VHFA hosted a conversation with the affordable housing community and policy leaders on April 2  about the challenges in insuring multifamily affordable housing in Vermont and nationally. The two-hour webinar included:

The median sales price of primary homes sold in Vermont reached $325,000 in 2023, increasing by 5% during that period compared to the prior year, according to recent Vermont Property Transfer Tax (PTT) records. This continues a trend in which no county in Vermont has seen a decline in annual home sale prices since 2019.

Among new homes sold in 2023, the median price statewide increased by 11% relative to the prior year, up to $616,500, according to data from the Multiple Listing Service.     

Seventy-five percent of affordable multifamily housing developments surveyed nationally reported insurance premium hikes over 10% between 2022 to 2023 according to a National Multifamily Housing Council report. Bloomberg and other news outlets have been reporting how “rising insurance rates are crushing affordable housing” which led to a Senate Committee hearing in Congress last year.

At the Barre Elk's Lodge last week, over 200 small-scale home builders, investors and community leaders celebrated the completion of the new "Homes for All" Toolkit. Published by the Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development, the workbook is intended to activate incremental development and gentle-infill by giving new developers and community partners information for developing "Missing-Middle" homes, such as a duplex or four-plex.  

Planning is off and running for the 2024 Statewide Housing Conference. This in-person, biennial conference has been an inspiring tradition for Vermont housing professionals for the past 20 years. 

This is the only conference that brings together housing professionals from across the state to cover a comprehensive range of topics like housing development, single family financing, affordable housing, housing policy, local planning for housing, homelessness, and other special topics. This event typically draws over 400 attendees and evaluations are consistently positive about the opportunities to network, learn, and be inspired.