Hire a realtor. Reddit isn’t gonna serve you well.

Northfield would be a good option. Houses are less expensive, good school district, and close to the Mad River Valley for skiing and Barre for family.

"Based on the schools, Barre is not an option."

Yup.

Waterbury has my vote. Nice walkable downtown. Good restaurant options. Close to Sugarbush, MRG, Stowe, Smuggs, Bolton. Also close to Barre, Burlington, Stowe, Montpelier and Waitsfield. Homes are a lot cheaper than Stowe.

In re: schools, good not great. To wit:

Waterbury, VT public schools have an average math proficiency score of 43% (versus the Vermont public school average of 33%), and reading proficiency score of 57% (versus the 48% statewide average). Schools in Waterbury have an average ranking of 8/10, which is in the top 30% of Vermont public schools.

Rutland

Hi! Washington Central is decent (U32 is better than the elem schools, which are okay). Lots of options in terms of towns to live in for this district - Berlin, East Montpelier, Rumney, Middlesex, Calais, etc., so more real estate options. Montpelier SD is also good, but it’s so expensive to buy a house there that you may as well just go to Burlington. Waterbury is also decent. I would not recommend Barre or Northfield at all, in terms of school districts. Feel free to message me if you have other specific questions - I am a parent and teach in this area.

Williamstown or Northfield. The Paine Mountain School District is great, Northfield has a fun, small downtown, and Williamstown provides more open space [edit] for home construction[/edit].

I live in Williamstown - been here for almost 31 years. It's been a great fit for the family and me. Daughter is putting up a new home just up the road from my place.

Bit of a drive, but Middlebury. Nice college town with walkable downtown, international baccalaureate middle and high school, fantastic amenities for kids all within walking distance (ice rink, pool, rec center, music center, movie theater, restaurants, library, hospital etc.). Close to snow bowl, loads of hikes. Tight and expensive market, but much better ROI in respect to kids than many other towns.

If you want Montpelier schools, affordable housing with a couple of acres and close to Barre, take a look at Roxbury. Not a walkable downtown, but if cost is an issue, you'll have to make some concessions.

> Hire a realtor.

Can't sell what doesn't exist.

Inventory is at an all time low! cash offers from flatlanders are the new hip thing. Unless you're prequalified w/ financing - they wont talk to you.

Yeah, there’s simply nothing to buy. We’ve been hoping to sell and move closer to town for over a year now. I watch Zillow like a hawk and have a realtor on standby. Nothing is being sold. It’s the absolute worst possible time to buy a house in this state.

Just jumping on this to say I’ve been trying to buy a house in the Middlebury school district for over a year. There are, I think, 4 houses currently for sale in that area, one over a million dollars. Good luck to anyone trying to get into that market, it’s incredibly cutthroat.

If the OP is bidding on houses in Stowe, they are doing ok on the cash front and most likely have their finances sorted. Hiring a realtor, a professional who’s job and career peer connections is to know all the info the OP asked, is the right move. Additionally, an experienced realtor will know of properties before the come to market.

Edit: spelling

Well unless you're using someone from 72 sold, you're likely not going to get much good recon on the market. From what I understand they are going to be signing some new sellers soon.

> an experienced realtor will know of properties before the come to market.

That's a realtor that's hired at a brokerage - not just some jackass off the street with a finished Randy Mayhew class and realestate license.

You want an Agent that has industry contacts and an ear to the ground - you need to go with an agent that is a member of a brokerage.

Like most places, besides plots of land, there’s not much for sale in Waterbury. It’s crazy

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Waterbury

I could have written this post myself. I’m in the same situation. The comment to work with a realtor is a good one, but you can’t just hire one and cover the vast geography of OP’s post. You need agents who know the specific area well, so you may need to talk to a few agents. Re: Stowe, you will need at least 1.5 mill in cash and willing to offer above asking price on homes already listed over 1 mill to be competitive.

People will shit on Rutland but honestly, it has a walkable downtown, it is close to great skiing, not expensive and really good schools. Community is really trying too.

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Former high school teacher here

You should look hard at St Johnsbury. It is an excellent high school, private, but has lots of local kids go there so still has diversity. You could either be in that town or live nearby in a "sending town" so they would contribute to your tuition.

Burke Ski is nearby. Properties are more affordable than elsewhere.

Another option could be using school choice in the Woodstock High School area. Locate in a cheaper town nearby, send the kids via choice. Killington and Pico are your ski areas...

There's a lot of good school districts within ~30 minutes of Barre that are not in the "super-super-expensive" zones of Montpelier or Stowe. MMU and CVU both have great reputations and cover big districts that include some cheaper areas and where you can get to Barre in 35ish minutes. Roxbury's a tiny town - it's not bougie like Montpelier - but they send their kids to Montpelier schools, so you get the good school district without the crazy real estate prices - if you can find anything for sale there (it's really really small). U-32 has a good rep as well and that covers a lot of the general Barre area.

VT public schools are generally really good compared to elsewhere. I totally understand wanting to avoid Barre city schools themselves, but the well-established big union school districts like MMU, CVU, and U32 really do deliver a great quality education.

You can probably either have land or be in a walkable town, but you'll be hard pressed to find that size property in walking distance to anything. I suggest looking at the neighboring towns to the places with the activity, it may only be a short drive or bike ride. Ex, Berlin town line is only a couple minutes from downtown Montpelier. Good luck!

This is the answer. St. J Academy is an incredible high school with kids from around the world, and the downtown is vibrant. Housing is tight like everywhere, but not completely insane like many parts of the state.