Dorset, Vermont.
Typical home $780,302 (+3.6% in a year). Bennington, VT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,282 (+126%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $27,049 +4%
- $753,253$780,302 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $92,774 +13%
- $687,528$780,302 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.
- Dorset$4,096
- Vermont$2,057
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 27 years.
Typical home values in Dorset, VT rose 3.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Dorset, Bennington County, Vermont
Dorset, in Bennington County, had 360 people in the 2020 census. 96% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 4% are rented. Unemployment in Bennington County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Bennington County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dorset is a very small Vermont community where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, and almost every adult has a four-year degree. Typical home values run high, and the share of people living below the poverty line is small. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and snow and rain adding up to a fair amount across the year, while July is pleasantly warm.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, professional and business services, and manufacturing. Across Bennington County, the largest workplaces include Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, Bennington College and Mack Molding Company. Unemployment in the county is low and close to where it stood a year earlier, though the county has slightly fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Rupert State Forest lies in or beside town, and the Manley-Lefevre House, a garden, is close by as well. A short drive away are Emerald Lake State Park and Bromley Mountain, a ski area. The American Museum of Fly Fishing is also a short drive away.
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- 93%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
What people in Bennington County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Bennington County had 16,642 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 27° and lows near 8°; warmest in July, with highs near 75° and lows near 56°. About 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Peru weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Bennington County
- Southwestern Vermont Medical CenterGeneral hospital823FTE
- Mack Molding Company3089367
- Bennington CollegeUniversity or college347
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters280
- Taconic and Green Regional School District #63School district221FTE
- KamanAircraft assemblies, subassemblies, and parts manufacturing185
- Mount Anthony Union High School District #14School district185FTE
- Southwest Vermont Union Elementary School District #87School district157FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 28 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,548 people in all across the county; Dorset has none of its own. 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Dorset’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 Bennington County and the Bennington, VT metro.
Dorset home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dorset$780,302
- Vermont$391,900
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Dorset 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.
- Dorset17.16%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Dorset35
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Dorset6
Zip codes with a Dorset address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dorset — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Dorset
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05251 | Dorset | 1,674 | — | $856,104 |
| 05253 | East Dorset | 516 | — | $530,522 |