation spots will continue buying homes throughout Vermont, as well, further positioning the state positively.

Kathleen Sweeten, V.P. of the Northwestern Vermont Board of Realtors, went to the Northeast Real Estate Conference and Expo Tuesday and said that she too, thinks Vermont’s home values will continue to rise.

For the first six months of the year, statewide median prices for primary residence, single-family homes increased 7 percent, she said.

Despite the increasing value of homes, and the relatively affordable Vermont mortgage rates to entice buyers, it’s taking several weeks longer for houses to sell than it did last year.

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