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Necessary_Cat_4801 t1_jdcdqsy wrote

That should be in the past tense. "before 2020, Vermont's low population is what kept it Vermont."

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headgasketidiot t1_jdco43s wrote

Vermont's population is virtually unchanged from 2020. April 1 2020 population count was 643,085. In July 2022 it was 647,064. From July 2021 to July 2022, it increased by fewer than 100.

edit: Necessary_Cat_4801 blocked me so I am adding an edit here for those of you who are interested in actually solving problems instead of burying your heads in the sand by blaming out of staters for decades of neoliberal policy failure.

>I'm going to believe my eyes and the digger (and every other local media outlet) over people who seem to have a vested interest in pretending that increased demand during and after the pandemic hasn't affected housing prices.

I can't tell if this person thinks the US Census has some weird conflict of interest, or if it's me. Either way, a pretty bizarre thing to say. My own interest is just one of a card-carrying socialist and activist that cares about myself, my friends, and my neighbors. If you're worried I'm like a landlord or something, I think my post history will clear that up pretty quick lol. /u/twombls will vouch for me on that one. But you don't have to believe me, go read the data for yourself: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/VT

Also, to be clear, I'm not saying no out of state people moved here. Some out of state people are moving to Vermont, because people do move here sometimes, but it is not some great migration. There were several thousand people who moved here at the beginning of the pandemic, and you can see that in the census. But like I said, the population of Vermont increased by fewer than 100 people from 2021 to 2022. Even that initial migration is absolutely tiny, though compared to other years it is quite big, relatively, it still amounted to less than 1% of our population. These are absolutely tiny growth numbers.

Also, who said the pandemic hasn't affected housing prices? It absolutely did, but it didn't do it through some fox news style caravan of out of staters coming to take your jobhouse. It's incredible to me how many people on this sub insist on blaming people from places like Massachusetts for decades of policy failure at the state and national level. It is the most small-minded, myopic xenophobia I have ever seen in my life, made even dumber by how trivially disprovable it is with freely available census data. Absolutely fucking pathetic. At least Fox News caravan weirdos have the excuse that Mexico is actually a different country with a pretty different culture whose people speak a different language. Meanwhile, someone here sees a few Texas license plates and starts using the phrase "covid colonists." Give me a fucking break.

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Necessary_Cat_4801 t1_jdd1by6 wrote

Something is off. Home prices are increasing at rates never seen before and I've never seen a viable explanation other than people moving here during the pandemic.

https://vtdigger.org/2023/02/16/a-vermont-perfect-storm-statewide-data-shows-record-spike-in-housing-prices/

What other explanation is there for the largest increase since records starting being kept?

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headgasketidiot t1_jdd7d4g wrote

Home prices are through the roof all over the world, not just in Vermont. There are exceptions, but in general, home prices are up. They're up in places that are building a lot or not at all. They're up in places with a lot of regulation and less regulation, in warm climates and cold climates, in cities and rural towns. They're up in Canada, Europe, Africa, and Oceania.

Something is off, but it's not the census numbers. It's way bigger than out of staters moving to Vermont, which, again, is not happening.

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Necessary_Cat_4801 t1_jde1qe4 wrote

"It's way bigger than out of staters moving to Vermont, which, again, is not happening."

That's just silly. Anyone with eyes can see that is happening. I can't pretend that the town I live in is not full of out of state plates. The most recent batch of arrivals is from Texas, oddly enough. All of a sudden tons of Texas plates around. I'm going to believe my eyes and the digger (and every other local media outlet) over people who seem to have a vested interest in pretending that increased demand during and after the pandemic hasn't affected housing prices.

From the Globe: "But the pandemic brought a countervailing force. Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire have seen an uptick in new residents arriving from other states, more than 50,000 across the three states since April 2020, even as other Northeastern states — and especially large metro areas — have experienced a surge in out-migration."

But yeah, let's pretend no one is moving here because that is preferable, for reasons I don't understand.

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