Vermont - green, clean, and holding its value

Investing in the US:Think picket fences, mountains, valleys, lakes and people who appreciate their environment: that's Vermont, says Rose Doyle, who finds properties there with colonial style and rustic charm.

VERMONT is a delight to the senses: the landscape rolls out mountains, valleys, lakes, forests, villages and towns of an unreal but sturdy loveliness. The food tastes better than good, the air is clean to breathe and the sound of bird call and babbling brook are endemic.

There are also the famously blazing autumn colours of the state's foliage and the wintertime white of falling snow. All this and a more buoyant property market than anywhere else in the US.

In Vermont, you can buy a three-storey, five-bedroom colonial house in the capital Montpelier for €386,072 ($499,000), a delightful rustic house on five acres with 360-degree views in Addison County for €197,272 ($255,000) or go for broke and spend €1.16 million ($1.5 million) on an early 1900s 16-room stately pile with four-bedroom carriage house on a 12-acre estate in arty, and very pretty, Dorset village.

Vermont, according to a US Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) spokesperson, "has weathered the recent housing downturn better than either the nation or the rest of New England".

This has to do with the silver lining theory: the housing boom of recent years arrived later in Vermont and, when it did, didn't boom quite so much as elsewhere. This, the FRB says, "gives reason to be optimistic that any adjustment will be less sharp".

So it is that estate agents (called realtors here) are facing into 2007 and the spring selling season with a wealth of choice for the buyer and more than a little optimism about the market.

Mike Kallil of the Altrui Group (a franchise of Century 21) says that interest lending rates, still low by US standards at nearly 6.5 per cent, "are helping to keep the market up. If they rise by a full percent, however, as they may do by the end of the year, there could be a problem. But for now things are good.

"There was never the overbuilding here that you got in other states and countries, and we never really hit a bottom, in the way other states did. Properties here have plateaued out and are steady now."

Value, landscapes and the quality of life in Vermont are and have been traditional attractions for out-of-staters (notably New Yorkers) who buy second homes here hoping to escape stressed lifestyles and enjoy the civilised Vermont way of doing things.

Teresa DiNapoli of Sotheby's/Vermont Country Properties in Ludlow, close to Okemo Mountain and ski runs, has been selling mainly to this and the overseas buyer market for eight years now.

She says that though things have slowed down "luxury real estate continues to be fairly strong. Here and in other mountain towns there are lots of second home owners - who pay a transfer tax of 1.25 per cent on purchase. Mountain properties doubled in price in the last five years but have levelled off."

She's just put Brandmeyer's Mountainside Lodge in Weston (a village which is home to Vermont's oldest professional theatre company) on the market for €769,552 ($995,000). Run as a successful B&B and restaurant, it has 10 bedrooms, separate owner accommodation, as well as a pond and gazebo on its 10-acre grounds.

If going into business doesn't appeal there's history, beamed ceilings and 297sq m (3,200sq ft) of gracious living space attached to the €502,000 ($649,000) price tag for a 1780 colonial house also for sale in Weston.

Alternatively, in nearby Cavendish, Sotheby's is offering another stately colonial with three bedrooms, three reception rooms and decking overlooking a river for just €202,648 ($262,000).

Away from the slopes and resort areas, in the busy central Vermont town of Rutland, Mike Kallil has just put a two-storey, 288sq m (3,100sq ft) Victorian four-bedroom house with mountain views on the market for €177,132 ($229,000) and is offering a very grand, Cape Cod-style house with four bathrooms built on 12 acres in 1974 for €537,624 ($695,000).

"Houses in the €155,000-€232,000 ($200,000-$300,000) range are moving," he says. "These are prices people can afford. Higher than that and they're not selling so quickly: €310,000-€390,000 ($400,000-$500,000) is expensive for Vermont; €775,000 ($1m) will buy you a lot of house and acreage here - about 465sq m (5,000sq ft) of house in great condition with 50 acres, two to three garages, privacy, views - the whole nine yards. Anywhere else the same house would be double the price. Prices are lower here, and great value."

He says, too, that Vermont state laws on property buying are precise and relatively relaxed.

Realtors, plentiful in Vermont, earn a hefty 6 per cent on sales. The alternative is to use the Picket Fence Preview, a magazine and website which aims to help owners do their own selling and "save on expensive commission fees". (The first three houses mentioned above all come from the current edition of Picket Fence Preview).

A word of warning: property tax, a burning issue in Vermont, must be paid yearly. It varies from area to area and is tied in with funding for the state's education system. Property tax on the four-bed Victorian house in Rutland mentioned above is €3,209 ($4,151) a year while the new owner of the 1780 house in Weston will pay just over €4,000 ($5,300) per year.

Vermonters themselves are one of the best reasons for buying into this state. Kindly, hard-working, independent-minded and full of common sense, there are a modest 600,000 of them sharing a pride and care for their state which ensures environmental laws which keep Vermont famously green and clean.

We could learn a lot from them.

ON THE MARKET IN VERMONT

Victorian house in Ludlow, Vermont on 0.2 acres. The 359sq m (3,864sq ft) house has nine bedroom suites each with their own bath. Kitchen with granite counters, large light-filled livingroom, quiet parlour, enclosed and heated front porch, hard and softwood floors, open side porch. In walking distance of town's amenities.

Price:€575,268 ($749,000)

Agent:Vermont Country Properties/ Sotheby's International Realty

A four-bedroom house measuring 186.5sq m (2,008sq ft) on 1.9 acres in quiet cul-de-sac in Londonderry, Vermont with mountain view. Three bedrooms on the main floor, and a finished basement. Separate living space downstairs offers potential rental income.

Price:€153,000 ($199,500)

Agent:Vermont Country Properties/ Sotheby's International Realty