13 Pros and Cons of Living in Vermont

Last Updated on March 12, 2021 by Filip Poutintsev

Vermont is a place that provides an egalitarian streak, and for those who live there, it is a mentality that has long been a part of society. Due to its spectacular natural scenery, the Green Mountain State has been compared to living inside a booklet.

Pros and Cons of Living in Vermont

They are simply great for capturing and sharing fun panoramic images to your social media pages. But, people-wise, it’s on the quiet side a bit. The total population is currently just 623,960, making Vermont the second-smallest state by size, right behind Wyoming. In fact, Montpellier is the smallest city in the nation, with less than 10,000 residents. Yet don’t let those figures make you afraid.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Living in Vermont

Everything Vermont loses in residents, in vast nature, makes up for. So trees are considered to be much better than others. The state has its own vibe and compared to the rest of the country, one can think of it as almost a different world, like stepping back in time.
But before you decide to move, here are some pros and cons to discover.

Pros of Living in Vermont

1. Transportation

If you reside in Rutland, then if you really want to enjoy a visit, the Amtrak train runs straight into New York City. There are two national highways also passing through the city, and that there is a large medical centre to care for your health. Burlington has some traffic issues, but they’re nothing compared with what you’d find in the average area. If you can avoid the downtown area, then most of the problems will be missed.

2. Health

According to the United Health Foundation, Vermont was ranked number one healthiest state in the nation for four years in a row. It’s super easy to see why you would want to be outside soaking up every second on hikes and ski trips, too – with all the beauty of Green Mountain.

3. Snow Sports

It snows a lot in Vermont, which means there’s plenty of winter sports here. Through going all-in on some fantastic skiing and snowboarding scenery, the locals learned to tolerate the harsh winters. Sugarbush Resort is one of the resorts where the locals love to host their Olympic Winters.

4. Beautiful Landscape

Vermont has been labelled another planet as a whole. According to digital.vpr.net, “the charm of the landscape” has a greater pull from the state to its people than does the appeal of living close to home. The rolling hills, woodland, small towns and miles and miles of “uncontaminated landscapes” make the senses happy, no matter the time of year.

5. Helpful People

Some of Vermont’s most fascinating aspects of living is that everyone in the state seems to find a way to compromise or work together to produce results. You could hear a heated political discussion in the morning at the local diner, but then later that day you’ll see both people working at the food bank with smiles on their faces.

You don’t have to get along with your neighbour, but the emphasis here is on tolerance that you won’t find elsewhere in the country.

6. Simple Life

The people in Vermont love to live a simple life. They are proud of their ability to preserve the traditional charm that comes with the way of life in New England.

On the roads, there are no billboards which have stacked farms next to them, one straight after the other. The state legislature passed a law prohibiting such ads to ensure things did not change soon. You’ll also note that the state wants more of the retail experience in the general store than the malls or outlet complexes you can note elsewhere. This doesn’t say that if you need it, you won’t be able to find a Walmart because there won’t be as many to frequent.

Cons of Living in Vermont

1. Cost of Living

Vermont was number eight on the “America’s 10 most expensive states to stay, in 2017” list by CNBC. Foods, gas prices and even property taxes are also considered to be higher than normal. Those frigid winters do not help a whole lot either, through all of that it gets costly heating up a house. And maybe bring just an extra blanket or two.

2. Freezing Winter

In the Green Mountain State, the snow gets so bad that the residents have to shovel their roofs to prevent them from freezing or caving in under the weight.

Then, all those harsh winter elements contribute to a disastrous springtime road network, to add insult to the injury. Mud and potholes everywhere. Winter just seems like a lot of work and it is hard to look forward to spring when the roadways become more like an obstacle course.

3. Mud Season

In Vermont, the winters can be rough, but the mud season can be much worse. When the process of melting begins the soil becomes extremely warm. This cycle leads to a large amount of mud throughout the county.

If you begin shopping for homes here, you’ll find that there are several houses that have a formal mudroom that allows people to take off their shoes and clean up from outside. If you don’t have a mudroom it will take you only one season to see why you need one. Even a screened outside porch is better than getting all the things into your house when spring comes first.

4. Air Pollution

Air pollution in Vermont in the winter months, from all the wood-burning, is reported to be the worst in the entire country.

5. Lack of Job Opportunities

Many residents complain that there is a grave lack of their state in the way of industry. But, with all the “real Vermonters” resistant to change and new development, turning that around may be difficult. Remember, it took them to get a Walmart until ’96.

6. Expensive Rent

Vermont’s rental market can be fairly expensive because the availability of apartments and houses is small, but demand rates are high due to the existence of some outstanding educational institutions.

The monthly cost of rent in the state is about 30 per cent higher than it is nationally throughout the average year and that figure gets much worse when you need to move to Burlington. A city one-bedroom apartment will comfortably go for $1,200 a month-if, not more.

7. Culture

If you decide to start a life in Vermont, you won’t find much in the way of international culture. Although you can find youth around the educational institutions, most of the youth are leaving the state to pursue other opportunities.

Whether you want a good meal from a Mexican or Japanese restaurant, then you need to go somewhere else. There isn’t much nightlife either, but you can also go down for a beer and a laugh at the neighbourhood pub.