Lead Paint Hazards

Given the age of the City’s housing stock, lead paint is presumed to be present in most areas of the City, and particularly in the Old North End and King Street and Lakeside neighborhoods. Using 2000 Census data for numbers of households and national estimates of percentages of units likely to have lead paint (based on age), the City estimates that the extent of the lead paint hazard is as follows:

Household Tenure

In contrast to national, state and county figures from the 2000 Census, most of Burlington’s households did not own their own homes. On homeownership rates, Burlington looks more like other New England cities than other Chittenden County towns. Burlington’s homeownership rate has never topped 50% in the last forty years.

Burlington homeowners are aging in place. Over 47% have lived in their houses for twenty or more years, and over 40% are age 55 and older. Only around 10% moved in within the last year.

Burlington’s homeownership rate increased slightly in the last decade, reversing a downward trend from 1970 to 1990. (The decade from 1970 to 1980 represented the largest decrease in homeownership).

Homeownership levels are lowest in the Old North End and downtown neighborhoods (census tracts (C.T.) 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10). Most City neighborhoods saw homeownership rates holding even or increasing in the last decade; some, however, saw decreases. See Map of Burlington Homeownership Rates and Homeownership Trends Map.
	You can also view this information in table format.

Tenure Type, Household Type and Bedroom Mix

Only 27% of Burlington’s homeowners are families with children. A bare majority of Burlington families with children (51%) own homes – the remaining 49% of families with children are renters. Around 18% of all City apartments are occupied by families with children.
	You can also view this information in table format.

There is, of course, more mobility among renters than among homeowners. However, there is a core group of tenants who have lived in the same apartment for at least 5 years.

The bedroom mix of rental units in the City is:

Rental Vacancy Rates

After seven years of historically low vacancy rates, an extremely tight rental market is finally beginning to loosen up. [1]  However, the rental market has yet to reach a "balanced" vacancy rate – which, according to most experts, is between 3% and 5%.

Housing Costs

According to the Allen & Brooks Report, the median price of a single-family home in Chittenden County rose from $122,050 in 1990 to $184,500 in 2002 – an increase of over 50%. There have been significant increases in median sales prices in the last 4 years.

 

In September 2002, the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimated that the ”housing wage” in Burlington – the amount that a full time (40 hours a week) worker must earn per hour in order to afford a two-bedroom unit at the area’s Fair Market Rent – was $16.08. A full-time worker earning minimum wage could afford to pay a monthly rent of no more than $268 without becoming rent-burdened – an amount which is $156 below the fair market rent for an efficiency apartment, and $424 below the fair market rent of $692 for a two bedroom apartment.

The table below shows what rental housing is affordable to households at various income levels based on 2002 Metropolitan Statistical Area median income figures.

Substandard Housing Conditions

“Substandard” conditions are defined by ordinance[3] to include any housing unit with 5 or more nonlife-threatening code violations or with any one of the following:

• The physical condition or use of the dwelling constitutes a public nuisance;
• Any physical condition, use or occupancy considered an attractive nuisance to children, including, but not limited to, abandoned wells, shafts, basements, excavations and unsafe fences or structure;
• Any dwelling with unsanitary sewage or plumbing facilities;
• Any dwelling designated unsafe for human habitation or use;
• Any dwelling manifestly capable of being a fire hazard or manifestly unsafe or unsecured so as to endanger life, limb or property;
• Any dwelling from which the plumbing, heating or other facilities required by law have been removed, or from which utilities have been disconnected, destroyed, removed, or rendered ineffective, or the required precautions against trespassers have not been provided;
• Any dwelling that is unsanitary or which is littered with rubbish or garbage, or which has an uncontrolled growth of weeds; or
• Any dwelling that is in a state of dilapidation, deterioration or decay; faulty construction; overcrowded; open, vacant or abandoned; damaged by fire to the extent of not providing shelter; in danger of collapse or failure and dangerous to anyone on or near the dwelling.

Overcrowding has not been a substantial problem in Burlington. The 2000 Census reported only 297 units in the City with more than one person per room, and minimum housing inspections have not revealed significant overcrowding.

Given the age of the housing stock in the City, most housing units are in need of some level of repair or rehabilitation. Based on minimum housing inspections,[4] around 50% of the rental units in the City are “substandard” within the above definition. Frequently, the code violations found present serious safety issues, but do not require substantial investment to correct (i.e., lack of smoke detectors, broken railings). An estimated 10% of the City’s rental units are in need of significant rehabilitation, at a level requiring $5,000 or more per unit.

 

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