[D]escribing him as a “champion” of real estate agents and developers, leaders of Vermont’s leading Realtors association announced Friday they have endorsed Republican Phil Scott for governor.
Ken Libby, the Vermont Realtors Association’s board president, said at a press conference Friday that real estate companies like Scott because he plans to expand the state’s housing sector.
The lieutenant governor’s “philosophy is essential to the Vermont housing market,” Libby said.
“Since the recession, Vermont’s housing market has struggled to rebound compared to other states,” Scott said.
A University of Vermont economist, however, says the state remained insulated from the dramatic housing-market collapse that affected most other American states.
“There’s not a lot to rebound from,” said Jane Kolodinsky, a UVM professor who also directs the school’s Center for Rural Studies. “Vermont is Steady Eddie. In times of boom, we don’t tend to boom, and in times of bust, we don’t bust.”
Vermont’s housing troubles stem from excess demand, mainly in Burlington, and stagnant wage growth, she said. Median incomes in Vermont range from $48,000 in rural areas to $54,000 range in cities, while the median home price exceeds $200,000.
Scott in his economic plan says that low-income Vermonters already enjoy government assistance, and said he plans to tackle the problem of insufficient middle-income housing if elected governor.
Doing so would free up homes for low-income Vermonters, said Rep. Fred Baser, R-Bristol.
At Friday’s endorsement event, Scott told supporters he backs a bill Baser proposed in the 2016 legislative session.
Baser’s bill is designed to help developers surmount three obstacles that they say prevents construction of more workforce housing: permitting, land prices and infrastructure costs.
The legislation would set aside $1 million for infrastructure such as sewer or septic tanks for two or three pilot-project workforce housing developments. These projects would be built in rural areas that have already been designated for housing.
Baser says a pilot project for two or three developments is included in the bill.
The bill won support from Democrats, Progressives and Republicans in the House, where it passed with only a handful of legislators in opposition, said Jennifer Hollar, director of policy and special projects at the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, who testified in favor of the bill. The legislation died in the Senate because funding wasn’t available this year.
