There isn't any place else in the country like Vermont. It's a scenic wonderland covered in green vast forests and white snow in winter months. During the summer it's an outdoor paradise. Its housing market is the most sluggish in the nation that provides little appreciation or deflation. The Vermont housing market is the type investors frown upon and residents love.

In Burlington, slightly more than 100 homes sold in the last year. In neighboring South Burlington and Rutland more homes sold, but not at anything like a frenzied pace. The big national lenders never made a market to sell mortgages in Vermont, which may be this state's saving grace. There were hardly any subprime mortgages or new creative loans to obtain. As a result, there isn't a foreclosure epidemic in Vermont at all. They've dodged the national real estate crisis all together.

Vermont residents hear about the financial crisis on TV and read about it on the Internet and in newspapers, but the national recession is starting to take hold here as more employers lay-off workers and foreclosures begin to become part of a problem in Vermont for the first time in years. The state's economy is feeling the pinch.

City	Forecast
Burlington	− 1.2%
Hartford	− 1.7%
Waterbury	− 4.8%

In Burlington sales will be slow through 2009 again as people adjust to the national recessionary economy. Vermont's housing market gets active during the spring and summer months only to chill again when winter hits. Burlington is forecast by Housing Predictor to deflate 1.2% in 2009 mainly on word of a lack of consumer confidence.

In Hartford home sales will also be slow through the year, despite local lenders with mortgages to sell. Hartford hit record high prices during the national real estate boom only to get back to where it usually is as a slow moving market. Vacationers and second home buyers from bordering New Hampshire enjoy the state's outdoor activities and some purchased homes on the White and Connecticut rivers in hopes of making profits. A few cashed out.

The average price of a home rose slightly more than 2% in 2008 in Hartford, which is projected to deflate an average of 1.7% in 2009 by Housing Predictor. New residents moved to Vermont during the national boom, choosing a place in most cases with a better quality of life.

At the Crossroads of Vermont in Waterbury the state's once most active housing market has slowed down on expected fall out from the credit crunch. The high-end market caters to tourists and second home buyers for the most part, and it is projected to deflate an average of 4.8% in 2009. There won't be many homes selling in Waterbury for a while.