Chester, Vermont.
Typical home $339,014 (-1.4% in a year). Lebanon, NH-VT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$948 (+114%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $4,900 -1%
- $343,913$339,014 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $52,123 +18%
- $286,891$339,014 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.
- Chester$1,779
- 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 Chester, VT fell 1.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Chester, Windsor County, Vermont
Chester, in Windsor County, had 1,132 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $64,265 a year and half less, against $77,594 across Windsor County; 0% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Windsor County was 2.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Windsor County work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Chester is a small Vermont community in Windsor County, home to a modest number of residents at the last count. Household incomes run below the county's, and typical home values sit in the mid-range for the region. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers turn pleasantly warm in July, and precipitation falls fairly evenly across the year as rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents mostly work in schools, hospitals and social care, with professional and business services, restaurants and hotels, and shops also employing many people. Across Windsor County, the largest workplaces include the Veterans Health Administration, Hartford School District and Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center. Unemployment across the county is low and has held steady over the past year, and commutes are fairly long, with a modest number of people working from home.
Things to do. The outdoors is close at hand: the Black River and the Williams River are both a short drive away, as is William C. Putnam State Forest. For a bit of history, Fort at Number 4, a museum, is also a short drive away. Skiers can reach Magic Mountain Ski Area in a short drive, or go a little farther to Okemo Mountain.
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- 0%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What people in Windsor County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Windsor County had 23,203 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 57°. About 40 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Springfield Hartness Airport weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Windsor County
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs1,001
- Hartford School DistrictSchool district321FTE
- Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health CentCritical access hospital317FTE
- VR NE HoldingsAlpine skiing facilities without accommodations308
- Precision Valley CommunicationsEngineering services282
- Springfield HospitalCritical access hospital244FTE
- Vermont Law and Graduate SchoolUniversity or college224
- Mountain Views Unified Union School District #76School district171FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 44 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,232 people in all across the county; Chester has one of its own. Federal offices come from OPM's federal workforce data (2026), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Chester’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Windsor County and the Lebanon, NH-VT metro.
Chester home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Chester$339,014
- Vermont$391,900
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Chester listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Chester17
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Chester address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Chester — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.