Burlington, Vermont.
Typical home $504,324 (-1.9% in a year), asking rent $2,738 (+1.2%). Burlington-South Burlington, VT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,372 (+108%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $9,855 -2%
- $514,179$504,324 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $76,773 +18%
- $427,550$504,324 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Burlington$2,647
- Vermont$2,057
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 21 years.
Typical home values in Burlington, VT fell 1.9% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Burlington, VT rose 1.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Burlington runs $1,082/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,416 in May 2024.
That is $3,820 a month against $2,738 rent: a $2,647 mortgage payment, plus $633 property tax and $540 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Burlington
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$3,820
- Renting$2,738
- Mortgage only$2,647
Property tax · $633/mo 1.51% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Chittenden County, VT
Insurance & upkeep · $540/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Burlington, Chittenden County, Vermont
Burlington is a city of 44,743 people in Chittenden County. Half its households earn more than $71,109 a year and half less, against $96,759 across Chittenden County; 20% of its people live below the poverty line. 42% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 58% are rented. Unemployment in Burlington was 2.6% in August 2026, and Chittenden County had about as many jobs in 2025 as the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Burlington is a city on the shore of Lake Champlain, and it is a young place, with residents who are much younger than in most of the country and a very high share of adults holding a four-year degree. Most households rent rather than own, and incomes are below the county's, with a good many residents living under the poverty line. Homes and rents here are costly, and winters are cold and very snowy: January highs stay below freezing, while July is warm and summers are comfortable for being outdoors.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, professional and business services, and shops. The largest workplaces in Burlington include the University of Vermont Medical Center, the University of Vermont and Champlain College. Unemployment is low and unchanged from a year ago, jobs across Chittenden County were level with the year before, and the typical commute is short.
Things to do. Lake Champlain is a short drive away, and Sand Bar State Park, a protected area, is also close. In or beside town, Battery Park is a park, the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts is a theatre, and the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center is a museum. The Shelburne Museum is another museum a short drive away.
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- 17,504households
- 60%of adults have a degree
- 20%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 19%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Chittenden County had 103,261 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 29° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 62°. About 88 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Burlington International Airport weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Burlington
- University of Vermont Medical CenterGeneral hospital7,475FTE
- University of VermontUniversity or college4,482
- Cox EnterprisesAutomobile and other motor vehicle merchant wholesalers1,044
- Champlain CollegeUniversity or college639
- Burlington School DistrictSchool district515FTE
- GolubGrocery stores178
- City Market DowntownGrocery stores166
- Rad-burl,llcHotels163
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 25 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,064 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- LightningRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Burlington’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Chittenden County and the Burlington-South Burlington, VT metro.
Burlington home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Burlington$504,324
- Vermont$391,900
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Burlington listings, and the typical home goes pending in 10 days — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Burlington32.34%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Burlington10
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Burlington106
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Burlington30
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Burlington$461,186
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Burlington99.39%
Zip codes with a Burlington address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Burlington — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Burlington
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05401 | Burlington | 31,662 | $2,754 | $553,670 |
| 05408 | Burlington | 10,019 | $2,266 | $454,035 |