Are you thinking of moving to Montpelier? Are you wanting to weigh all your pros and cons before going for it? This article can help you learn about the cons of living in Montpelier before you decide to move there.
To learn more about the reasons why you shouldn’t move to Montpelier, Vermont, keep reading.
1. Snow, Snow, Snow
If you are moving from a place that doesn’t get a lot of snow during the winter months, then you are in for a new experience. Montpelier, Vermont gets feet upon feet in the winter of snow. This can cause roads to close often and make driving in the winter a bit interesting.
Not only does it snow all winter long, but temperatures are also almost always below freezing and rarely ever get above freezing. Moving to Montpelier may require you to purchase a snowblower or at the very least a snow shovel to dig your front door out of the snow to make sure you can get out of your house when you need to. You will definitely need to invest in some extremely warm clothing before you move to this city.
2. Casual Over Classy
There are a lot of nice, fancy restaurants along with ski resorts in Vermont that are great for a fancier date night. The catch is that if you like to dress up fancy for a classy night out, you may feel a little out of place
. While there are lots of venues and opportunities for a fancy, higher-end date, not many people in Vermont want or feel the need to dress up for it. They don’t see the need to change out of their ski gear before they head to the dining lodge for a nice steak dinner.
If casual is your thing, this is good news! However, if you enjoy dressing up for a nice meal, you will feel overdressed once you step inside the restaurant and see what the other patrons are wearing.
3. Animals are Everywhere
If you are not an animal lover, then living in Vermont may be a bit of a challenge for you. You will find that most people in Vermont have pets, whether that be a dog, cat, horse, pig, or cow. You name it, someone in this city has it as a pet.
Part of the reason for this is that there is so much open, rural farmland in Montpelier that there is space and means for that way of living, so the residents of Montpelier, Vermont take advantage of it. If you move to Vermont, it is not a state requirement to own an animal, but you may feel a little left out of all the animal related fun.
4. Craft Beer Is a Big Deal
If you aren’t a big beer drinker, Montpelier isn’t the place for you. Montpelier residents take pride in their many breweries and beer, especially craft beer.
Craft beer is a specialty, and the people of Montpelier, Vermont are crazy about it. There are many restaurants and breweries dedicated to only craft beer made in Vermont. Many people take it upon themselves to make their own craft beer in their own homes. If beer isn’t your favorite or making your own craft beer isn’t your thing, Montpelier probably isn’t sounding that appealing. While beer isn’t the only thing they drink, it is a big part of the social culture in Montpelier.
5. Homegrown is the Norm
While Vermont may have a plethora of restaurants and breweries to choose from to go to when you want to eat out, most people are extremely dedicated, passionate cooks. They are great at using the fresh, homegrown resources they have in their own backyard garden instead of buying their fruits and vegetables from the store. This means that most people in Montpelier, Vermont have a garden and eat the fresh produce they grow themselves.
This is not a requirement to live there, but it is a part of the culture that everyone seems to live by as part of taking advantage of the wide-open farmland they have available to them.
6. It’s Expensive to Live There
Despite Montpelier, Vermont being a smaller city geographically, it is not a cheaper city to live in by any means. It is actually 11% more expensive to live there in comparison with the nation’s average. Most people’s income taxes rise by 9% when they move into the state, depending on their employment situation and the amount of money they make in a yearly period.
Vermont also has a tax on its resident’s social security income, which is not the case in every state, so that may be new to you as well. If you are wanting to live in the state’s capital, Montpelier, those taxes can rise even more.
7. Driving Conditions aren’t Great
Montpelier, Vermont’s roads are not in great condition. The roads have hardly ever been repaired and never been made a priority to upkeep them because they are already so bad.
That being said, there are potholes on potholes throughout the roads of Vermont. Because there is so much open land and long, winding highways, there are roads that you can drive on for miles on end, but because the conditions of those roads aren’t the best, it really isn’t worth driving around on them.
8. Neighbors are Far and Few Between
Because there are not many people who populate the state of Vermont, much less the city of Montpelier, as well as having plenty of wide-open, rural farmland to live on, there are not many distinguished neighborhoods or subdivisions unless you really get into the city.
This can cause you to maybe feel a lack of community and feel distanced from those who could be your neighbors if they lived closer to you. It is possible to make those friendships work even with the distance, but it does present an inconvenience that you may not have to deal with in another state.
9. You’ll Gain the Title of “Flatlander”
People who live in Vermont that weren’t born there claim the title of “flatlander,” and if you move there you will likely be given that nickname very quickly. This title is given to those who come from a place other than Vermont because any place other than Vermont is comparatively “flat land”.
If you are someone who doesn’t like to be labeled necessarily or put into a certain category, this could be a deterrent. This is not something that people in Vermont aggressively point out and isn’t meant to be taken too seriously, but it can and does come up in conversations and can be a point of contention for some people.
10. There is an Annual Penguin Plunge
If you have heard of the polar plunge that some people participate in the month of January, the Penguin Plunge is similar, but it just has a different name for being held in a different state. This is a statewide event often held in Montpelier that raises money for Special Olympics, and the point of it is to donate money to every person that braves the ice-cold water.
If these kinds of events are not your cup of tea, that is alright, but it is a community event and everyone goes and participates, so it would be a little awkward for you to not attend if you do choose to move there.
11. Skiing or Snowboarding is Required
Knowing how to ski and snowboard is an unsaid requirement in Montpelier, Vermont. With as much snow as Vermont gets, skiing and snowboarding are some favorite ways to pass time during the long, snowy winter months. If you come to Montpelier with no prior knowledge of how to ski or snowboard, you can always learn, but everyone does it frequently so it is not a one-time thing.
If you are from another city in Vermont, it is assumed that you already know how to either ski or snowboard, so if you do move there with young children, there is also the expectation that they will be put in lessons and will spend a generous amount of time learning how to ski or snowboard.
12. The Economy isn’t Doing too Hot
As you will find in every state, there are areas throughout the state that are doing better than others in regard to the economy. One of the issues is that there are not a lot of job opportunities in the area, so unless you come with a previous, established engagement, you may have trouble finding a reliable job. Another issue is opioid use.
Many people work seasonal jobs, and if they move to Montpelier without a job already lined up, they often will work at a ski resort in the winter months and then at a tourist destination for the summer months. If you are looking to move somewhere with a solid economy, Montpelier, Vermont is not it.
13. Mud Season is a Thing
If you have lived anywhere on the east coast, you have experienced mud season. If you haven’t lived on the east coast, you have most likely heard someone from the east coast complain about mud season.
Mud season is the season in between winter and spring when all the snow melts and creates a muddy, environment while the sun hides until the beginning of summer. It really is a messy, inconvenient time to live on the east coast and is unavoidable unless you live on the west coast for a few months while everything melts and dries up.
14. Renting is not Much Cheaper than Buying
We already know that the cost of living in Montpelier, Vermont is not cheap, but you may assume that renting instead of purchasing a house or land would be a cheaper option. The reality is that renting is not much cheaper than buying. Not a lot of Montpelier is a huge tourist destination, so there aren’t tons of hotels, apartments, or condo options, but the demand is high because of the surrounding universities.
Many people attend graduations and need places to stay, so many houses are rented out for that purpose, making them unavailable to sell to locals who are looking to live in the house permanently or for an extended amount of time.
15. Little Cultural Variety
If you are looking for a place to live with lots of cultural diversity, Montpelier, Vermont is not a place where you are going to find a ton of that. The only way you would potentially run into someone from outside the US is on one of the college campuses. There are international students that come and attend the nearby universities but don’t stay long after finishing their schooling. There aren’t a ton of options for various cultured restaurants either. If you want Italian or Asian food, you will have to go out of town to find it.
16. Montpelier is Land-Locked
Luxuries like living on the coast are not included when living in Montpelier. Because Montpelier is in the middle of the state, you would have to drive a significant distance to get to the coast. It can be done, and many people take day trips to the coast from Montpelier and make a multiple-day vacation out of it.
If you think that because you are in a state that is on the coast that you will always be right by the water, that will be a sad realization to understand that that is not the case, especially while living in Montpelier.
17. Miles and Miles of Open Land
There are miles and miles of open land all throughout Montpelier, Vermont, with rolling hills that go for what seems like forever. While it does create a beautiful backdrop to live against, it can feel quite lonely and vast if you’re not used to living in such a rural area.
If you are someone who is used to living in a more urban community and have neighbors right next door and not several miles away, the distance and separation from other people and civilization may be a difficult adjustment for you. A lot of Vermont locals claim to have cows and horses for neighbors rather than people.
