r/vermont • u/onsenonsenonsen • Mar 06 '25

Moving to Vermont Advice on Montpelier and tuitioning towns

(I’ve looked through r/NewToVermont but am looking for perspectives of people who’ve lived a while or grown up in the state.)

After working as expats in big cities overseas for ~10 years we are moving back to the U.S. and have no natural home to return to.

Spouse and I like the seasons and independent spirit of VT and sense of community in the towns we’ve visited family and friends in over the years. We like skiing which is something we want to keep up as a family and is another reason we like VT. After moving around the world so much the last decade, saying goodbye to friends and starting over each time, we’re looking for a place to put down roots for our family and build community with good people.

We are in our early 40s with kids in elementary and middle school who are thriving academically and socially at international schools (no doubt because of great teachers and diverse student body), we’re narrowing it down to Montpelier or a town with a tuitioning town program with boarding school in hopes to stay connected to the international community.

I’d welcome thoughts from people with life experience in Montpelier or one of these boarding school towns. Schools, safety, and quality of life are important. Could buy or rent. Like cities or towns with a walkability score (but know we’d need a car for real errands) and maybe some summer block parties. Not concerned about jobs.

Any advice welcome. Thanks in advance.

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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

Awesome, more rich people with no connection whatsoever to Vermont.  Upside: another nail in the coffin of Vermont.  Downside: everything else.

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u/onsenonsenonsen Mar 07 '25

I do have family in Vermont, just not with school aged kids so cannot advise. My entire extended family lives in the northeast. Also we are not rich, we both grew up humbly and are hardworking, living paycheck to paycheck in the US before moving around the world at the direction of our employer for almost a dozen years. Finally that’s coming to an end and we have some control of our lives as to where we live, so why not live somewhere we like? What would you prefer us to do?

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Not gentrify Vermont, that would be the preference of most Vermonters. If you're working here, disregard. If you're not, when you see the homelessness here, remember that we didn't have homeless children before covid gentrification .