That's always the argument rich people make. Sure, we're making it hell to live there, but we pay taxes.

I'd rather have a worker living there contributing more than just money.

If ain't the state university of New Jersey (uvm) the legislature doesn't give a shit.

"It's way bigger than out of staters moving to Vermont, which, again, is not happening."

That's just silly. Anyone with eyes can see that is happening. I can't pretend that the town I live in is not full of out of state plates. The most recent batch of arrivals is from Texas, oddly enough. All of a sudden tons of Texas plates around. I'm going to believe my eyes and the digger (and every other local media outlet) over people who seem to have a vested interest in pretending that increased demand during and after the pandemic hasn't affected housing prices.

From the Globe: "But the pandemic brought a countervailing force. Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire have seen an uptick in new residents arriving from other states, more than 50,000 across the three states since April 2020, even as other Northeastern states — and especially large metro areas — have experienced a surge in out-migration."

But yeah, let's pretend no one is moving here because that is preferable, for reasons I don't understand.

Something is off. Home prices are increasing at rates never seen before and I've never seen a viable explanation other than people moving here during the pandemic.

https://vtdigger.org/2023/02/16/a-vermont-perfect-storm-statewide-data-shows-record-spike-in-housing-prices/

What other explanation is there for the largest increase since records starting being kept?

That has not been my experience lately. We lack anyone under 50 looking for work.

I think the op is talking about the need to attract a workforce, which is true. Hiring is impossible here unless you want to teach a 60 year old how to turn on a computer. The problem is its hard to convince people to come here for jobs when the jobs won't cover the cost of housing.

That should be in the past tense. "before 2020, Vermont's low population is what kept it Vermont."

Be as good a person as OP is the implication. I bet OP wears a mask to walk down the street solo.

If you're going to virtue signal, might as well use your real name. kinda pointess on reddit.

I've heard that exact conversation in winooski too many times to count in the last two years. "On long Island we had x, y, and z."

Cool, maybe you oughta go back.

Oh, so this is why you're so infamous. Bigotry. Interesting. And no, we aren't going to drop it. Add New Jersey to that list.

I think there won't be anyone local to cut hair because you have to cut a lot of hair to come up with half a million dollars in cash for a house.

Haha 40 hours. Wouldn't that be nice? Most people I know who actually work here are understaffed by like 30% or more and are working well over 40 hours.

We're already there. The word is out, "Vermont" ceased to exist sometime in 2021.

VT as a place where people live and work is dead and gone, covid killed that. VT will be a place with lots of people working from home and driving out of state to a grocery store or to get a haircut because those things are no longer available in VT.

From Rutland. So they moved to Rutland when they came out of their mom. Not everyone moved here to escape New Jersey.

What this person is describing is why most people I know from high school left and did not come back.

They're going to be really disappointed when they figure out the workforce moved rather than live in some dumpy shoebox to serve the Mcmansion crowd.

That's it. Even this sub is all posts about pretty snow or dogs playing in snow or "vermonting", whatever that is.

The reality is lots of people, even those making good money, are on the edge of homelessness because they're living in a dumpy VT rental that could fail inspection at any time.

The quality of life here for people who aren't making at least six figures is really, really low.

I don't disagree, but moving to a place that wants people other than old rich people to live there makes a lot more sense than trying to find a place here. Finding a job in another state is easier than finding quality housing in VT.

It's tough for working people to get here. Rich people seem to have no problem at all. VT is becoming very exclusive. I'm sure some old people see that as a good thing, for me it's a reason to leave.

It must be really, really bad in PA. Our state legislature sees their job solely as finding ways to make VT more expensive.

This is already happening. Hiring in Vermont is an absolute disaster and theres plenty of reason to expect it to get worse and no reason to expect it to get better.

If the current gentrification trend continues its hard to imagine how VT will staff anything relying on local labor in ten years, if not sooner.

From the outside maybe. Those are likely just the sort of dumpy Vermont rentals that would be crackhouses in most states but are considered acceptable housing here.

The answer, unfortunately, is no.

That doesn't excuse it in VT. In Vermont now, wages and costs are so far apart that the only people who can afford to live here are either working from home or independently wealthy. VT is running a sociological experiment to see what happens if you completely eliminate the workforce/working class in a state.