by Tom Davis, in Compass Vermont
The Pew Charitable Trust visited the Vermont State House in April to present a study on how over-regulation on housing adversely impacts home prices, rental rates, and economic growth while compounding homelessness and causing more displacement of minority populations.
The study illustrates how Vermont’s heavy regulatory obstacles, high fees, and long delays, led by the 1970 passing of Act 250, are the embodiment of arrested development.
Other progressive regions have added more housing, while Vermont’s regressive regulation has done real damage.
The Pew Study, titled Outcomes of State and Local Housing Policy Changes, demonstrates the positive impact of more reasonable regulations when it comes to housing. It also places a spotlight on Vermont’s failures. Here are some key slides from the research presentation.
Housing shortage hurts affordability
Heavy regulation has caused Vermont to fall woefully behind in developing new housing, dropping the state’s housing stock to an all-time low while increasing the median home cost of a Vermont home by a stunning 44%.
Heavy regulation has left Vermont with sky-high rental costs and the second-highest homeless rate in the United States
As noted in the study, rental rates in Chittenden County have increased by 43%. Similar increases are found across Vermont. Meanwhile, only California has a higher per-capita homeless rate, but without California’s resources to address it.
Lack of housing disproportionately hurts the BIPOC community
Inclusivity is a central tenet of Vermont’s culture, yet heavy regulation actually hurts the people Vermont wants to support.
Between 2017 and 2021, the city of Minneapolis built over 8,000 new housing units – here’s what happened compared to Vermont
Rental Rates Remained Stable
A home in Burlington is 62% more expensive than in Minneapolis
Modernization of old regulations was highly successful
Reasonable regulations protect the homeless
Act 250 evangelists argue the regulations protect the environment and water, but Minnesota ranks higher in both categories than Vermont, according to U.S. News and World Report.
| Category | Minnesota National Rank | Vermont National Rand |
| Air and Water Quality | Number 4 | Number 30 |
| Natural Environment | Number 2 | Number 10 |
| Fiscal Stability | Number 7 | Number 35 |
The Takeaway
Vermont’s Act 250 seemed like a good idea when it was passed in 1970, but this study clearly shows the adverse impact. One notable quote from the regulation’s biggest defenders is their admission that the changes they are willing to consider, “won’t help the housing crisis, but it’s a start.”
Vermont regulatory proponents did it their way for 50 years, and most of the state’s population has paid a steep price for their miscalculations. Hopefully, a less myopic look at Vermont’s situation will lead to better practices sooner rather than later.
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Categories: Housing, News Analysis
Just about ALL policies, regulations and laws passed out of the democrat/progressive-run Vermont legislature over the last 50 years have driven up the cost of living and disproportionately burdened the very people that they claim to advocate for.
And yet, inexplicably the sheep consistently vote for these jackasses. Liberals are so driven by leftist trends and fashions that their virtue-signaling even takes place in the anonymity and privacy of the voting booth. When you have a government that behaved like Santa Claus, it’s hard to keep the voters from acting perpetually like giddy children.
Yeah, sure. Now environmental safeguards are “racist” just as leftists are claiming bridges, tunnels, and highways are racist too, in the same way showing an I.D. to vote is, and the list goes on. I was going to have a P.B.J. for lunch today until I realized “Hey, that’s probably a racist idea” and fortunately opted out.
Give me a break. Houses are expensive everywhere where it doesn’t look like inner-city Detroit and there is NO housing shortage here. This is all being concocted by the radical left in order to forcibly employ the Obama/Biden “equitable housing” project that will increase high density housing and alter zoning bylaws.
Why? Because acreage is racist too!
The price of housing is determined by supply/demand. The Biden administration has allowed 10 million+ undocumented persons to enter the country, and they all need somewhere to live. This has driven up the cost of housing and must be looked upon as a RACIST policy.
Who in their right mind thinks we should be more like Minneapolis?
And while I’m at it, the nationwide housing issue would disappear overnight if we just closed the border and stopped giving 50 million illegal aliens our hard earned taxes, special privilege to break the law, and the rights of citizens in a desperate effort to throw the elections & census representation to Democrats.
I like that Vermont has stayed the same as it was when I moved here 50 years ago. I can travel for amusement. I do not like that my taxes have risen so much, I am sad that the education my children received is not available any longer, that the common sense practical GOP government has been destroyed and replaced by spend crazed liberals without accountability or comprehension. I am sad I am thinking of moving out of what was once a very great place to call home.
I guess you could say Vermont has the Progressive touch 💩. Their hearts are in the right place but their heads are up where the sun doesn’t shine.
Breaking federal law by opening our sovereign border isn’t having a good heart. It’s criminal. As is election interference.
I have lived and worked all over the world including a myriad of 3rd world S-holes. Vermont is very near the top of the list for most corrupt.
Yes, yes, yes…..thank you. Everybody thinks we’re above board. One of the greatest cons ever.
It’s also how socialist operate, good ole boy system.
while the vermonter dances in their puddleofpiss , the federal reserve with pickpocketpowell and grammy smellen yellen are screwing the public with higher interest rates//// do you like your 26 percent interest rates on credit cards/// you are about to get another increase in the inflation rate/// we will see how the housing market is in the next six months/// vermont is the land of love////
At what point will it become obvious to the people of this state that the policies being foisted upon us are destroying this state? Does anyone recall what the road to hell is paved with?
Today I was returning to Rutland from a visit to the Veterans’ Center in White River Junction. I was driving east to west, through the Town of Woodstock. It’s only mid May, but already the out of state visitors were bustling on the sidewalks and crowding the roads. There was also a lot of new construction and building refurbishment in town. Quite a display of wealth from and for those elites who are paying outrageous sums to stay in and enjoy this jewel of Vermont towns. And they are being served by the many Vermonters already employed in town. But most of the restaurants, shoppes, and businesses were posting “Help Wanted” signs. Not enough local help, I guess, and given the ever increasing cost of living in Vermont, mostly rents, groceries and gas, it’s no wonder there are not enough locals to take a job in expensive Woodstock.
But about two or three miles out of Woodstock to the west along Rte 4, there’s a good sized mobile home park just off the road. I didn’t see any new construction or refurbishment going on. But having cleared my share of restaurant tables, washed the dishes used, and punched the cash register with a forced smile behind the “Thank you. Come again,” I have a pretty good idea who lives in the park…
Don’t think for minute that the progressive-liberal legislative revisions in this new ‘Act 250’ were ever intended to benefit those who live ‘…about two or three miles to the west of Woodstock…’ or out of town near a dozen other touristy, attractive, quaint little towns in Vermont. Those revisions were never meant to help “…those sap-sucking, stump-jumpers… ” who actually make Vermont function.
Thank you, Joanna and Dick Loudon of Vermont’s Stratford Inn, for that characterization. Good on you Bob Newhart.
Spot on! Though I’m betting that Darryl and his brother Darryl take offense.
To be honest, I never really got that joke or their characters as being apropos for Vermont…………West Virginia? Yeah. But not so much for VT.
There’s always been an awful lot of sharp cookies in this state. Bernie Sanders not included.
The MAJORITY of Vermonters suffer, suffer greatly.
We are majorly unaffordable in MANY< Many areas…
See there is too much siphoning off of money from the money handlers, known as the Montpelier swamp. Marxists want to control everything, make their cut off everything….
They have ruined our state, they ruin everything they touch, pretty much every time, they are very consistent. Why do they do it then? See in the book Animal Farm. some pigs are more equal than others. Ever see a poor leader for a Marxist nation? Socialist Nation? Communist Nation? ….see more equal, they took yours to make theirs.
FYI – Pew Trusts.org Mission Statement: “The Pew Charitable Trusts is the sole beneficiary of seven individual trusts established between 1948 and 1979 by two sons and two daughters of Sun Oil Co. founder Joseph N. Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. In the past 75 years, we have contributed to numerous initiatives designed to improve education, job creation, and opportunity in Philadelphia and throughout the United States. In the 1950s, we began supporting historically black colleges and universities in an effort that became one of our longest-lasting grant programs. Our interest in federal policy began in 1986, with the establishment of a program on economics and national security. We started working on environmental issues with a diverse range of stakeholders in the 1970s; and, in 1991, we began partnering with Indigenous people on land and ocean conservation. Since 2005, we have sought ways to directly address some of the challenges that disproportionately affect those who are disadvantaged by systemic inequities, including incarceration, debt, and access to credit.
We know that when we include a diverse range of perspectives and backgrounds, we can get better at asking the right questions and crafting innovative solutions. Read more about our commitment to DEI.”
Unelected NGOs are the enemy of the People. Proof positive, their policies are effective to their own bank accounts and to their Master. 75 years of thievery and
deception shows clearly – those they claim to help are worse off now than 75 years ago. Follow the money….