The COVID Land Rush Continues- Vermont First Quarter Report

When Saturday Night Live riffs on homes in Vermont, you know things are hot.

(They are absolutely right that Boomers own a large share of Vermont vacation homes, and are, on margin, sellers. What’s new is that Gen X and Millennials are buying.)

The aggregate numbers are impressive enough, but it’s the difference in tone that is striking: the laid-back Vermont vibe does not usually include multiple bidders, pricing above asking, properties selling the day of launch – or before. You’d think we were in Palo Alto; oh, wait, it’s the same people! There are Googlers in the Greens now.

It is a demanding market for brokers, and not for the inexperienced. We see too many transactions outside of our firm come together too quickly and fall apart just as quickly. Properties being brought on with inadequate due diligence or poor representation lead to sellers and buyers not being well-served.

With values this high, expectations are equally so for accurate, timely, complete, and wise counsel. We see plenty of smart, well-informed buyers, intolerant of mistakes, and lots of evidence that good properties, well-presented, can command prices at a substantial premium to any previous market.

One of LandVest’s early tag lines was “Don’t go into the woods alone.” That could not be more true now.

Recent Vermont highlights include:

• Woodstock: LandVest listing offered a few years ago at just below $1 million. Owner decided to hold – a wise decision! Sold at full price at the first showing: $1.3 million.
• Stowe area: Time on market measured in hours, a new listing posted at 9pm on a Friday had 18 showings within 36 hours and multiple offers.
• Lake Champlain/Burlington:
  • For the first time in over 30 years, there are no major waterfront properties for sale in Shelburne.
  • Burlington waterfront selling for $3 million, pricing that used to be only seen south of town.
  • Charlotte: Property sold for $850,000 two years ago in a bidding war. Under agreement, will sell for above $1.2 million asking to buyer from Boston with young kids, working remotely at a start-up.
• Mad River Valley: Two buyers, both with young children, moving from metro-NYC to Vermont on a permanent basis. This is a totally new trend in buyer profile for rural markets.
• Southern Vermont: Lovely old farm purchased for $1.25 million in 2020 at over asking price, reoffered, multiple bidders now under agreement with an asking price in the mid-$2 million range.