This commentary is by John Bossange of South Burlington. He is a retired middle school principal and a board member of Better (not bigger) Vermont.Vermonters with low and modest incomes desperately need homes they can truly afford. For most of them, though, their needs are unlikely to be met. Instea d developers are constructing the opposite: homes that range in prices from $500,000 to well over $1,000,000. Such extravagance is unlikely to produce the dynamic, growing economy that will keep young Vermonters here and entice younger families to move here to gradually replace the older, retired population.Builders, developers, realtors, lending institutions and collaborating landlord- friendly legislators know what the open market will bear but they are more interested in padding their profit margins rather than providing a range of options for average Vermonters, including apartments, multi-family duplexes/triplexes and single family homes. If anything, the unspoken mantra, “profits over people” is at the heart of Vermont’s housing shortage.Chittenden County is ground zero for greed and profiteering. Here, where there are many job openings, a building frenzy is underway. A quick look at some local sites says it all. Homes at the Spear Meadows development in South Burlington start at $803,855. The massive O’Brien Hillside project has homes that range from $599,00 to $1,200,000. Kwiniaska Ridge in Shelburne has houses for sale between $949,000 and $959,000. In Williston, a new home will cost between $500,000 and $800,000. Who can afford these sky-high prices? Out-of-state buyers and investors, that’s who; not Vermonters with modest incomes or those who wish to move and live here year-round, participate in our job market and invest their time and energy in our communities. For thousands of Vermonters already here and potential new residents, that’s a crisis fermented by greed and profits over people.Today in Vermont, only 72.8% of our existing home stock of 342,375 homes are owner-occupied. In 2020, sales to out-of-state buyers jumped by 38%, as reported in VTDigger, and that trend has yet to slow down. That means that the remaining 17.2% of Vermont’s homes are not owner-occupied, and that equates to 58,888 homes that are either lived in part of the year, vacant or rented as investment properties.And as usual, deep-pocketed buyers and investors from out-of-state want their piece of Vermont. For example, Brookfield Asset Management, part of a Toronto–based global investment firm, owns the Equinox Resort. A partner in a major Boston luxury construction company, along with a local restaurateur, are proposing a restaurant in Woodstock. Abraham Properties from Atlanta is developing a housing project in Hinesburg and a South Carolina developer is pitching 55 units of mostly senior housing in Stowe.While Donald Trump eyes Canada, the Great Gulf Corporation of Toronto wants to build a 2,500-unit village in Killington. Down in Hartland, a Naples, Florida developer with a focus on luxury lifestyles has been battling local officials opposed to his farm store/deli/bakery plan. Undoubtedly there are many more out-of-state investment companies with an appetite for Vermont. Do they have Vermont’s best interests and needs in mind?How can we stop this investment grab, which is contributing to our affordable housing shortage? Can we require out-of-state development companies to build more affordable homes? How can we encourage our local builders of new homes and apartments to respond to the housing needs of regular Vermonters and our local business community and not to the out-of-state market of wealthy investors who are willing and able to pay top dollar? These questions must be answered if we hope to address our housing shortage.Perhaps the 3.62% transfer tax needs to be dramatically increased. How about making those who live in their second homes less than 182 days pay the full amount of Vermont property taxes like the rest of us, or have them pay higher real estate taxes. Should they be able to claim a non-homestead second home as a primary homestead and qualify for tax relief? In too many Vermont towns primary homeowners are paying higher property taxes than a vacant or rental home next door, often owned by an out-of-state, non-homestead investor.Should we make renting a vacant second home as an Airbnb more difficult with more taxes placed on the rental income received? How about eliminating the mortgage interest deduction on a second home here? Other states like California have done that. Would we lose some investors and buyers and the revenue they bring to the state if we implemented these and other similar policies? Sure, but I would much rather have a full-time Vermonter living in that home year-round, employed and spending their money in our local economy, and contributing their spare time to our civic life. Decreasing the number of those 58,888 non-owner-occupied homes in our small state combined with more control of out-of-state investors, while encouraging local developers to build truly affordable homes will help address our housing shortage. Absent that, Vermont’s housing shortage will remain a well-fermented crisis created by greed and padded profit margins.Read the story on VTDigger here: John Bossange: Solutions for the housing shortage. ...read more read less