Archive for March, 2009

This picture was taken at the beginning of winter for one of our listings in Burlington, Vermont.  The property is right on Lake Champlain, which was frozen at the time. (click on picture to see the same view in the summer)  This picture says so much about the state of the market in Vermont during the winter, especially this winter. 

It’s a beautiful location even when it’s frozen, and the price is great for a lot with lake frontage in Burlington.  Still, I don’t think it was shown once this winter.!!

The Setting sun on the frozen landscape makes me think of what is on its way in the very near future.

The lake is back to liquid (in most places) and the sun hangs high in the sky well past the drive home.  The sun is indeed setting on this frozen, barren real estate market and before we know it, both this property and the rest of the Burlington, VT market will emerge from the mud and will once again be warm, green and buzzing with activity. Are You Ready?

Image via Wikipedia

Speaking with a friend the other day (when it was warm), he said,

“You know, every year at around this time I get the feeling that I’m living the wrong kind of life. I find myself wishing I lived up on a wooded hillside with a nice sugar bush and a sugar house with a rusted metal roof.”

Personally, I can’t think of a worse time to move to the country. All I think of are potholes and mud.  But I know where he’s coming from. For me it’s the beach at the beginning of summer.

Anyway, it got me thinking about those fine folks who produce the maple syrup that I slather on everything from ice cream to sweet potatoes. I’ll put it on anything really; the food is just a vehicle to get the syrup into my face as efficiently as possible. I would use a spoon but I feel frivolous and somehow guilty.

As I was saying, I find myself wondering how many of those folks started out sugaring as a result of that very same feeling my friend gets every spring.  I wonder how many of them were stockbrokers or real estate agents who came up to Vermont (from NYC no doubt) for a little weekend getaway and found themselves stuck in Vermont.

As a real estate professional, I also find myself wondering about finding these folks a home with a sugarhouse and the acreage to support it.  It must have been a tough gig before the Internet.  Imagine not being able to search for keywords on the MLS?  Real Estate must have been so much harder.                                            (Maple Cell Phone)

I was up at one of our listings on Osgood Hill Rd. in Westford the other day and almost got sucked into the mud on the side of the road. It’s a fairly heavily traveled dirt road, so it gets rutted up pretty bad this time of year. Imagine having to cart someone around all day on the back roads without a cell phone and GPS?  No thank you!!

In the spirit of spring, technology and all things maple syrup, we have painstakingly scoured the Vermont MLS to find you all of the property listings in the area with an existing sugarhouse, sugar bush, or a view of Sugarbush ski area. Apparently there is no way to explain to the search engine that I didn’t want results pertaining to the ski area. Oh well, it’s better than getting stuck in the mud!

Click here for a Sweet Deal! Sorry, I couldn’t resist

Has anyone seen the book Cities Ranked And Rated by Bert Sperling and Peter Sander? You can click on the image below and read what they have to say about Burlington VT. It’s a little ridiculous.

The thing that gets my attention right away with the 307 ranking. That’s out of 500. This means there are 306 metropolitan areas in this country that are better than Burlington Vermont and only 193 that are worse off.  I can only imagine whose on that list.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of these people who thinks The Queen City is the greatest place on earth and you’d be crazy to live anywhere else. I just find it hard to believe that there are 306 better places to live!  Allow me direct your attention to some recent accolades the City of Burlington had racked up. This list doesn’t include the most recent Healthiest City in America ranking in Nov. 2008 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yes, the winters are brutal but the summers are beautiful.  Housing costs are high, but generally you get a lot of house for your money.

People look at these rankings before they move places. I know several people who quote these type of things all the time and they believe what they read even if they haven’t actually been there.  Burlington deserves a better ranking! I have been to a lot of cities that are about the same size as Burlington and have a College or University and none of them are as vibrant, and metropolitan feeling as the city by the lake. Burlington has a downtown grocery store (City Market), Pharmacy (Rite Aid), department store (Macy’s), and a full fledged Mall with a Starbucks, just to name a few things.  “Big deal,” you might be thinking. Very few cities of 40,000 residents can make this claim!

Lets take a look at a few that are about the size of Burlington. Concord, the capital of New Hampshire has a population of around 42,000 and has no downtown dept store or Starbucks. There is a small health food store (Concord Cooperative Market) downtown and a Market Basket at the bottom of the hill on the edge of downtown. I personally wouldn’t count this as a downtown grocery store, but I’m sure people would argue that one. There is a pharmacy right downtown (CVS). To be clear, when I say pharmacy I mean a large national type store with a lot of stuff in addition to a place to fill your prescriptions.  To be fair, I don’t know where Concord ranks in the book. It could be below Burlington. I welcome any comments on this topic especially from people who have this book. I just realized that Burlington also has a Movie theater and a performing arts space (several of them).

Flagstaff, Arizona has about 60,000 and I don’t even want to make the comparison because I don’t want to embarrass anyone from Flag. I love the place but it’s no Burlington.

Same goes for Prescott, AZ

I could go on and on but I think you get the point… Burlington Rocks!

I appreciate any comments on this topic.