Executive Director Maura Collins announced that Alyssa Peteani (she/her) of Burlington has joined VHFA in the role of Community Development Underwriter.

Peteani has over eight years of experience working for Champlain Housing Trust (CHT).  As a Senior Loan Officer at CHT, her work involved underwriting and closing loans for the Manufactured Housing Down Payment Program.  She has also worked in the role of Shared Equity Coordinator at CHT.

University of Vermont (UVM) graduate student Magali Stowell Alèman (she/her) has been named the Spring 2023 Vermont Housing Fellow. The Vermont Housing Fellowship program is intended to provide the Fellow with valuable experience aiding her professional development. Stowell Alèman will receive a financial stipend to conduct housing research and help update information on VHFA’s Housing Data website (www.housingdata.org).

To meet expected demand and normalize extremely low vacancy rates, Vermont will need 30,000-40,000 more year-round homes by 2030.  This means adding 5,000 to 6,700 more homes to Vermont's primary home market each year, well above the 2,100 homes that the state has been generating.

According to the 2020 Census count, the number of primary Vermont households was 9,000 more than in the prior year—an unprecedented increase. Although tempered somewhat in 2021, Vermont continued to show signs of heightened demand.  

The Vermont Homeowner Assistance Program (VHAP) has paid over $22.5 million in grants to assist homeowners impacted by the pandemic. This represents nearly 55% of total program funding available to homeowners.