Montpelier, Vermont.
Typical home $415,449 (+0.6% in a year), asking rent $1,455 . Barre, VT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,152 (+112%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,337 +1%
- $413,113$415,449 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $74,006 +22%
- $341,443$415,449 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.
- Montpelier$2,181
- Vermont$2,057
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Montpelier, VT rose 0.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Montpelier, Washington County, Vermont
Montpelier is a city of 8,074 people in Washington County. Half its households earn more than $81,030 a year and half less, against $83,449 across Washington County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 53% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 47% are rented. Unemployment in Montpelier was 2.2% in August 2026, and Washington County had 0.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Montpelier is a small city in Washington County, and it is the capital of Vermont. Residents are somewhat older than in much of the country, and a large majority of adults hold a four-year degree. Household incomes sit a little below the county's, and owners and renters live here in fairly even numbers, so renting is common.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by professional and business services, government, and banks, insurance and property. The State of Vermont is the largest workplace in town, and Community College of Vermont and Hunger Mountain Co-op are also among the biggest. Commutes are short, and more people work from home than in many places.
Things to do. Hubbard Park is in or beside town, and the Dog River runs close by too. A short drive away are the Vermont Granite Museum and the Barre City Hall and Opera House, a theatre. For skiing, Trapp Family Lodge is a longer drive. Winters are cold and snowy, summers are warm, and rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
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- 3,721households
- 66%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 27%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Washington County had 33,302 jobs in 2025, 0.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 7°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 59°. About 41 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Montpelier weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Montpelier
- The State of VermontExecutive and legislative office combinations9,880
- Community College of VermontTwo-year college506
- Hunger Mountain Co-opGrocery stores192
- Montpelier Roxbury Unified Union School District #71School district186FTE
- Vermont College of Fine ArtsUniversity or college172
- Shaws SupermarketsSupermarkets and other grocery stores71
- Agri-MarkCold storage warehousing70
- Vermont State Colleges-Office of the ChancellorUniversity or college62
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 10,289 people in all. Colleges come 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
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of MontpelierRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Montpelier’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Washington County and the Barre, VT metro.
Montpelier home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Montpelier$415,449
- Vermont$391,900
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Montpelier 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.
- Montpelier30.62%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Montpelier33
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Montpelier11
Zip codes with a Montpelier address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Montpelier — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.