2019 End of Year Report
For this end of year report, the main focus is on changes over the past five years. And the trend is strong!
Sale prices in Barre City increased by over 20%, U32 towns saw appreciation of almost 18%, and every market saw stronger sale prices. Our market as a whole saw price appreciation of 12.24% over five years.
While this isn’t the blazing hot increases that many major metropolitan areas have seen, it’s solid, steady price appreciation.
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | % Change 2015-2019 | |
| Barre City | $115,051 | $142,500 | $131,500 | $142,000 | $146,250 | 21.33% |
| Barre Town | $186,000 | $168,000 | $195,000 | $199,000 | $194,000 | 4.12% |
| Montpelier | $225,000 | $212,000 | $237,000 | $245,000 | $256,000 | 12.11% |
| U32 | $215,000 | $231,750 | $221,125 | $255,000 | $261,500 | 17.78% |
| Nfld/Wlmstwn | $159,000 | $169,000 | $161,500 | $199,000 | $178,750 | 11.05% |
| Total | $172,000 | $175,000 | $185,000 | $197,500 | $196,000 | 12.24% |
Again, we have seen largely consistent increases in the number of home sales over the past five years. The five U32 towns (Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex, and Worcester) saw the number of sales grow over 30%, while Northfield/Williamstown grew by just under 30%. These are strong sets of numbers for home sales!
Barre Town did see a dip the number of sales over the past five years. Also interestingly about the Barre Town real estate market is that it is the only one that has seen somewhat erratic numbers of annual sales. At Green Light Real Estate, we’re not concerned about this at all, there were still 86 sales in Barre Town in 2019.
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | % Change 2015-2019 | |
| Barre City | 83 | 89 | 90 | 89 | 88 | 6.02% |
| Barre Town | 102 | 79 | 109 | 89 | 86 | -15.69% |
| Montpelier | 78 | 87 | 94 | 73 | 73 | -6.41% |
| U32 | 71 | 76 | 84 | 83 | 94 | 32.39% |
| Nfld/Wlmstwan | 68 | 61 | 68 | 77 | 88 | 29.41% |
| Total | 402 | 392 | 445 | 411 | 429 | 6.72% |
This one blew our minds. Our Central Vermont market, on the whole, has seen a decrease of 38% in the median days on the market. That means sales are speeding up from 63 days on market in 2015 to 39 days on the market in 2019. And look at Montpelier--median days on market was 10 days!?
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | % Change 2015-2019 | |
| Barre City | 86 | 88 | 67 | 42 | 44 | -48.84% |
| Barre Town | 59 | 49 | 75 | 29 | 41 | -30.51% |
| Montpelier | 54 | 43 | 35 | 40 | 10 | -34.29% |
| U32 | 70 | 68 | 49 | 60 | 46 | -34.29% |
| Nfld/Wlmstwn | 78 | 66 | 54 | 45 | 35 | -55.13% |
| Total | 63 | 60 | 55 | 43 | 39 | -38.10% |
All of these point to a very strong, fast moving real estate market in Central Vermont!
Green Light Real Estate Book Club
We spend a LOT of time thinking and talking about real estate and about customer service. In 2019, we added something else. During the year, as a group, we read and discussed several books. It turned out to be a fantastic way to bring us closer together, to improve our practices, and allow us to better serve our clients.
They included:
- The Customer Rules: The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Customer Service, by Lee Cockerell
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki
- Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson
- 7L: The Seven Levels of Communication, by Michael Maher
Multi-Family Report
2019 was an active year for residential multi-family properties. Here we’ll focus on Barre City and Montpelier, which are the two most active multi-family towns in Central Vermont. And, truth be told, the bulk of the activity is in Barre City.
Here the number that jumps out is the number of sales. It increased steadily from 2015-2018 and then almost doubled from 18 to 35 sales in 2019. That’s a huge increase!
| Total # of Sales | |
| 2015 | 12 |
| 2016 | 15 |
| 2017 | 18 |
| 2018 | 18 |
| 2019 | 35 |
Looking only at duplex sales, there’s a clear increase in per unit sale price over the past five years.
| Barre City Price Per Unit (Duplex) | Montpelier Price Per Unit (Duplex) | |
| 2015 | $34,000 | $102,500 |
| 2016 | $66,225 | $95,000 |
| 2017 | $67,750 | $124,000 |
| 2018 | $41,750 | $113,375 |
| 2019 | $52,500 | $135,000 |
Gratitude
And last, thank you to all of our clients, past clients, friends, and supporters. In 2019, Green Light Real Estate helped with 161 sales, and more than half of those came from past clients, people who know us personally, and referrals. It means a lot when people make the effort to recommend that their friends work with Green Light Real Estate!