Municipalities already have a chokehold on housing zoning - hence the insanely high prices. Taking the veto power away from towns in some cases will allow more to be built, increase housing quality, and bring prices down.

do you know why you can see plenty of houses for 300k+ on realtor.com right now, and barely any for 200k under? because the cheap ones are bought up immediately.

anyone who can afford a mortgage for a cheap house can easily get a mortgage. it's really not hard to get a mortgage if you can actually afford the house. i can ACTUALLY AFFORD a sub 200k mortgage, but I've been approved for a 260k mortgage. it is way too easy to get approved for way too much mortgage.

Well back in their day they all walked to school uphill in 5ft of snow for 13 miles ya know

There's more risk in cheap housing. People that can afford a mortgage for a cheap house, can't actually get the bank to lend them the money. I don't see $400k+ pro homes sitting empty.

the risk is whether there is someone who wants to buy that $500 item vs if you had just built two of the $150 item for the same amount of money and definitely had buyers.

it's way more complicated than your simple math equation. of course there's risk for investing in real estate lol.

It will be interesting to see the qualifications for the "Missing Middle-Income Homeownership Development Program" and how the vetting process would work. Although the same could be said for any of the proposals highlighted in the article.

My initial concerns with this one here is the targeted townships for this 90 million dollar project. I've not yet dug into it but am curious if the Vermont senate is also targeting legislation to curtail STR as this seems like a huge contributor to the housing crisis going on here.

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I think the bills worthwhile fundamentally but it needs to be done in lockstep with curtailing STR running rampant across the state.

this bill is not giving more control to the state, though...

Grow up and just keep your kids home if you can’t handle driving in the snow.

Eliminating single family zoning exclusivity is a big barrier removal.

Call the Postmaster. I've had to do so on a few occasions in regards to utterly worthless service (ie...leaving mail in snow outside of a business). If you do not see an improvement, keep leveling up.

Yeah, that sounds totally feasible, so long as you’re patient and ready to go once something comes available, and either not too picky or willing to buy something that’s almost what you want and then make some small changes.

If only. Rainbows and unicorns.

I like referring to Stowe as Vermont’s gift shop

so you admit that it's not any sort of legitimate news or discourse happening there.

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As for your question, I'm not sure how to add to or debate such an idiotic string of statements. I disagree with everything the author said. I think just shouting "racist" at everything is idiotic, shallow, and anti-intellectual. It's just such a dishonest framing of the issue and of events that it's impossible to actually discuss the issue with this person and people who think like him. He isn't experiencing the same reality that sane people are.

This bill is largely de-regulation. The state isn't inserting itself into these regulatory procedures, it's limiting what municipalities can regulate (and reducing the purview of act 250).

This by all accounts should help make building in towns and villages easier and more affordable

"risk v reward of luxury housing"? Risk has nothing to do with it; it's just math (profit). Why spend $100 to build something you will sell for $150 when you can build something for $200 and sell for $500?

We have a few "anti-woke" folk running for school board in Milton. They're definitely getting more subtle about their dog whistles but couldn't resist that one, I guess.

Strong recommend for the Italian pasta class

What an awesome link! Thank you!

The inventory is low. You'll find something in that price range, but you'll need to be quick. I'd suggest signing up with an agent. They'll often get word of new listings coming early.

My folks have always called this bird a goby, and they are supposedly so friendly they'll happily eat out of your hand. Great pic!

I’d be happy to go back to the days where we could build similarly to how many downtowns already exist. Many towns are zoned in such a way that if a building burns down it can’t be rebuilt it the same form, even though it’d stood for a hundred years because the zoning has changed.

Instead we’re forcing people to live in the 1950s-70s and claiming it’s to preserve the Vermont of the 1900s

True, but technically the TSA still requires a state-issued photo ID

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Thank you. We tried yesterday, can't get us one right away, it has to be mailed. They gave her a temporary but that's basically a print-out with a B&W photo on it. It's technically not valid for anything but driving.

Next, they went to BTV and asked the TSA person if that was acceptable, and got a "not really but if you bring other things like a RX prescription, a debit card, they might let you in." Ooof. Not very confidence-inspiring.