Vermont doesn’t have a housing shortage. It has an affordability problem.

This commentary is by Matt Swenson, the founder of Omnidex Solutions, an independent research and strategic analysis company. He lives in Vermont.For years, Vermont politics has run on one diagnosis: not enough housing. The prescription never changes: Build more, build denser, permit faster.Supply matters. But it no longer explains what we’re seeing. In Vermont’s largest rental market, vacancy hit 3.3% this summer, up from under 1% during the pandemic years. More than 1,300 rental u