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.