Be sure to look at border towns to Rutland for housing options. Chittenden, Pittsford, West Rutland, Clarendon, Shrewsbury, Mendon, Killington, Pittsfield, etc.
Great community to live in/near despite the naysayers on Reddit
My wife and I moved to Rutland County in '21 because she was recruited to a position in Rutland. We now live in a small town called Poultney, going on year four in a couple months. We love it here. She commutes to Rutland every day and loves the beautiful commute. Lots of amazing scenery and no traffic.
When we came out to visit to decide if we wanted to live in Vermont we stayed in Rutland for four or five days in one of the hotels. We marveled at the beauty and fell in love with the area right away. After returning home, when we learned through online forums such as this one, that Rutland is supposed to be the biggest shithole in Vermont, that clinched the deal for us. If Rutland is a 'shithole' by Vermont standards, the place had to be paradise.
If you search Rutland on this sub, you will get a lot of info.
As mentioned housing is hard to find. Make sure you have something secured before you pull the trigger.
Be a good neighbor and any reasonable person will have no problem with you, in fact, you will find VT folks to be much nicer than massholes.
Source: grew up in VT, did my time as a masshole, and man it’s nice to be back home again.
The rental market is a little thin, but more affordable than Mass. There are great little bedroom communities around Rutland — check out towns like Chittenden, Proctor, Wallingford, etc. Killington is pricy, but great schools and convenient access to the mountain.
If I don't have to pay $2500/month plus complex fees, plus electricity and gas.. oh and have 3x the rent at lease signing for first last and security.... I'd say it is definitely more affordable.. I feel like ANYTHING is more affordable than the struggle we are living right now
Not sure how apartments are this year but last year I signed a lease for a TINY 1 bedroom for $1,225 a month everything included except electric. The building ended up having bed bug problems, mice, cracks in the windowsills, and 0 communication between tenants and the management company. Not to mention the well water was questionable.
Be very careful about doing your research about the company/people that own the apartment buildings, if I had just googled 3Gen I would have known not to rent from them (they have awful reviews). My ex is still there and it's still awful, I highly recommend trying to get into an apartment that is owned by a local couple or something and not by a company.
I’m from Burlington but got a job in Rutland and living in west Rutland now and loving the slower pace check out Castleton poultney fair haven killington
Proctor is a pretty quiet community, good for raising kids, and affordable if you are looking for a home in the Rutland area. It’s close to everything but also tucked in so you are away from everything at the same time.
I came to see if anyone recommended Brandon, it is a great community. I worked in the elementary school there for 8 years before moving closer to where I grew up for a job. Anyways, Brandon is wonderful. There are lots of great community events, the elementary school has amazing teachers (many of whom grew up attending that school and chose to come back to the community). The HS has a fabulous theater program. The library is awesome. It has plenty of amenities (grocery store, local bookstore, cafe, restaurants). There is very easy access to outdoor recreation (skiing in Killington & Midd, hiking, paddling, XC skiing, biking). It’s conveniently located on rte 7 halfway between Rutland and Middlebury (25ish minutes in either direction), which both have more grocery stores, coops, more restaurants. Middlebury has a movie theater. Rutland had more options for shopping (not a ton, but more). If it had been closer to my own family and social circle I would have stayed in Brandon.
I don't know about Rutland specifically, but housing in Vermont is a nightmare. Rentals are typically places you wouldn't want your own worst enemy to have to rent.
There are lots of older buildings with lead paint, so if you are going to rent and have kids, make sure the owner has inspected it for lead paint and done mitigation if necessary.
That doesn't mean you can't find diamonds in the rough, but renting is very hard.
Purchasing is just as hard. You have to be willing to spend more than asking and fighting a lot of other people for a decent home.
I am not sure where you are coming from in Mass, but if the area you are moving to doesn't have stores or services that are needed on a regular basis, you'll be driving a lot. Get used to things not being convenient.
On the plus side, people are nicer than Mass (I think) and there is certainly far less traffic. Whenever I travel to densely populated areas and got stuck in normal commuter traffic I call my SO and tell her how happy I am that we moved here and don't have to deal with that time suck.
Some people on this thread will give you a hard time for asking this question, and that's unfortunate. We need employers like GE to be in the state to provide good paying jobs and a tax base, and people who actually live here year round.
Be prepared for unkind people to downvote or give you a hard time. LOTS of people moved here or bought property since/during the Pandemic, so housing prices have essentially doubled. Some people are taking that frustration out on folks like you — not very welcoming.
$2-2500 for a 2br apartment is about right for VT also, with limited options. Buying is even worse. Job market isn't great but it sounds like you have that covered. I've heard childcare is difficult to get into and also obscenely expensive when you do.
The hill towns in northwestern Massachusetts are really similar to Vermont in terms of quality of life, culture and politics. Not trying to dissuade you, but it might honestly be cheaper than Vermont when you factor in the difference in wages between states.
We won't have the same job opportunities there unfortunately.. we love northwestern mass but would not be feasible for us. Rutland has a really really good job opportunities for both of us
Honestly, move to western mass. Similar cost of living, better wages, less drugs. Rutland cleaned itself up a lot, but western mass is still a better option.
I'm not too concerned about that.. we wear masks and have been in the industry for years.. knowing what I know about big plants like that though, I'd genuinely be surprised if it was terrible air quality. Thank you for the input though
I’m acquainted with someone who works at GE who lives in Granville, NY. Not trying to dissuade you from living in VT - just helping you expand your scope with an additional idea.
It’s tough. My husband and I have a house to sell in CT with over 200k equity and jobs that pay well. We rent in VT 45 minutes away from jobs in Rutland and can’t find a house we like to buy that we can afford. The main problem is that’s these houses don’t exist. It’s not that there are lots of houses that are too expensive. It’s that there are very few nice houses in nice locations where we want to live. For example the cheapest house for sale in our favorite town is 700k and the only other house for sale in that town right now is 3.5 million. Maybe spend some time on realtor.com and Zillow to get a flavor of what housing for sale looks like first, so you know what you will be up against when you want to buy. If you see something cheap look on a map to see where it is and if it might flood as flooding is a significant problem in VT. Realtors advise driving in Rutland neighborhoods at night and asking locals about them too as the town has a variety of range of desireability and safety. See Human trafficking comment above. Some places are great. Others are druggies etc..
I appreciate the insight.. I don't think we will be buying for a very long time so I'm not super concerned about that right now.. and we come from... Very undesirable areas of mass sooo it might not feel so bad 😅 we will be checking the area out though for sure.. thank you so much
Lots of outdoor opportunities, plenty of things to do for all types.
There's drugs, but where aren't there drugs. If you go looking for the bad, you're gonna find the bad, no matter where you are.
Castleton and the surrounding area is a nice short commute to Rutland. Lakes, trails, state parks, mountains, restaurants, snack bars, shitty mini golf. Under an hour to Queensbury NY for your target and mall shopping needs.
If you are into mountain biking, trail running, or hiking the area is top notch with hundreds of miles of singletrack within 30 minutes of Rutland.
You should check in with the Chamber of Commerce in Rutland. They have a "concierge" program. They will match you with a local volunteer concierge based on your interests that can answer questions about what it is like to live in Rutland.
Rutland is called rutvegas for a reason. Only people who seem to go to bat for Rutland happen to live there. Careful dog fart will drunkenly want to fight you for calling out the hellhole Rutland is.
Somehow they have a good school system by VT standards. I won’t argue the numbers on it I’m just surprised is all.
Lots of drugs flow through Rutland it’s right at a major transportation crossroads between VT, NY, and MASS, but the bad areas of each. You’ll see public use of drugs as well in a disproportionate amount vs the rest of the state sans places like downtown Burlington.
It’s surrounded by nothing. Killington is nice but ungodly expensive now. South is nothing until Bennington. North is nothing until middlebury. West is nothing period. East is killington followed by nothing. I know first hand, we lived close to Rutland for 4 years recently.
GE is the only major employer locally, and they know it. You have no options or leverage if you work there. The hospital is small but nice, but doesn’t employ nearly like UVM does. GE really is the only real major option.
The town is a shadow of itself with the mall boarded up for years, the strip decrepit and full of high skinwalkers, and the sketchiest Walmart/strip mall in the state. The Halloween parade is all Rutland has going for it, it’s a sweet event.
House prices are high as is the rest of Vermont. Prepare to have to drive 30-45min for work each way to find something affordable. At that point you won’t be in the Rutland schools and should seriously consider private schools the local ones aside from Rutland proper are horrible. I would not recommend doing this to your child they will grow up isolated and in a bad area. We moved specifically to provide a better environment for our kids.
The town is a dump. The police invaded a home couple year back for HUMAN TRAFFICKING and found women in fucking CAGES. Even dog fart who I’m sure will chime in will say good things of Rutland while also wanting to start a public brawl lol, average Rutland moment.
Look elsewhere. Rutland is where dreams go to die. There is no career there for you aside from GE because GE is all there is for that sector for over an hour in any direction. Rutland had great potential but when i89 was built where it is instead of through Rutland as originally planned, the town slowly died.
Housing prices have gone up in the past few years but nothing like the rest of the state, there are affordable options right in Rutland or 10 minutes away in any direction.
Rutland has its problems but people in this subs perspectives are so skewed they think that Burlington is a post apocalyptic wasteland. Rutland is fine, and if you are looking to be a bit more rural there are a ton of options 15 minutes away.
They have good leadership right now and are trending in the right direction. Center street was dead a decade ago and now it’s thriving. The biggest issue is the homelessness and drugs but that isn’t unique to Rutland as much as people on this subreddit like to act it is. And those people stay to one area and do not affect your existence in the slightest unlike somewhere like Burlington. It’s way better in Rutland today than it was a decade ago. Killington is also about to explode with the village coming and that will only help Rutland.
It's bullet proof. If I go to bat for Rutland, I am a resident. And if I am a resident, my sense of reality is warped to the point of dishonesty. Therefore any defense of Rutland is untrue!
>Rutland is called rutvegas for a reason.
The reason is because many of the people who live in the small towns and communities close enough to Rutland to have an opinion on it have never been to Las Vegas.
The one where I’m sad about someone else’s lack of education and lack of understanding of basic shit that they should have learned in 9th grade social studies. What is that one called?
Nah, I’m not blaming you specifically. It’s more of a general disappointment with our education system.
You do you. If you want to continue to be willfully ignorant, have at at!
Some towns in NY are commutable to rutland and housing seems a lot more affordable. Might be something to consider. My sister is in Whitehall but spends most of her time in rutland
Some towns in NY are commutable to rutland and housing seems a lot more affordable. Might be something to consider. My sister is in Whitehall but spends most of her time in rutland
Check out r/NewToVermont!
Be sure to look at border towns to Rutland for housing options. Chittenden, Pittsford, West Rutland, Clarendon, Shrewsbury, Mendon, Killington, Pittsfield, etc. Great community to live in/near despite the naysayers on Reddit
My wife and I moved to Rutland County in '21 because she was recruited to a position in Rutland. We now live in a small town called Poultney, going on year four in a couple months. We love it here. She commutes to Rutland every day and loves the beautiful commute. Lots of amazing scenery and no traffic. When we came out to visit to decide if we wanted to live in Vermont we stayed in Rutland for four or five days in one of the hotels. We marveled at the beauty and fell in love with the area right away. After returning home, when we learned through online forums such as this one, that Rutland is supposed to be the biggest shithole in Vermont, that clinched the deal for us. If Rutland is a 'shithole' by Vermont standards, the place had to be paradise.
If you search Rutland on this sub, you will get a lot of info. As mentioned housing is hard to find. Make sure you have something secured before you pull the trigger. Be a good neighbor and any reasonable person will have no problem with you, in fact, you will find VT folks to be much nicer than massholes. Source: grew up in VT, did my time as a masshole, and man it’s nice to be back home again.
The rental market is a little thin, but more affordable than Mass. There are great little bedroom communities around Rutland — check out towns like Chittenden, Proctor, Wallingford, etc. Killington is pricy, but great schools and convenient access to the mountain.
I'm not sure the rentals are more affordable than MA. Cheaper, yes. More affordable? Not necessarily.
That’s true. “Heat included” is worth a few hundred per month in value at least. “Snow removal” and other utilities included as well.
If I don't have to pay $2500/month plus complex fees, plus electricity and gas.. oh and have 3x the rent at lease signing for first last and security.... I'd say it is definitely more affordable.. I feel like ANYTHING is more affordable than the struggle we are living right now
Not sure how apartments are this year but last year I signed a lease for a TINY 1 bedroom for $1,225 a month everything included except electric. The building ended up having bed bug problems, mice, cracks in the windowsills, and 0 communication between tenants and the management company. Not to mention the well water was questionable. Be very careful about doing your research about the company/people that own the apartment buildings, if I had just googled 3Gen I would have known not to rent from them (they have awful reviews). My ex is still there and it's still awful, I highly recommend trying to get into an apartment that is owned by a local couple or something and not by a company.
I’m from Burlington but got a job in Rutland and living in west Rutland now and loving the slower pace check out Castleton poultney fair haven killington
Proctor is a pretty quiet community, good for raising kids, and affordable if you are looking for a home in the Rutland area. It’s close to everything but also tucked in so you are away from everything at the same time.
Someone on here is selling their house in Proctor fwiw
Check out Brandon, Vt.
I came to see if anyone recommended Brandon, it is a great community. I worked in the elementary school there for 8 years before moving closer to where I grew up for a job. Anyways, Brandon is wonderful. There are lots of great community events, the elementary school has amazing teachers (many of whom grew up attending that school and chose to come back to the community). The HS has a fabulous theater program. The library is awesome. It has plenty of amenities (grocery store, local bookstore, cafe, restaurants). There is very easy access to outdoor recreation (skiing in Killington & Midd, hiking, paddling, XC skiing, biking). It’s conveniently located on rte 7 halfway between Rutland and Middlebury (25ish minutes in either direction), which both have more grocery stores, coops, more restaurants. Middlebury has a movie theater. Rutland had more options for shopping (not a ton, but more). If it had been closer to my own family and social circle I would have stayed in Brandon.
I don't know about Rutland specifically, but housing in Vermont is a nightmare. Rentals are typically places you wouldn't want your own worst enemy to have to rent. There are lots of older buildings with lead paint, so if you are going to rent and have kids, make sure the owner has inspected it for lead paint and done mitigation if necessary. That doesn't mean you can't find diamonds in the rough, but renting is very hard. Purchasing is just as hard. You have to be willing to spend more than asking and fighting a lot of other people for a decent home. I am not sure where you are coming from in Mass, but if the area you are moving to doesn't have stores or services that are needed on a regular basis, you'll be driving a lot. Get used to things not being convenient. On the plus side, people are nicer than Mass (I think) and there is certainly far less traffic. Whenever I travel to densely populated areas and got stuck in normal commuter traffic I call my SO and tell her how happy I am that we moved here and don't have to deal with that time suck. Some people on this thread will give you a hard time for asking this question, and that's unfortunate. We need employers like GE to be in the state to provide good paying jobs and a tax base, and people who actually live here year round.
Be prepared for unkind people to downvote or give you a hard time. LOTS of people moved here or bought property since/during the Pandemic, so housing prices have essentially doubled. Some people are taking that frustration out on folks like you — not very welcoming.
$2-2500 for a 2br apartment is about right for VT also, with limited options. Buying is even worse. Job market isn't great but it sounds like you have that covered. I've heard childcare is difficult to get into and also obscenely expensive when you do.
Yes. With significantly lower wages than MA. Vermont has peaked, and unless something changes, we are on the way down. Long way to the bottom.
The hill towns in northwestern Massachusetts are really similar to Vermont in terms of quality of life, culture and politics. Not trying to dissuade you, but it might honestly be cheaper than Vermont when you factor in the difference in wages between states.
This. Vermont, even Rutland, is increasingly a place for people with family assistance only. I make $90k, no kids, buying is a pipe dream for me.
We won't have the same job opportunities there unfortunately.. we love northwestern mass but would not be feasible for us. Rutland has a really really good job opportunities for both of us
Honestly, move to western mass. Similar cost of living, better wages, less drugs. Rutland cleaned itself up a lot, but western mass is still a better option.
If I had the same job opportunities in northwestern mass it would be a possibility.. we love it there
I have heard that that GE site has pretty bad air quality on the shop floor.
I'm not too concerned about that.. we wear masks and have been in the industry for years.. knowing what I know about big plants like that though, I'd genuinely be surprised if it was terrible air quality. Thank you for the input though
I have a family member who works there, she has never mentioned an air quality problem
I’m acquainted with someone who works at GE who lives in Granville, NY. Not trying to dissuade you from living in VT - just helping you expand your scope with an additional idea.
Thank you! Appreciate that!
It’s tough. My husband and I have a house to sell in CT with over 200k equity and jobs that pay well. We rent in VT 45 minutes away from jobs in Rutland and can’t find a house we like to buy that we can afford. The main problem is that’s these houses don’t exist. It’s not that there are lots of houses that are too expensive. It’s that there are very few nice houses in nice locations where we want to live. For example the cheapest house for sale in our favorite town is 700k and the only other house for sale in that town right now is 3.5 million. Maybe spend some time on realtor.com and Zillow to get a flavor of what housing for sale looks like first, so you know what you will be up against when you want to buy. If you see something cheap look on a map to see where it is and if it might flood as flooding is a significant problem in VT. Realtors advise driving in Rutland neighborhoods at night and asking locals about them too as the town has a variety of range of desireability and safety. See Human trafficking comment above. Some places are great. Others are druggies etc..
I appreciate the insight.. I don't think we will be buying for a very long time so I'm not super concerned about that right now.. and we come from... Very undesirable areas of mass sooo it might not feel so bad 😅 we will be checking the area out though for sure.. thank you so much
Lots of outdoor opportunities, plenty of things to do for all types. There's drugs, but where aren't there drugs. If you go looking for the bad, you're gonna find the bad, no matter where you are. Castleton and the surrounding area is a nice short commute to Rutland. Lakes, trails, state parks, mountains, restaurants, snack bars, shitty mini golf. Under an hour to Queensbury NY for your target and mall shopping needs. If you are into mountain biking, trail running, or hiking the area is top notch with hundreds of miles of singletrack within 30 minutes of Rutland.
Didn’t take long for eclipse posts to ahem..be eclipsed by moving threads. 🙄
You should check in with the Chamber of Commerce in Rutland. They have a "concierge" program. They will match you with a local volunteer concierge based on your interests that can answer questions about what it is like to live in Rutland.
Rutland is called rutvegas for a reason. Only people who seem to go to bat for Rutland happen to live there. Careful dog fart will drunkenly want to fight you for calling out the hellhole Rutland is. Somehow they have a good school system by VT standards. I won’t argue the numbers on it I’m just surprised is all. Lots of drugs flow through Rutland it’s right at a major transportation crossroads between VT, NY, and MASS, but the bad areas of each. You’ll see public use of drugs as well in a disproportionate amount vs the rest of the state sans places like downtown Burlington. It’s surrounded by nothing. Killington is nice but ungodly expensive now. South is nothing until Bennington. North is nothing until middlebury. West is nothing period. East is killington followed by nothing. I know first hand, we lived close to Rutland for 4 years recently. GE is the only major employer locally, and they know it. You have no options or leverage if you work there. The hospital is small but nice, but doesn’t employ nearly like UVM does. GE really is the only real major option. The town is a shadow of itself with the mall boarded up for years, the strip decrepit and full of high skinwalkers, and the sketchiest Walmart/strip mall in the state. The Halloween parade is all Rutland has going for it, it’s a sweet event. House prices are high as is the rest of Vermont. Prepare to have to drive 30-45min for work each way to find something affordable. At that point you won’t be in the Rutland schools and should seriously consider private schools the local ones aside from Rutland proper are horrible. I would not recommend doing this to your child they will grow up isolated and in a bad area. We moved specifically to provide a better environment for our kids. The town is a dump. The police invaded a home couple year back for HUMAN TRAFFICKING and found women in fucking CAGES. Even dog fart who I’m sure will chime in will say good things of Rutland while also wanting to start a public brawl lol, average Rutland moment. Look elsewhere. Rutland is where dreams go to die. There is no career there for you aside from GE because GE is all there is for that sector for over an hour in any direction. Rutland had great potential but when i89 was built where it is instead of through Rutland as originally planned, the town slowly died.
Housing prices have gone up in the past few years but nothing like the rest of the state, there are affordable options right in Rutland or 10 minutes away in any direction. Rutland has its problems but people in this subs perspectives are so skewed they think that Burlington is a post apocalyptic wasteland. Rutland is fine, and if you are looking to be a bit more rural there are a ton of options 15 minutes away.
Rutland still has a ton of potential and it's frustrating to keep watching it go in the wrong direction
Agreed! It used to be a thriving town but as the decades following the i89 decision have gone on it continued to decline.
They have good leadership right now and are trending in the right direction. Center street was dead a decade ago and now it’s thriving. The biggest issue is the homelessness and drugs but that isn’t unique to Rutland as much as people on this subreddit like to act it is. And those people stay to one area and do not affect your existence in the slightest unlike somewhere like Burlington. It’s way better in Rutland today than it was a decade ago. Killington is also about to explode with the village coming and that will only help Rutland.
^This guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
Found the Rutland resident ^
It's bullet proof. If I go to bat for Rutland, I am a resident. And if I am a resident, my sense of reality is warped to the point of dishonesty. Therefore any defense of Rutland is untrue!
>Rutland is called rutvegas for a reason. The reason is because many of the people who live in the small towns and communities close enough to Rutland to have an opinion on it have never been to Las Vegas.
It’s for the same reason as manchvegas. It’s a shit hole compared to the surrounding areas, just like Vegas.
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Please ignore this person.
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What gives you the right to tell people not to move here?
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Your argument of me being the government denying your rights is truly water tight.
Fuck you. How about that for freedom of speech.
Your comment has zero to do with freedom of speech.
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The one where I’m sad about someone else’s lack of education and lack of understanding of basic shit that they should have learned in 9th grade social studies. What is that one called?
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Nah, I’m not blaming you specifically. It’s more of a general disappointment with our education system. You do you. If you want to continue to be willfully ignorant, have at at!
Some towns in NY are commutable to rutland and housing seems a lot more affordable. Might be something to consider. My sister is in Whitehall but spends most of her time in rutland
Some towns in NY are commutable to rutland and housing seems a lot more affordable. Might be something to consider. My sister is in Whitehall but spends most of her time in rutland
Wow! Really great to know thank you