The VHFA is obviously responding to a consumer need, which is a function of the demand for housing, family incomes, the cost of homes, and the interest rate. Underlying this announcement is a desperate housing shortage in northwestern Vermont. The housing vacancy rate in booming Greater Burlington is below one half of a percent. There are recurring reports of high salaried employees who have declined transfers to the Burlington area because no suitable housing is available anywhere close to their work. There are plenty of would-be homebuyers with good mortgage credit.
Interest rates are reasonable.
The problem is that Vermont's housing industry, which ordinarily would be working overtime to produce homes to meet the demand, has been shackled. Indeed, some discouraged home builders are simply packing up and seeking to better opportunities elsewhere. What has almost put a stop to middle income homebuilding in northwest Vermont is a horde of government rules, regulations, processes, and torments. The most obvious is Act 250. Even developers willing to meet the detailed development criteria of Act 250 do not dare to expose themselves and their capital to a regulatory process with no predictable end, infested with legions of well-lawyered adversaries determined to thwart their every move.